> ah, TK50s! check them out the window! I have boxes of TK50s, for the 
> price of shipping ill gladly send some your way. i think theyre useless. 
> the drives constantly break down. i back up my VAXen onto DAT. 

Yeah, they require lots of head cleaning, in my hands.  But, on an
MVII, they are about all there is.  I keep my transports loose in
the cabinet, where I can pull it out easly for a quick finger wipe
of the head using a soft cotton rag.  That is the ONLY thing I have
found that consistently works to keep the heads in shape, of late.

If anyone has some spare TK50 tape cartrides, I will be happy to
write some NetBSD/4.3BSD/Ultrix tapes for Linc, if he needs them.
My stock of spare tapes is mostly gone, so I am in the begging mode
for a few.

Anyone know if the 1.5.1 or current VAX has working TK50 support?
Last time I loaded by tape, I had to use 1.4.1 first and then
unroll, manually, 1.5 on a spare drive.... not a good way to install.
On a single drive machine, it is messy.

> > I am about to get my first big vax MVII/GPX in a week.  I got a list of
> > what's in it and I was wondering if any of you could tell me a little
> > about it..  It's got:

All MVII's are S L O W machines.  But, they are fun.  The fastest
thing that runs on them is NetBSD-1.4.3, for ethernet speed, and
NetBSD-1.2 or 4.3BSD for general speed, with Ultrix 32M second,
in my hands.  Most other NetBSD's are slower, in comparison.
I have not tried the 1.5.1B2, yet.  Anyone got a -current snap?

> > M7620-AA

Ahhh.  MVIII cpu... good karma.  Not the slowest machine in the
world.  Medium speed, like a slow 3100 series machine.  3.x vups.

.....

> > I also was wondering if anyone knows where I can get and how much more
> > memory I can put in this, and if there is anyone out there with a spare
> > front panel for one of these (BA123-A? enclosure).

16mb of ram is plenty for most uses on that machine.  The card cage
only holds 2 (BA23) or 3 (BA123) ram cards.  16mb cards are good if
you can find them.  That is what mine has.

> > One last thing - is there some nice person on the list that could perhaps
> > make me a current netbsd install tape on a TK50?  Please?? :-)
> > Anyone know where I might be able to obtain a couple TK50's?

If isildur has some, grab a couple for spares.  You WILL need them.

I can write you tapes, if noone else dos, if someone can supply them.
My stock is almost gone, except for my master tapes.  Where have all
the TK50 cartridges gone.....(to old Peter, Paul and Mary song?)?

Digression....
Anyone have a spare floppy drive and the cabling bits?  I have always
wanted to floppy load Ultrix 32m.  I hear that is fast to load from
floppy.

Bob