Paper tape and Cards (and maybe ttys)

When I got the PDP-8/e I wanted to add a Teletype (ASR-33) for its console. This being the one true console for a PDP-8. So I started looking around, then deeper, then deeper still. After going to many ham swaps, lots of the Silicon Valley surplus scene, and the Internet I determined that 1996 was the year of the great TTY purge. Literally dozens of people told me, "I junked n of them last year." (in 1997 of course). I then began advertising and eventually put up posters in a couple of the more well known "surplus" places around town offering $100 for one in good condition. I got serveral calls, many because and ASR-32 (5 bit TELEX machine) had shown up, and a few "How about an KSR-43?" (got one of those), and a couple of "I've only got pieces of one." I've collected a bunch of pieces and have been restoring some of them. I then was contacted by a wonderful person in Utah who actually had a running one and I bought it from him. However, that one was not wired for current loop (it had some home brewed RS-232 converter on it) and it's reader is not functioning. (No idea why yet.) I say "at the moment" because I cannot tell if this lull is permanent or temporary. Lots of machine shops had ASR-33's and they might be converting them at some point. Jim Willing was looking for one too, I don't know if he found one or not. I know of two others, but how they will go is unknowable to me. --Chuck At 12:47 PM 1/13/99 -0800, you wrote: