The Great TK revival

[Rod Smallwood]

On 19/06/2016 15:51, Jerome H. Fine wrote:
> >On Saturday, June 18th, 2016 at 11:22:19 +0100, Rod Smallwood wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>>     The great TK revival continues apace.
>>
>> There's a TK50 in my VAX 4000 running really well. Purrs like a cat
>>
>> I have TK70 in the RT-11 (11/83 QED) Machine that also runs.
>>
>> TK70 should read the TK50 tapes. It tries but complains about cant 
>> read the directory.
>>
>> So whats a common format I can write  on a TK50 tape in a TK50 Drive 
>> (VMS)
>>
>> then take it over to the RT-11 box and have it read it.?
>>
>> Where is all this going? Well I need to end up with RSTS on an 11/83.
>>
>> So a bootable TK50 with RSTS install files on it is the goal.
>>
>> Meanwhile transfer by tape is useful.
>
> Another method of checking any data on any physical device
> is to use the RT-11 program, DUMP.SAV, which will display
> the individual blocks in the case of a disk drive and the individual
> records in the case of a tape.
>
> Unfortunately, my PDP-11 hardware is not available right now.
> But I was able to use Ersatz-11 to perform the same operations.
>
> Under RT-11:
> INIT  MU0:/NOQU
> DUMP/TERM  MU0:
>
> Three 80 byte records and 4 tape marks are displayed as in:
>
> First 80 byte record
> Second 80 byte record
> TAPE  MARK
> TAPE  MARK
> Third 80 byte record
> TAPE  MARK
> TAPE  MARK
>
> If you can display the above data when you INIT the TK70
> media on the PDP-11/83 under RT-11, but can't read a TK50
> media produced under VMS, then perhaps there may be a hardware
> problem.
>
> Let us know what you are able to see.  Then we can help some more.
>
> Jerome Fine
Messages getting out of order.
I'm now at a TK70 drive (and controller)  both ends
It looks like both drives and controllers work on both systems.
The VAX end reads TK50 tapes and directories.
The 11/83 (QED) system end does not.
I'm off to look at VMS exchange with a view to producing something the 
RT-11 end can read,.
I'm sure there's an RT-11 TCP/IP around I have enough parts to extend 
the network from three PC's plus
four vaxes and an alpha by adding:
11/23, 11/53, 11/73, 11/83 (QED) , 11/84 and 11/94
By using Decmates and Rainbows as terminals they all get a console.

Rod