<A little bit of head banging and we realized that to read paper tape, all y <need is a hand scanner, dark background, some kind of rig to hold the scann <in position above a 1" channel and, well, programming as appropriate. smashing ants with atomic cannon. The simplest form of scanner is 9 photocells(photo transistor or diode) lined up under the tape, light above and the 9th (sproket hole connectd to the data available(or ack) of a parallel port such as the PC printer port. Tape movement, pull by hand. should be good for 300->3000 char sec easily. It's trivial hardware. Program: Copy LPT: file.tap Done. Allison