I've got an IBM 8505 tape drive attached to my Sparc:

  st0 at scsibus0 targ 4 lun 0: <EXABYTE, IBM-8505, 7J0A> 
    SCSI2 1/sequential removable
  st0: density code 0x8c, 1024-byte blocks, write-enabled

Stupid Q:  How can I 'turn on' compression?

  /\---/\  Eric J Fox
 /  o o  \ http://fox.phoenix.az.us
 \.\   /./ ---------------------------
    \@/    "Of course it runs NetBSD."