Are you sitting down?

From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Jun 4 20:58:31 1999

--- Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Originally, I wrote:
> > The only use I would have for an RK05F is to read this _one_ 16-sector pack

> Isn't the RK05F the fixed-pack version (i.e. the pack was designed to be
> changed during repair operations, and not in normal use).

Yes.

> In which case it's not the best choice for reading a normal pack. The RK05j
> (the other drive he mentioned) could read the pack, but not with a PDP11
> controller (which expects 12 sector packs).

I did not mistype. I have a 16-sector RK05F pack. It was in the drive when
my former employer bought it c. 1982 from Ohio State University surplus before
I worked there. The tech guys removed the F pack and used the RK05J and RJ05F
in the rack with an RK-11C (which I have somewhere). I got the pack off the
shelf in 1984. I have never owned an RK8E, nor a working RK05F, but I do have
at least one working RK05J (one's in the basement, almost certainly working,
attached to an RKV11D, the other is in the shed and is of dubious value).

> Was there ever a 16 sector version of the RK05f? All the ones I've seen
> were 12 sector.

The drive doesn't care except for number of tracks and magnetic gap (the
F heads and J heads are different). The boards are the same (there are
jumpers to select modes of operation). The controllers are the parts that
care how many sectors of how many bytes there are.

So... can *anyone* out there read a 16-sector RK05F pack? I have no use
for it since. as I said, I have no RK8E nor working drive.

-ethan

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Received on Fri Jun 04 1999 - 20:58:31 BST

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