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

[billg999 at cs.uofs.edu]

> 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.

Well, the interface (and what hams send) does 8-bit, but the charset
is still just 7-bit.  What woiuld a ham do with a VT-220 emulation?
This is not a modem for connecting to a remote computer, it's a device
that l;et's two guys talk to each other.  And sometimes, even xfer a
file or two (but very seldom as the media tends to be rather unreliable
for lengthy messages.)

>>
>> >            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,

Nope, never saw anything in CB as there was nothing they ever made that
would have been legal (or of interest) for CBers.  As far as I know they
started as a ham supplier and when things like commercial packet radio
started taking off they offerec stuff there.  Of course, the amount that
hams were willing to pay was much lower than what commercial guys were
willing to pay so you can see where the money was.

>                              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?

Hams do 300 baud on HF and 1200 and up on VHF, UHF and SHF.

Believe it or not, my first Internet connection in my house was over
a 1200 baud 145 Mhz half-duplex radio system I designed and built. It
was a LOS distance of about 14 miles and I ran TCP/IP over it and got
a kick out of listenting to other hams come up with all the reasons
why it could never be done!!  :-)  That was in 1988.  Prior to that I
ran a digital repeater on top of a mountain in Ellenville, NY that
carried traffic from 6 states that I was aware of.

And to brng this back to relevancy, those were the days when, like the
COCO, computers were actually fun and not just a job.

I wish I had a COCO and OS9 back then.  I could have done so much more.

bill