TS05AA drives?

[Jon Elson]

On 01/19/2017 12:46 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> A streamer with big powerful reel servos makes me a bit 
> nervous in those cases. After all, the design goal there 
> is speed, not gentleness.
The CDC Keystone (92181 and 92185) drives have air bearing 
hubs that sense tape tension by how tightly the tape is 
pulled over the bearing.  So, the ONLY thing that actually 
touches the data surface of the tape is the head and the 
cleaner blade.  Still, on deteriorated tapes, it starts 
getting pretty bad.  On good tapes from my archive, it just 
takes a cleaning of the head after every reel.

Jon