[Coco] Look what Daniel got his scrubby dirty hands on.

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 23 February 2014 10:32:22 billg999 at cs.uofs.edu did opine:

> > On Sunday 23 February 2014 09:39:15 Juan Castro did opine:
> >> Some googling told me this is a ham radio interface, and another guy
> >> on
> 
> the list, Alexandre Souza, informed us that's a Brazilian clone of the
> original Kantronics board. (Heh, they didn't even bother to translate
> the messages.)
> 
> >> https://plus.google.com/photos/+DanielCampos/albums/59835770709922728
> >> 17
> 
> I know nothing of ham radio. How is this supposed to plug into the
> radio? Is something like a modem needed in addition to that?
> 
> The cable you see coming off one corner would connect to a ham
> transciever.
> 
> > Note, neither hand here is any where near a bible so I'm not swearing
> > to
> 
> anything..
> 
> > I believe that is an interface for sending and receiving morse code,
> 
> Much more than CW.  Does RTTY (5 level BAUDOT) ASCII (7 level), AMTOR
> (all the common modes, including FEC which was (is?) used for broadcast
> messages.)
> 
>  although it could probably be re-programmed to work with a full 8 bit
> wide
> 
> > data path.
> 
> Not sure what that means.  It does ASCII.

ASCII is usually 7 bits wide, but a full byte, 8 bits, would let to do a 
VT-220 emulation where the esc codes are all 128 decimal and above.
> 
> >            To send, it replaces the keyer, and to receive, it could be
> 
> listening to the BFO output from the radios speaker circuit.
> 
> Hooks up to the KEY jack, the microphone jack and the speaker/headphone
> output.  Ham radio don't real use a BFO as you are probably thinking of
> it.  That was a feature to allow AM type receivers to decode CW and
> Single Side Band (SSB) audio signals.
> 
> >                                                              One thing
> 
> is
> 
> > certain, its old.
> 
> Old is a matter of opinion.  To some of us 1984 really isn't all that
> old. I have a number of these knd of interfaces, but none for the COCO.
>  But I did have programs that lett the COCO receive CW, RTTY, ASCII,
> AMTOR and even Slow Scan TV using the cassette input.  I also had
> (actually, still have somewhere) a RTTY/CS interface for my TRS-80
> Model III.  Most were eventually replaced by all-in-one units that also
> did Packet Radio and connected tot he computer using a serial port.

Chuckle, old is relative, and 1984 is just last week to me since I'm 
working on my 80th year. :)
 
> >                   The radio operator of course needs a ham license of
> >                   a
> 
> suitable class before you can "press the key" and
> transmit.
> 
> There is no radio component in what you saw in the pictures.  One needs
> a totally separet transmitter and receiver to actually use it although
> a non-ham couls hook it to a receiver and at least listen.  All of those
> modes are still in use today.
> 
> > Relatively famous in its day, I've no clue how useful it could be
> > today
> 
> as
> 
> > I am not a ham, although some would argue that point :), but a retired
> 
> broadcast engineer.
> 
> Last I looked, Kantronics was still in business but probably does more

Apparently not in TV broadcast though.  ISTR they may have done some stuff 
in cb radio back in the day, but its been since the 70's that I was 
servicing those, so my familiarity is (out-)dated there too without a 
doubt.

What baud rates does it support?

> commercial than ham business today.
> 
> bill -- KB3YV
> 

Cheers Bill, Gene
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