2 Oct
2004
2 Oct
'04
10:44 a.m.
I was contacted recently someone at WPI who had been approached
about reading an old DECtape. They no longer have the DEC-10
at WPI, so need to find someone with working DECtapes who might
be able to read the tape...
If anyone has a working DECtape drive on their system, please
let me know so I can pass it on...
Megan
3 Oct
3 Oct
6:09 a.m.
Megan wrote thus:
I was contacted recently someone at WPI who had been
approached
about reading an old DECtape. They no longer have the DEC-10
at WPI, so need to find someone with working DECtapes who might
be able to read the tape...
If anyone has a working DECtape drive on their system, please
let me know so I can pass it on...
If you don't find somebody closer, you could try Max Burnet in Australia
(http://www.acms.org.au/burnet-max.shtml). He has an extraordinary
collection of DEC machines, arguably the best in the world, and - as this
web-page puts it - "plans to use his museum collection to provide for
porting of old media" along with its other historical and educational
uses. He's also a hell of a nice guy, which certainly provides many points
in his favor. :) :)
-O.-
4:27 p.m.
> I was contacted recently someone at WPI who had
been approached
> about reading an old DECtape. They no longer have the DEC-10
> at WPI, so need to find someone with working DECtapes who might
> be able to read the tape...
I'm not a DEC specialist (far from it), but if the tape is compatible with
DLT2000, I would have a fair chance of being able to read it.
Nico
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8:26 p.m.
On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Nico de Jong wrote:
DECtape has nothing to do with DEC's "TK" technology, and, therefore,
nothing with DLT. Chances of you reading a DECtape with any DLT or
TK drive are exactly 0.00%.
You'd need a DECtape TU55/56 to read those (assuming they're DECtape II
tapes), or a TU58 if they are of that kind. Usually, when people are
referring to DECtape, they meen the small 256KB block-addresseable
reel tapes "as seen on TV" and in the pictures, and those are TU55/56.
I have a working TU56, but not a working machine to connect it to
at the moment.
--f
> I was
contacted recently someone at WPI who had been approached
> about reading an old DECtape. They no longer have the DEC-10
> at WPI, so need to find someone with working DECtapes who might
> be able to read the tape...
I'm not a DEC specialist (far from it), but if the tape is compatible with
DLT2000, I would have a fair chance of being able to read it.
9:25 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred N. van Kempen" <waltje(a)pdp11.nl>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: In search of... DECtape drives
I have a working TU56, but not a working machine to connect it to
at the moment.
Sorry for not being familir with DEC-talk (and especially drive names), but
I can manage reel-to-reel tapes
Nico
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12:55 a.m.
>>>> "Nico" == Nico de Jong
<nico(a)farumdata.dk> writes:
> > I was contacted recently someone at WPI who
had been approached
> > about reading an old DECtape. They no longer have the DEC-10 >
> at WPI, so need to find someone with working DECtapes who might >
> be able to read the tape...
Nico> I'm not a DEC specialist (far from it), but if the tape is
Nico> compatible with DLT2000, I would have a fair chance of being
Nico> able to read it.
Nope. DECtape is 3/4 inch wide, 10 tracks, block oriented, random
access. It is nothing like anything else (except LincTape). It's the
world's first streaming tape, and also the most reliable tape ever
made.
paul
8:16 a.m.
On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
Nope. DECtape is 3/4 inch wide, 10 tracks, block
oriented, random
access. It is nothing like anything else (except LincTape). It's the
world's first streaming tape, and also the most reliable tape ever
made.
ANd that last might not even be an exaggeration :-)
I used lintapes on a nova 1200 shipboard navigation system
(accoustic nav, Ocean Research Equip. Inc, Massachusetts)
and you could get the heads wet and gritty and they'd still work.
You could wipe them off on your sleeve to fix read errors.
(Tapes had short lives in that environment but you simply
brought a lot of copies.)
If I remember correctly, physically there are 10 tracks,
but the heads (or amps) are wired in "series" such that two
non-adjacent tracks are redundant, so individual bad spots on
the tape do nothing. Very robust. Low density, and somewhat slow,
but not too shabby for the early 1970's!
