On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 09:49:45AM +0200, Paul Bijnens wrote:
>    dd if=$TAPEDEV bs=32k count=1 | head -1

This version will get you the entire header, and suppress the
"dd" noise.  Same loop, but with this as the "chewy center":
     dd if=$TAPEDEV bs=32k count=1 2>/dev/null | tr -d '\000\014'

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics AT telepres DOT com
|  |  /
When I came back around from the dark side, there in front of me would
be the landing area where the crew was, and the Earth, all in the view
of my window. I couldn't help but think that there in front of me was
all of humanity, except me.
        - Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot