DECtape reliability?

[Jon Elson]

On 11/12/2015 07:24 AM, Tom Moss wrote:
> I've had very mixed (about 50/50) success with 9-track, but after reading a
> bit about DECtape it looks like they should still be holding up nicely.
>
> Anyone care to share their experiences?
>
Some guys at Washington University restored a LINC that had 
been stored in somebody's garage for decades.  They mostly 
just had to reform the power supply capacitors.  Then, they 
got some LAP-6 tapes that had been in somebody's office and 
it booted right up!  These were tapes that likely had been 
sitting for 30 years.

LINCtape is essentially identical to DECtape.  I think the 
directory format is different, but I think the block format 
is the same.  I think the tapes are wound in reverse order 
and the order of increasing block numbers is reversed.

Jon