(The first real computer I ever used was a 16K Nova 1200,
linctape and silent 700, I typed in TREK from BYTE magazine,
had to fix the incompatibilities in dialects (seemed like a
big deal at the time :-).
9:32 a.m.
>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings
<tomj(a)wps.com> writes:
Tom> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
> Nope. DECtape is 3/4 inch wide, 10 tracks, block
oriented, random
> access. It is nothing like anything else (except LincTape). It's
> the world's first streaming tape, and also the most reliable tape
> ever made.
Tom> ANd that last might not even be an exaggeration :-)
In college, we used DECtapes for the "open to all" file storage. We
had more free space there than on disk... For that application, we
actually managed to wear out tapes to the point that they became
unreadable, much to the surprise of an ex-DEC employee who came to
work at the college. He had never heard of such a thing.
On the other hand, he or one of his friends once put some pants in the
laundry, only to discover afterwards that one of them had a DECtape in
the pocket. That tape still worked just fine afterwards.
paul
10:34 a.m.
Paul Koning wrote:
On the other hand, he or one of his friends once put some pants in the
laundry, only to discover afterwards that one of them had a DECtape in
the pocket. That tape still worked just fine afterwards.
huh. I've taken to 'baking' old tapes these days but I never concidered
washing them with my pants.
on a more serious note:
Anyone on the boston or mass/nh/ct area have a working 9-track drive
which can read 800bpi tapes?
I can read 1600's fine but not 800's :-(
-brad
5 Oct
5 Oct
7:58 a.m.
Frankly this is a somewhat bogus message, since I've already talked to Brad,
but....
Just thought I'd "officially" reply on the listserve that we at
www.mullermedia.com do lots of different tapes and logical formats, so keep
us in mind.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctech-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Brad Parker
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 6:34 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: In search of... DECtape drives
Paul Koning wrote:
On the other hand, he or one of his friends once put some pants in the
laundry, only to discover afterwards that one of them had a DECtape in
the pocket. That tape still worked just fine afterwards.
huh. I've taken to 'baking' old tapes these days but I never concidered
washing them with my pants.
on a more serious note:
Anyone on the boston or mass/nh/ct area have a working 9-track drive
which can read 800bpi tapes?
I can read 1600's fine but not 800's :-(
-brad
10:57 a.m.
"Chris Muller" wrote:
Frankly this is a somewhat bogus message, since
I've already talked to Brad,
but....
yea, and you didn't even offer to wash my tapes with your pants!
:-)
(no, actually, you were *extrermely* helpful - far more that the local
transfer company I talked to yesterday. thanks!)
-brad
Just thought I'd "officially" reply on
the listserve that we at
www.mullermedia.com do lots of different tapes and logical formats, so keep
us in mind.
Chris
4 Oct
4 Oct
1:50 p.m.
On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
A modern day equivalent tale:
I once washed a pair of jeans with one of my SmartMedia cards in it. It
came out just fine (with all the photos it had stored on it). Not
terribly surprising though.
--
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>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings <tomj(a)wps.com> writes:
Tom> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Paul Koning wrote:
> Nope. DECtape is 3/4 inch wide, 10 tracks,
block oriented, random
> access. It is nothing like anything else (except LincTape). It's
> the world's first streaming tape, and also the most reliable tape
> ever made.
Tom> ANd that last might not even be an exaggeration :-)
In college, we used DECtapes for the "open to all" file storage. We
had more free space there than on disk... For that application, we
actually managed to wear out tapes to the point that they became
unreadable, much to the surprise of an ex-DEC employee who came to
work at the college. He had never heard of such a thing.
On the other hand, he or one of his friends once put some pants in the
laundry, only to discover afterwards that one of them had a DECtape in
the pocket. That tape still worked just fine afterwards. 
7383
days inactive
7386
days old
14 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
brad＠heeltoe.com -
chris.muller＠mullermedia.com -
dvcorbin＠optonline.net -
mbg＠TheWorld.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
ohh＠drizzle.com -
pkoning＠equallogic.com -
tomj＠wps.com -
vcf＠siconic.com -
waltje＠pdp11.nl