28 Jul
2021
28 Jul
'21
4:37 p.m.
This is a bit of a long shot, but is anyone aware of a successful method to read IBM
Selectric MT/ST tapes? A museum in Australia has a box of them and are interested in the
contents.
I'm fairly involved in the global Selectric community and while 1 or 2 MT/ST?s exist,
they?re non-functional. I know IBM offered a 2495 Tape Reader for the IBM 360, which could
be a starting point with modification, but I suspect those are even scarcer than the MT/ST
itself.
Even the encoding format appears to be a bit of a secret. Recording is
character-by-character, tape spacing controlled by sprocket holes along one edge.
https://obsoletemedia.org/ibm-mtst/
<https://obsoletemedia.org/ibm-mtst/?fbclid=IwAR28c5ej69AlF0os1PcykpHCh0Q_yz5BXbnUSi9UID-4pY6GU3wLxZXFhDI>
Thanks- Cory