<I could be wrong but isn't the RD53 only 70MB?
<the 54 is the 140 or so.

the rd53 is 8heads, 1024 tracks and roughly 71 MB.

<unofficial tests, I don't recall for sure). I was able to get 1.2C to
<boot as usual but it would not write to my tape, was a little obstinate.

It's 1.2C and I got as far as running the miniroot from ra0b

<I recommend you get the new 1.2G kernel (I santched it from ftp.luth.se)

Right now the only system that can get it from there is a PC with no way to 
get it on the vax from the PC(no network and it's running winders).

I have 1.2c on tape. I'm not even close to compiling hello.c.  I'm far from 
being a unix weenie, heavy VMS, RT11, DOS, CPM, alas no unix.  So this is 
new turf for me.

Allison