Reading MT/ST Tapes

[Cory Heisterkamp]

This is a bit of a long shot, but is anyone aware of a successful method to read IBM Selectric MT/ST tapes? A museum in Australia has a box of them and are interested in the contents.

I'm fairly involved in the global Selectric community and while 1 or 2 MT/ST’s exist, they’re non-functional. I know IBM offered a 2495 Tape Reader for the IBM 360, which could be a starting point with modification, but I suspect those are even scarcer than the MT/ST itself. 

Even the encoding format appears to be a bit of a secret. Recording is character-by-character, tape spacing controlled by sprocket holes along one edge. 

https://obsoletemedia.org/ibm-mtst/ <https://obsoletemedia.org/ibm-mtst/?fbclid=IwAR28c5ej69AlF0os1PcykpHCh0Q_yz5BXbnUSi9UID-4pY6GU3wLxZXFhDI>

Thanks- Cory