[comp.unix.ultrix] Reading an EBCDIC tape

elwin@hubcap.clemson.edu (lawrence brown) (02/14/91)

I am trying to read a tape containing the COS-B data bases on it
(it's satellite data on gamma rays, but that's probably not
germaine to my question).  My machine is a VAX running Ultrix
4.1. The tape was created on some sort of IBM machine (the data
is definitely EBCDIC) and contains 19 files and no labels (?)(or
so the documentation that came with it says).  The main point is
that I know what the logical record lengths, physical block
sizes, and the number of logical records in each file are (or at
least what the documentation says they are supposed to be).  I
can get the first thirteen files (which are just fortran source
code) by repeatedly using: dd if=/dev/nrmt0h of=x ibs=8000
cbs=72 conv=ascii thirteen times in a row. However, the
subsequent files (which are tape images of direct access fortran
files (or something like that) generate read I/O errors if I try
to read them in the same way.  Does anyone have any suggestions
on a better way to get this data (including perhaps "you're out
of your mind, break down and use the nearest IBM you can find").
Thanks in advance. 
Larry Brown