7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage".
Head alignment tapes are not track specific. They have one track the width of the tape and are used to adjust time delays to time align the bits coming off the read head when reading the alignment tape. Then a "scratch tape" is used while writing all ones to adjust the write delays while looking at the read amps. We used the same alignment tape for 7 and 9 track units. Duane On 6/17/2017 11:40 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage".
On 6/17/2017 11:40 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 06/17/2017 11:37 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
UNIVAC 1540 Magnetic Tape Unit...I wonder if anyone has a 800 BPI, NRZ Master Head Alignment Tape (skew tape) to donate to VCF. 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage".
Also, as Dave McGuire noted, a lightly-used tape from a known-good drive will be useful. In the floppy-disk world, I use several diskettes each from a known good drive to validate "alignment". That wasn't me. But yes, that can be useful for rough validation.
Seems to me, there's likely several boxes of mag-tapes in the inventory. Yes, I brought a few boxes several years ago.
-Dave
v
On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 08:19:52PM -0400, Duane Craps via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage".
Head alignment tapes are not track specific. They have one track the width of the tape and are used to adjust time delays to time align the bits coming off the read head when reading the alignment tape. Then a "scratch tape" is used while writing all ones to adjust the write delays while looking at the read amps. We used the same alignment tape for 7 and 9 track units.
I have alignment/skew tapes also. Nore are labeled with BPI. I haven't tried them yet. Depending on how many are still good I can loan or possibly donate one.
We had a good day at the museum. Steady stream of visitors who asked smart questions and understood our message. Two people showed up for donations. One I turned away -- a completely ordinary used Pentium-class PC. The other I gladly accepted -- a Tandy 16, said to be working, with three boxes of documentation, manuals, and software, mostly in excellent condition. An electrician came in to give a bid for our desired 3-phase/208 outlet. We're considering his offer and will report back soon.
OFF TOPIC WARNING: Anyone need factory wall mounts for WRT54G routers? I ended up buying a 10 pack for a project. Email me off list for cost and how to get them to you. Martin
participants (4)
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David Gesswein -
Duane Craps -
Evan Koblentz -
Martin A Flynn