LARS recent posting about making "tar" tapes on the HP3K would work.  I recently tested it, doing the mknod like he suggested.  I wrote to the tape using tar in the POSIX shell on the HP3000, and then put it on an HP9000 using the "x" option of tar.

However, as I was just told by Allegro, your client would need MPE/iX 5.0 to use "tar" from the POSIX shell,  (It was there on 4.5, but it was bad, Bad, BAD!)

This would also be helpful for those that don't have a LAN connection from a 3K to a 9K to FTP with.  By the same token, outbound TELNET/FTP is also be available on 5.0, and your client would not need to use a tape.

Then again, using a tape would save band width by avoiding FTP on a busy LAN!  :)