Excercising vintage items - was: Commodore 8010 IEEE-488 Acoustic Modem ?

I have to admit - I do not have a burning desire to connect to anything at 300 bps --- But I do have a burning desire to see it work. These are a questions that seems to have different answers from different collectors: - To use or not to use - To fix or not to fix - To power-up or not to power-up I spend plenty of hours fixing things that I know I'll never really use --- I like to know that the items in my collection actually work, and will continue to work as long as I can maintain them. I guess my idea of preserving this material means preserving it in working condition. I also LIKE fixing this stuff... I like the challenge of tracing a problem, and the insight that comes from figuring out how a particular design works. I know collectors who rake all the stuff up into a big pile and never even try it - just "having" is enough. I know collectors who check that it works, and then never turn it on again, because "it might stop working". I know collectors who focus on a very small area, and actually use the equipment on a daily basis. Personally, I cycle through the things in my collection frequently - I try and run everything at least once or twice a year (usually several times a year). I enjoy fooling with the different machines. I also demonstrate them working at every opportunity - I've taken vintage machines to local schools to let kids experience some of "how we got here", I take them out to local clubs and meets, and I show them to anyone who wants to drop by and see them. I often loan them out, although I do want to satisfy myself that they will be reasonably well taken care of first. Whats the point of storing all this stuff unless people can actually experience it - otherwise, why not just keep a pile of pictures. If a machine breaks - I fix it. IMHO, a machine that you can't use because "it might break" is no more useful than a machine that doesn't work in the first place. So - most anything that comes in here I try and get working. In this case, I think it would be "cool" to be able to demonstrate a PET connected through the 8010 IEEE modem to my Hayes S-100 modem (also a 103 type) in an Altair running a BBS system - This would show how it really worked! - but I don't expect anyone to actually want to use such a setup for any other purpose. Curious to know what others do with the vintage equipment you have stashed away in basement/garage etc. Regards, Dave-- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html