02-27-15 15:28 Damon A. Getsman wrote to Ed Vance about Re: Using AX.25 w/older   
   h   
      
    DAG> @MSGID: <54F1A916.757.amtradio@capcity2.synchro.net>   
    DAG>   Re: Re: Using AX.25 w/older h   
    DAG>   By: Ed Vance to Damon A. Getsman on Thu Feb 26 2015 00:23:00   
      
   Howdy! Damon,   
   -snip-   
    EV> I got the C=64, Floppy Drive and 300 baud Modem to start out with.   
    EV> I've seen how slow Tape transfers were and didn't want that, I wanted   
    EV> the FDD even though it was very costly back in 1984.   
      
    DAG>   Yeah.  :)  I was donated my first Atari, a 600XL (with a   
    DAG> WHOPPING 16K of memory), and all it had was the analog tape   
    DAG> drive.  God I even had 3 backups of some of my programs.  That   
    DAG> medium was actually volatile enough that I had times when I   
    DAG> still couldn't recover despite 3 backups.  That was horrifying.   
      
   That was a very bad experience, I've had my share of them too.   
      
   "Computers alway win because they have inside information" is a phrase   
   I made up.   
      
    DAG>  Writing one hundred lines of code back then (which would come   
    DAG> close to filling up the memory) really blew my mind; losing it   
    DAG> was a horror.  This was very early 90s, maybe a little bit in   
    DAG> the late 80s, also.  Whenever it was, 180-360k floppies were   
      
   I remember those times well.   
   Still have a working C=64 in this room, but I don't use it much.   
      
    DAG> the norm, and 1.2m floppies weren't far behind, either.  Most   
    DAG> people were working with 640k of memory by that time, not 16k.   
    DAG> Eight-bit was definitely quickly becoming a thing of the past,   
    DAG> though many still used it.   
      
   Until 1994 I only had the C=64 with 38K of BASIC memory.   
      
    EV> I just know pieces and bits, and had help learning what I learned from   
    EV> some other Hams who took their time explaining what's what to me.   
      
    DAG>   Well I certainly do appreciate any of y'all that are taking   
    DAG> the time to share bits of this all with me now.  :)   
      
   Here on FIDO there a lot of folks to get help from.   
   -snip-   
    EV> When You get back into doing that High Voltage stuff be very very   
    EV> careful and don't let it 'talk' to You.   
      
    DAG>   Okay, I've got to ask.  I'm having mad scientist visions here   
    DAG> with people falling into trances looking at tesla coil   
    DAG> discharges and deciding that the truth to everything lies   
    DAG> within them, thus getting fried by the human bug zapper.  I'm   
    DAG> pretty sure that's not what you mean...  Can you elaborate?  :)   
      
   As I mentioned in my in my last line I was thinking of 2000 volts on   
   Plate circuit of a RF Final Amplifier.   
      
    EV> Those two 10 Turn POTS came with a calibrated dial that could be locked   
    EV> to keep it from moving.   
      
    DAG>   Those 'helipots' sound pretty useful for some stuff that I'm   
    DAG> trying to work on right now, I might have to see if digikey or   
    DAG> some other retailer has them for a decent price.   
      
   Hope You can find them.   
      
    EV> The VEC Test Question Pool can be downloaded from http://www.ncvec.org   
    EV> if You want to study them.   
      
    DAG>   I do very much so; synchronet has a door for it, too, but   
    DAG> it'd be great to have something I could put on hardcopy, also.   
    DAG> Thank you for the info!   
   -snip-   
    EV> Yes, as long as the difference in the Mark and Space frequencies were   
    EV> 170 Cycles apart, my configuration worked like "Duck Soup".   
      
    DAG>   I am floundering to know what this means.   
      
   Amateur Radio RTTY uses a frequency shift of 170 cycles.   
   The old time RTTY standard was 850 cycles between Mark and Space, but 170   
   cycles was found to work very well.   
   I don't know if Commercial RTTY uses 170 cycle shift or not.   
   -snip-   
    EV> There are many things that Hams are interested in, I've only done a   
    EV> tiny bit if what Hams do.   
    EV> But what I do I enjoy, You will enjoy it too, just only put one hand   
    EV> in the final amplifier, keep the other one in your pocket.     
    EV> 73   
      
    DAG>   Gotcha.  Thank you so much for the info dump.  I greatly   
    DAG> appreciate it.  :) I've got lots of tabs open for things to   
    DAG> look at now.  :)   
    DAG>   Best wishes.   
      
   That's 73 in Ham Radio lingo.   
   73 to You too.   
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