Kyle, Since that is a 4 track drive/cart that will NOT be compatible with the broadcast Fidelipac drives, as those are 2 track running at 7.5 IPS. 4 track would be a 4 track "Muntz" stereo cartridge running at 3 3/4 IPS, which is what William Lear based the "Lear stereo 8". For the Fidelipac and the Muntz machines the cartridge is exactly the same with the pinch roller swinging up into the cart for playback, which is an advantage in this case as the pinch roller that normally turns to goo, can be replaced in the machine saving the tape carts from destruction. On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 12:38 AM, Kyle Owen via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
This may be too beyond audio cassettes, but I figured I'd share.
I never really was interested in this portion of my first PDP-8 haul, but I ended up with a Tennecomp Fidelipac drive. For those unfamiliar, these were commonly used for commercial breaks in radio stations and the stations' jingles. Similar to 8-track, but they didn't have a built-in pinch roller.
I have yet to see if the unit is functional, and need to figure out where the interface card is (if it came with the interface, even), as I would like to digitize the tapes. Fortunately, I've got a friend with some radio station cart machines, so I could possibly record them to audio files and reverse engineer them from there.
So yes, even a PDP-8/M, ca. 1974, and possibly prior, used an audio tape system for data storage!
Pictures here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kBL9gRGF697A0xUT2
Kyle
-- Matt Patoray Owner, MSP Productions KD8AMG