Loading software onto a real PDP11

As an idea to get RT-11 onto your RL01; why not try using a TU58 emulator, with oversized tape images? There's a modified driver file out there - very easy to find too - that'll let you have RT-11 think the DECtape II tapes are the size of an RL02, which will let you boot the RT-11 V5.3 installation pack on the emulator. From there, just install RT-11 to the real RL01 as you would normally install RT-11. It's simple to setup (and if you don't want to fiddle around with disk images, asking will get you one from me or whoever else has done it this way), and all you need on the PDP-11 side of things is a second serial line. Also, it's relatively painless, as the RT-11 install isn't all that difficult. (Honestly, the entire installation of RT-11 via the emulated, oversized, TU58 would be: INITIALIZE/BACKBLOCK DL0: COPY/SYSTEM SY:*.* DL0:*.* COPY/BOOT:DL DL0:RT11SJ.SYS DL0: BOOT DL0: And that's it, you're in RT-11 SJ on your real RL01, SYSGEN it if you wish to tailor your RT-11 install.) Cheers.