In search of... DECtape drives

[Fred N. van Kempen]

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Nico de Jong wrote:

> > > I was contacted recently someone at WPI who had been approached
> > > about reading an old DECtape.  They no longer have the DEC-10
> > > at WPI, so need to find someone with working DECtapes who might
> > > be able to read the tape...
>
> I'm not a DEC specialist (far from it), but if the tape is compatible with
> DLT2000, I would have a fair chance of being able to read it.

DECtape has nothing to do with DEC's "TK" technology, and, therefore,
nothing with DLT.  Chances of you reading a DECtape with any DLT or
TK drive are exactly 0.00%.

You'd need a DECtape TU55/56 to read those (assuming they're DECtape II
tapes), or a TU58 if they are of that kind.  Usually, when people are
referring to DECtape, they meen the small 256KB block-addresseable
reel tapes "as seen on TV" and in the pictures, and those are TU55/56.

I have a working TU56, but not a working machine to connect it to
at the moment.

--f