write(2) to tape with odd byte count

[Jeffrey W Percival]

Is it possible to create a tape with an odd number of bytes
per record?  When I try such an operation with write(2), I
get a return code of -1 (Oh, sorry, this is 2.8BSD).  When I
do an identical write to a disk file, there is no problem.
Do tape controllers only work in words?

-- 
	Jeff Percival ...!uwvax!uwmacc!jwp