test-drb April 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

269 participants
730 discussions

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

At one of my usual electronics surplus stores the other day, they told me "If I'm into old computers.... go see this scrap dealer" and gave me the address. My interest was piqued, as it was not one I was already familiar with. So, I headed out there today. Interesting place... 8 acres... most of the stuff was inside crumbling warehouses, some was outside in the elements. I believe I saw a deuce and a half ;) But anyways... on to the computer stuff I noticed... One of the lowboy HP cabinets (about 2.5 feet tall) with a 13037 subsystem and 7906D drive mounted. The formica top was missing, but the insides looked pristine. I already have one of these (with formica top), but may pick this one up just to have a spare. They are perfect for a mobile drive (as mobile as a 190 pound drive gets) and you can set a terminal on top (but don't bother trying to read the screen when the drives voice coil is moving). I may use the 7906 as a donor to get another 7906 working... anyways... I noticed a large floorstanding Silicon Graphics machine, didn't get too close to it but I think it said "IRIS" on it. Summagraphics graphics tablet. A large seven foot Digital rack with a processor, tape drive (TZ07), scsi drive tray w/drives, RD42? (cd, no caddy). Dusty, but very good condition. I may buy the TZ07. I couldn't see anything saying what kind of cpu it was. The cpu tray had the cpu on the left, and 3 or 4 what looked to be hard drive modules in front too. No clue what that is, I'm not familiar with that era of DEC gear. Saw another TZ07 too just sitting loose - it was a desktop enclosure - I may snag that too. Oh, there was a neat dual bay olive green rack - I'm guessing it was some time of automated fire control for a military gun. Appeared to have front panel buttons like "turret position, reload time, etc.". I think most of the guts were westinghouse perhaps. Didn't appear to be (to me) an obvious OEM cpu or anything. Quite old. There were selectric typewriters by the palletfull. Some huge floorstanding HP plotter... the front panel said something to the effect of "HP Plotter model I". No interest to me. Much to my joy - the guy who owned the place was just what us collectors would hope for. Soon as I walked in the door he wanted to know what kind of stuff I was looking for, my cell & home number, etc. He took copious notes, and told me matter of factly he'd keep an eye out for the kind of stuff I'm interested in and definitely call me immediately. Seemed most helpful. And better yet, he said they have another location about 10 minutes away, but I didn't have time to go look there. The guy did say "you do know stuff from that period had decent amounts of gold in it", and I told him sure, and I'd be happy to give him more than scrap value for stuff I'm interested in. So, next weekend probably I'll go check out the other place. Note to self - next time, take a flashlight, wear boots, and plan for more time - not every area was searched. Regards, Jay West

19 years, 2 months

OT Don't read this (was Re: Altair MBL source)

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk > >> Certainly, multifunction tubes were around - the first ones were the dual >> diodes and rectifiers of the 1920s, then later twin triodes, extra diodes, >> and yes, to the ultimate Compactrons. > >The most complex common multi-section valve in the UK (i.e. with the most >sections), is the triple diode triode. It came with a variety of heater >ratings -- the EABC80 (6.3V heater), UABC80 (100mA series string heater, >by far the most common version) and the oddball PABC80 (300mA series >string heater). It turned up in numerous AM/FM radios in the 1960s, where >it was used for the AM detector (1 diode), FM detector (the other 2 >diodes) and audio ampifier (triode). Hi Higher quality AM receivers used the two diode tubes. One diode was for the detector while the other was used for the AGC. That way the loading could be optimized for each function. Dwight It has a B9A (9 pin miniature) base, >so there must be some commoning of electrodes going on, probably the >cathodes. > >-tony > >

19 years, 2 months

End of Surplus?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctech at randy482.com> > > >A friend of mine was a weapons office on a USN sub, one day we were talking >about terrorists making a bomb. He started by saying the technology is >above their heads. My response was get a bucket and put enough fissionable >material in it and boom. Hi It is a little more complicated than that. You method would just make a big pile of hot radioactive mess. No boom. If you put it in something that would also evaporate, you could make a mess like Chernobel (sp?). To make a bomb, you have to quickly cause a large number of neutrons with the right energy level. You also have to contain it long eneough for things to multiply before it pushes it self apart. Making a small bomb is beyond most anyones capabilities. Making a really large one is not as hard. Dwight > >He said it wouldn't be efficient and you wouldn't no when it would blow, I >said who cares if you have a nuclear explosion in a major city that's >terrorism. > > >Randy >www.s100-manuals.com > > >

19 years, 2 months

Stuff I want

by gordon＠gjcp.net

Haven't got a lot of money to drop on classic computer goodness, but I do brew a varied and drinkable selection of beers. OK - here are some things I'm trying to get hold of. Cable to go between two RL02 drives Serial printer, ideally a DECWriter of some sort ('cos it's to go on my PDP11) VAXStation SCSI cable (with the funny half-pitch pins) Some kind of CP/M box, with a reasonably well-documented disk controller and console (can be internal, or an external serial terminal - I'm not bothered). Will swap for beer or toys, can collect. Gordon.

