[GreenKeys] Mag Tape Terminal somewhat OT

Wed Apr 9 17:17:53 EDT 2014

The Mag Tape Terminal we used was for service order storage at the  
Illinois Bell Telephone Company office in Palatine, IL.
The system also used a locally designed "Fixed Data Reader" and if you  
left the cabinet door open for too long the reader
would be started or stopped by the RADAR at the local Army Nike C-84  
missile site.
We technicians had to have a SECRET Clearance to work at these sites.   
The site at Libertyville was large but only had
trailers and ancient unused barracks.  All gone now...
Memories,
Don

On 29 Mar 2014, at 11:15 PM, CRFandt wrote:

Larry,

I was given the Mag Tape Terminal which Don had. It had been given to  
me by a retired telco friend who was in the same ham club as me. I got  
it from him about 1985 along with spare parts and three or four  
33ASRs. The local telco cleaned out a corner of their garage around  
mid '85 and he snagged as much as he could. Predecessor company to  
today's Windstream telco (nee Alltel; nee Midstate Telephone; nee  
Jamestown Telephone Co.). He said that unit came out of our local  
Sears store. Sent the day's sales numbers to Sears Chicago HQ during  
the wee hours of the night.

Oh, now what was that model #?  4550?  The 37ASR went to a ham down in  
nearby Warren, PA along with its UCC-26 (I think I recall it was a  
-26), so I couldn't get the system working. Ham later died suddenly  
and his stuff got spread to the four winds, so to speak.  I gave the  
Mag Tape Term to Don six or eight years ago.

Those certainly were special tapes. And I think Mag Tape Terminals  
were not too common at all, with Sears seemingly the major (only?)  
customer. Never have seen another one before or since I had mine.     
You, Larry, are the only other person to mention the MTT other than  
Don and my late ham friend who's SK 20+ years ago.

Still have three of those 33s in varying conditions.

-Chris F.

On 3/6/2014 8:49 PM, Don Robert House wrote:
> Larry,
>
>  I went to school in Chicago on the Mag Tape Terminal.  Those  
> cartridges had to be made and ordered special.
> Teletype used photocells and lamps to indicate the end of the tape,  
> which was clear.. somewhat like a VHS tape.
>
> We had a case of trouble every morning at an office in Palatine, IL  
> same time every morning the tape would stop.
> Made arrangements for Dick Stinson (one of the other guys so  
> trained) to be there early.
>
> You guessed it... the sun was at just the right spot to stop the  
> tape.  Dick fixed the problem by covering the top
> of the tape transport cover with a piece of cardboard.  He then made  
> a suggestion to Teletype to darken the cover.
> They did exactly that, but Dick did not even get a thank you.
>
> I had used a logic pen in the USN to troubleshoot the AQA-5 acoustic  
> display on the P-3A Orion so I did fairly well at the class.
> Somewhere here I have my little graduating card.  Went to school on  
> the M37 ASR in the same location.
> Right next to the Chicago River in the Morton Salt building.
>
> 73,
> Don K9TTY
>
> P.S. The Navy did not like the mag tape terminal as it was not  
> adaptable to shipboard use, so Teletype redesigned
> it to use regular cassette tape and put it in a small Model 40 type  
> case about the size of a loaf of bread.
> However like many Teletype machines it must have weighed at least 40  
> pounds.
> Wish I had not given mine to the museum 'cause I now have a Model 40  
> dial up testing station here. 300-2400 bps.
>
>
>
>
> On 1 Mar 2014, at 11:56 AM, Larry wrote:
>
> No one seems to speak about the Teletype Mag tape terminal.  We had  
> a system with a Mod 33 at our local Sears outlet store back in the  
> 70's.  I even went to Houston, Tx for school on it.  Boy, was it hot  
> and humid down there.  Pretty neat system but of course the  
> transmission speed was limited to what the modem would  
> handle,probably 300 or 1200 baud, don't remember. It had  a dialup  
> model 33 attached to it.
>
> Larry
> W0OGH
>
> ______________________________________________________________
-- 
========================================================================
Christian R. Fandt
email:  cfandt at windstream.net
Jamestown, New York   USA

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