12 May
1997
12 May
'97
2:51 p.m.
On Mon, 12 May 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
On Mon, 12 May 1997, A.R. Duell wrote:
I remember Radio Nederlands trying to broadcast computer tapes over
shortwave radio back in late 1981. They did programs fro TRS 80's,
Commodore Pet's and Atari 400/800. I remember that the experiment was a
mixed success, with several TRS-80 users, a few Commodore users, and
only one Atari 800 user succesfully recording the program off-air, and
loading it into their computer.
Of course many things (sound, hi-res graphics,
etc) were impossible, but
the system did work to some extent. Programs were transmitted on
broadcast-band radio (the BBC radio 4 station transmitted them in the
middle of the night as something called the 'chip shop takeaway service'
(!) - the 'chip shop' was a radio programme that covered home computing at
that time). You recorded these programs off-air using a normal tape
recorder and played them back into your machine after loading the
translator tape.
I must say quite bluntly, that's fucken cool. That is unadulterated,
undisputable, irrepressible coolness to the nth degree. Wide-band, mass
software distribution. There's something you won't see today.