19 years, 2 months

PC/Apple/etc. Cards Worth Keeping/Storing (Tony Duell)

by mbbrutman＠magnaspeed.net

I'm a little late on this thread .. it's hard to keep up. Besides the Tech Ref manuals and the Hardware maintenance manuals, the Sams ComputerFacts have also been helpful. I'm a big PCjr fanatic, but I find the hardware literature from the PC, XT and AT to be helpful because it is all very closely related. Besides keeping the old classic cards, I look for (and hold) good general purpose cards. Future Domain 85x series SCSI cards are a good example; they work in eight bit systems like the PC and the software is functional enough to drive hard disks, CD-ROMs, etc. While we're on the topic, I've been trying to find an XT tech ref. I want it for the BIOS listing of the hard drive adapter. This kind of thing is useful when grafting one of the old MFM controllers onto a PCjr. Does anybody have a source for these? (I have the Jr tech ref and an AT tech ref, but finding an XT tech ref has been difficult.) Mike mbbrutman at brutman.com

19 years, 2 months

Paper Tape Emulator in Basic

by jim.beacon＠ntlworld.com

Hi, has anyone tried to write a paper tape emulator in BASIC? I've had a go in GW-BASIC, but I suspect that the implementation of the language is too slow to reliable drive the serial port - it doesn't always pick up the paper advance signal (I've tried using both CTS and DCD as inputs). Will I have to go to a machine code routine to get the fast port access? I look forward to replies. Jim. Please see our website the " Vintage Communication Pages" at WWW.G1JBG.CO.UK

19 years, 2 months

Original IBM 64K Memory Kit in original box on ebay....

by RMeenaks＠OLF.COM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=74946&item=5190497915 &rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW Ram (c) 2005 OpenLink Financial Copyright in this message and any attachments remains with us. It is confidential and may be legally privileged. If this message is not intended for you it must not be read, copied or used by you or disclosed to anyone else. Please advise the sender immediately if you have received this message in error. Although this message and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Open Link Financial, Inc. for any loss or damage in any way arising from its use.

19 years, 2 months

new scrap dealer found :>

by James＠jdfogg.com

> At one of my usual electronics surplus stores the other day, > they told me "If I'm into old computers.... go see this scrap > dealer" and gave me the address. My interest was piqued, as > it was not one I was already familiar with. So, I headed out > there today. And this is where? Or are you silent to protect the stash :-)

19 years, 2 months

End of Surplus?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

A couple of days ago several people were discussing their problems with a couple of DG Novas. I mentioned that I had just seen one in a scrap yard and a couple of people asked me to check on getting it for parts. I went back there today and the Nova was still there and it looks complete. HOWEVER the owner of the yard informed me that he is no longer selling ANY surplus to anybody for any reason. I talked to him and found out that the US Government is now requiring all surplus and scrap dealers to keep DETAILED records of EVERY piece of equipment that they sell! Furthermore they must ensure that NONE of it goes overseas. As you can imagine there's no way that a scrap yard owner can handle the massive amounts of paperwork that would be involved and there is absolutely no way to ensure that none of it goes overseas. Supposedly this is coming from the Department of Homeland Security and has something to do with 9/11. (Have you noticed that every new, rediculous requirement is in response to 9/11?) This is a requirement of the US Government but the owner says that a number of independent companies are also giving him the same requirement. However he says that it's not worth the trouble to try and keep the government/non-government stuff separate, he's just going to destroy everything! If this is as drastic as it sounds then I think we've seen the end of surplus forever! Any thoughts on this? Joe

19 years, 2 months

Der Mouse

by mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA

[Normally I wouldn't've seen this at all, since my mailer rejects anything sent through gmail's webmail interface, because they don't include the client IP in the headers. Someone who knows that mailed me a copy, so this particular message I saw anyway.] > I'm assuming that you are the same one as this : > http://bsd.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/29/149249&tid=185&tid=7 Yes, that's me. > I also assume that it is your web server that is no longer up ;) I don't have a webserver, actually. My FTP server did get rather slashdotted, not surprisingly (note that the data for 04-30 is for only the day so far): % cat OLD/xferlog/000 xferlog | colrm 7 | uniq -c 29 Apr 18 18 Apr 22 26 Apr 24 586 Apr 25 584 Apr 27 34096 Apr 28 216302 Apr 29 42379 Apr 30 % Day boundaries in those logs are based on UTC, not my local time. xferlog is up to some 20.3MB, and I'm hoping I've weathered the worst of the storm. /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

19 years, 2 months

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test-drb April 2005