Yes, a drive with a 7-track head, or a 7-track head for a swappable drive such as the Qualstar 1052, would be needed. That said — doesn't the Univac that is present in the museum itself have a working 7-track drive? David
On Jan 27, 2023, at 12:19 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
We've done something similar to this for 9-track tapes, but the problem with 7-track tapes is the lack of available drives.
7-track tapes have different track widths and spacing. While we've not actually tried it, I don't see a way that a 9-track head would read a 7-track tape.
-Dave
On 1/27/23 12:14, David Ryskalczyk wrote:
The best option for some of those formats is Len Shustek's readtape — https://github.com/LenShustek/readtape <https://github.com/LenShustek/readtape> It does require a 16-channel Saleae Logic Pro (perhaps an 8-channel would be sufficient for 7-track tape). I have a 16-channel — got it at launch when these cost around $500. Nowadays it costs $1400 (perhaps with a discount available for institutional use, but even there it would likely be around $1000). If someone is interested in working through the documentation to figure out how to do this with the Univac or other machines at the museum, and then utilizing my unit to attempt sometime later this year, please contact me off-list. Thanks! David
On Jan 27, 2023, at 12:06 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Ok. That's a tough nut to crack.
-Dave
On 1/27/23 11:59, drummy wrote:
The Univac tapes are 7 track. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Date: 1/27/23 11:41 AM (GMT-05:00) To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Dave McGuire <mcguire@neurotica.com> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Seeking Applesauce FDC testimonials - museum use On 1/27/23 11:40, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I welcome a bit of illumination to help me form a vision of the totality of the problems. On the tape subject, one practical need I'd like to crack this year is archiving the UNIVAC 1219 tapes. Lets start a new thread on tapes if anyone has more to offer at this time. We do a lot of tape archiving at LSSM, and can help with some of this. Are the Univac's tapes 7-track, or 9? -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA