[GreenKeys] anyone know the details of this unit?

[Nick England]

EXCEPT - this is almost certainly a BRPE18 model with 6-level plus
***advanced feed hole***. You cannot read the tapes it punches on a
standard 5-level tape reader. I don’t know why, but advanced feed hole was
the standard for typesetting.

View of the business end of a punch like this
https://www.navy-radio.com/tty/brpe/IMG_7412.JPG

I *think* you could adjust a TD to read such tapes, but then it wouldn’t
read standard 5-level tapes.

If you had a photoelectric tape reader you could probably rig up a switch
to change between offset and non-offset.

Reference
https://www.navy-radio.com/tty/brpe/hole-config.jpg



Nick England K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com


On Sat, Mar 29, 2025 at 12:50 PM Bob Rosenbloom <bobalan at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> If you don't need to be compatible with standard 8 bit tapes, you can
> always write out two characters per byte. Would be great for DEC 12-bit
> (PDP-8) machines also. It's still a really cool punch unit. Or follow Doug
> Jones attempt at making an 8 bit unit out of two 6 bit ones here (if you
> can find another 5 or 6 bit unit):
>
> https://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~dwjones/pdp8/UI-8/bugs.shtml#69
>
> The two characters/byte would be fine for just storing programs and showing off how paper tape was used.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>
> On 3/29/2025 9:41 AM, W2HX wrote:
> ok thank you. I wonder if this would be useful for playing around. I guess
> it could punch 5 level given the right data. But for vintage computer use,
> I would think i would need at least 7 bits....What do you think?
>
>
>
>
> 73 Eugene W2HX
> My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@w2hx/videos
> On 3/29/2025 9:26 AM, W2HX wrote:
>
> ok more internal pictures. Looks like 7 punches. Does this mean it is a
> 6-bit (6 data holes, 1 index)?
>
>
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