Using tar to extract files from tape

[brownh@hartford-hwp.com (Haines Brown)]

I asked this question before, but received no answer. Sorry to post it
again. 

The question is a simple one: can I use tar to extract a file from a
tape backup made with a backup application? 

On a sarge machine, I have a WangDAT 3100 tape drive from the late
1990s. The tape from which I would like to recover certain files was
made back in 1998 with bru 2000/xbru.

  # mt -f /dev/st0 status
    drive type = Generic SCSI-2 tape	
    drive status = 318767616
    sense key error = 0
    file number = -1
    block number = -1
    Tape block size 512 byte. Density code 0x13 (DDS (61000 bpi)).
    Soft error count since last status = 0
    General status bits on (1010000); ONLINE IM_REP_EN

I tried:

  # tar xvf /dev/st0  *.xyz
    tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Input/output error
    tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
    tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

When I tried the tvf options for tar, I get the same result.

How does one extract the *xyz files from the tape?

-- 
 
       Haines Brown