On Mon, 25 Sep 2017, Anders Nelson via cctalk wrote:
Hi there, here's an eBay auction for two HP 7970E tape drives that appear
to function:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-HP-7970e-DUAL-Tape-Drive-Cabinet-Reel-to-Reel-Player-/192204691239
I'm curious if anyone is looking for one of these drives. I'm not sure if I
want to pull the trigger on something expensive I won't use until I have
free time, but I imagine stuff like this is only getting more rare. I have
a Remex paper tape reader in seemingly perfect condition I intend to use
with an emulated PDP-8/e (using Rod Smallwood's repro front panel), but
it'd be awesome to be able to save stuff too.
I believe these drives were originally attached to the 2117F in this
auction:
Ebay 401311487499
I zoomed in on the first photo and it appears that the upper drive is a
7970E and the lower is a 7970B. The tape controller board sets in their
2117F are 13183 (7970E) and 13181 (7970B), which is why I think these two
items belong together. The 7970B was nominally 800bpi NRZI, while the
7970E was 1600bpi PE. However, each drive had options, so it's impossible
to say what capabilities are there without seeing the option numbers.
If someone wanted to pick up both items, you'd have a nice setup.
Mike Loewen mloe...@cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
