Huge PDP-11 rescue opportunity

Well, I guess it's time to let the cat out of the bag with this one... I've been planning a very nice equipment rescue in Seattle for some time now, but as circumstances are, I will not be able to afford the trip. I'd rather not see anything scrapped, so I am hoping someone on the list will be able to pick up where I'm leaving off. What we have is a *bunch* of OEM and third-party PDP-11 equipment. Here's an overview. There are two types of systems: old and new. Both were made by ATEX using a combination of DEC and custom hardware. The old systems consisted of, originally, PDP-11/34s and 04s. These were upgraded later on by replacing the CPU cards with with a single card with a J11 processor and a SIMM on board. The old systems are in black 6ft racks which have a blue ATEX legend at the top instead of the traditional DEC legend. Each rack contains one PDP-11/34 or /04 box up top and an additional backplane down below with gobs of custom ATEX cards. Each of the new systems looks a bit like two PDP-11/44s in a white 4ft cabinet, but as I understand it, they use the same boards as the updated old systems. The systems are "networked" using some special hardware that connects all of the Unibuses. They share a system of disks and a tape drive. Some of the systems have a built-in small SCSI drive and JAZ drive; these particular machines may not be available at the moment. Here's an inventory. Old systems (13 total): 9 currently in operation, 5 available next month 4 out of operation, 2 available now They're going to keep 4 of these for another year. New systems (8 total): 4 currently in operation, 4 available next month (?) 4 out of operation, 4 available now Approximately 20 hard drive systems. These were some sort of CDC 8" drive, but were converted to 300MB-1GB SCSI drives. The cases were reused. At least one Kennedy 9100 tape drive. Boxes of old boards and spare boards. As you might have guessed, they are still in the process of decommisioning the systems. As far as I can tell, each cabinet is being removed from the computer room as it decommisioned and prepared for shipping. The prepped cabinets are brought to a warehouse where they await pickup. The owners want $100 for the entire lot. If you are interested in rescuing this lot, please reply to me. The owners wish not to be barraged with e-mail, so I will manage the selection and briefing of the new picker-upper. I have a contact in Seattle that went to the location, took pictures, and wrote most of what you just read. I can send those pictures to anyone who's interested. condition, having been well cared for in their computer room. I hope that it makes a nice find for someone. -- Jeffrey S. Sharp jss(a)ou.edu