ok, took VMS tape 1/2 from work.  tried booting from it:

>>>boot mua0
(BOOT/R5:0 MUA0)

  2..
-MUA0
?43 FILESTRUCT, MUA0
?06 HLT INST
        PC = 00000D75
Bootstrap failure.
>>>

bad tape huh?  i've got a SCSI TK50 here, i don't know if it works or not, but
what are the chances of getting a CD-ROM of VMS and "extracting" boot tapes 
from it?  my OS choices are NetBSD and Solaris, and i may be able to hang it
off of a VMS system at work.

please advise!!

other than that things are going well, as soon as i get this VMS system (or a
NetBSD system) setup, i can MOP boot the other two VAXen, but until then, it's
VMS playtime for me.  i'm still on a quest for QBus SCSI cards, so if anyone
runs across any they are willing to let go of please let me know.

thanks!!!!

-brian