recovering cartridge tapes (was: Tek fiches found!) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

22 Jul 2010

On 21 Jul 2010, at 22:22, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:

...
  Message: 23
 From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com>

 In article <4C46A57E.15148.5E8BCB at cclist.sydex.com>,
    "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>  writes:

  [...]  Almost all cartridge DC-
 style tapes are recorded "serpentine" style--i.e. start in one 
 direction, shift the head, reverse, etc...  
 This is news to me.  Every cartridge tape I've ever used recorded data
 to the end and then stopped.  I don't recall seeing any mechanism for
 shifting the tape head in HP264x terminals with DC100 cartridges nor
 in Tektronix 4051 terminals with DC300 cartridges.

  So the spooling scheme had better work.  I'm
not aware of any 32-
 channel (for example) QIC heads.      
 QIC tapes are something different from DC300 and DC100 tapes. 
I always though QIC was an abbreviation for Quarter Inch Cassette. I'm fairly sure
I've used DC300s and they were cassettes full of quarter inch tape with a constant
peripheral speed drive band inside so no need for variable speed spool motors.

Roger Holmes