Looking for a pair of DEC RL02 drives, working or otherwise

[Ethan Dicks]

On Sun, May 10, 2020 at 7:05 PM Chris Zach via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> God, $140 is quite reasonable.

Yes I think so too.

> I keep thinking of picking it up but then
> I realize I can read my RL01's with my RL02's if needed, then move the
> data to bigger disks.

If you have the version of the RL02 that can be jumpered for either
RL01 or RL02 use, yes.  I've seen people put switches on a plate under
the lid (over the old brush area) so that you dismount an RL02K, flip
the switches, mount an RL01K, then read it.  One of the tricks is to
be sure to write-protect the RL01 pack in a modified RL02.

> But RL01's were great for running RT11 and other base operating systems.

Yep.  I got an RL01 in 1985 to use with an RL8A and my PDP-8/a, then
it came in handy in 1987 when I got a gig where I needed my own PDP-11
to code at home and the RL01 was perfect for the boot volume (I
borrowed an RL02 from my boss for the customer data volume).  Plenty
of room for the OS and my code.

Fantastic drives both.

-ethan