RMAN recovery from tape with automatic channels

Whilst trying to simplify our restore procedures by using automatic channels
to configure RMAN for tape, I have run into the following problem.

A simple restore and recover operations fails because RMAN is opening
a disk channel rather than a tape channel.

RMAN> run {
2> #allocate channel ch1 type 'sbt';
3>      restore database;
4>      recover database;
5>      alter database open;
6> }
Starting restore at 20-MAR-07

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=13 devtype=DISK
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 03/20/2007 12:05:59
RMAN-06026: some targets not found - aborting restore
RMAN-06100: no channel to restore a backup or copy of datafile 10
...
RMAN-06100: no channel to restore a backup or copy of datafile 1

RMAN>
RMAN>
RMAN> **end-of-file**

RMAN> show channel;

RMAN configuration parameters are:
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' MAXOPENFILES 8;

RMAN>

As you can see, SBT_TAPE is set as the automatic channel.
The script works as expected if the 'allocate channel' line is uncommented.

Backups via the automatic channel work fine.

Environment:
Oracle 9.2.0.7
No Recovery catalog
Veritas NetBackup 5.1 MP5
Windows Server 2003 SP1

Has anyone here run into this?
Or know a possible solution?

I have searched MetaLink and googled - not much help.

Thanks,

--
Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist

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