PDP-11's DECcasete

From: Bill Dawson <whdawson_at_mlynk.com>
Date: Fri Mar 17 00:09:29 2000

-> AFAIK, it is _not_ a regular cassette but the drive mechanism is based on
-> regular cassette transport hardware. The media is coated for
-> low friction
-> to extend media life and reduce head wear, among other things. One minor
-> feature of the cassettes themselves is a plastic flippy
-> write-protect tab.
-> Not essential but a nice touch.
->
-> As has already been pointed out, the cassettes have a notch in the middle
-> of the top and there's a finger or a block or something at the
-> corresponding
-> location on the drive preventing you from mounting an audio tape.


Well, now I know what all these "computer grade" cassettes I've had laying
around for almost 20 years went to. Being somewhat of a packrat by nature,
when they were offered to me by someone who "upgraded" to a Microdata
Reality system, I took them, peeled off the original labels, put generic
Radio Shack cassette labels on them, and just overwrote whatever was on some
of them. I'd totally forgotten that they were DEC. So now I don't have a
clue what is on the ones that I didn't reuse since I replaced the labels
shortly after I got them d8^(

I do know which ones I didn't reuse. The new labels aren't written on.

I always thought the little write protect tab was a nice feature. If Maciej
S Szymanski will contact me off list, I'm sure we can work something out, as
I don't have much use for the ones I didn't use for SWTPC program storage.
I imagine DEC stuff must still be on them.

Bill

whdawson_at_mlynk.com
Received on Fri Mar 17 2000 - 00:09:29 GMT