I can confirm that this is a CE tool.? From what I remember they where used mainly by CEs in the GSD division.? The large grey lump to the left of the PT-2 is a channel adapter used for monitoring 370 channels.? The black box on the lower right is a coax switch and not part of a PT-2.? They where mainly used for monitoring communication lines and at the time when I saw one in use for that, 40 years ago, it had the advantage of being able to decode the Bisync or SDLC protocol right on the machine rather than having to send the data off to have it analyzed.? I recall that there was an attachment with multiple types of connectors for communication lines along with indicator lights for important signals.? Missing from the pictures is the external monitor and tape cartridges that contained the programs for the machine. There was also a later version of this machine that had a built in LCD display. Paul. On 2019-08-22 12:37 a.m., William Donzelli via cctalk wrote:

A small off-topic trivial tip: That URL can be reduced to: https://www.ebay.com/itm/253997593352 From 18 lines to 1, losing almost a thousand extraneous chracters. (The stuff between itm/ and /auction number is not needed for the URL, nor is the '?' and anything following.) While the description before the auction number may be useful, the appended stuff on the end isn't. On Thu, 22 Aug 2019, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk wrote: > Anyone know anything about this?? > https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-1980-IBM-PT-2-Computer-Hall-Effect-Magnet-Keyb…

Or to just the item number: 253997593352 Assuming your browser is going to expand typing eb to ebay.com, then you enter the item number in the ebay search box. Guy At 08:45 PM 21/08/2019 -0700, you wrote: >A small off-topic trivial tip: >That URL can be reduced to: > >https://www.ebay.com/itm/253997593352

One further note on shortening eBay links. A few months ago, eBay made it harder to use links to ended auctions, because it will (sometimes? often?) automatically redirect you to some active auctions that it deems to be similar. If you add ?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc to the end, it will stay on the auction you asked for, even if it has ended. That is: https://www.ebay.com/itm/283576035281?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=… should continue to point to this auction (for 90 days or so at least) even after the listing is closed. I am not 100% sure that all of the parameters there are required, I only know that it works with rt, nordt, and orig_cvip there. I think I tried removing one or more and it stopped working, but I was not systematic, since, well, I didn't really care. This is what I use in the show notes of the Retrocomputing Roundtable episodes, since odds are good that auctions we talk about there will have ended by the time people try the links. In the context of cctalk, this might be useful for pointing to auctions that are interesting to look at, rather than to auctions that people might want to participate in (since in that latter case, ended auctions stop being interesting). -Paul > On Aug 21, 2019, at 11:45 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > A small off-topic trivial tip: > That URL can be reduced to: > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/253997593352 > > From 18 lines to 1, losing almost a thousand extraneous chracters. > (The stuff between itm/ and /auction number is not needed for the URL, nor is the '?' and anything following.) > While the description before the auction number may be useful, the appended stuff on the end isn't. > > > On Thu, 22 Aug 2019, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk wrote: > >> Anyone know anything about this?? >> >> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-1980-IBM-PT-2-Computer-Hall-Effect-Magnet-Keyb…