[GreenKeys] Fw: Re: Teletype and electronics........

[Teletypeparts]

Peter,

I have seen Western Union TWX machines that had an hour meter on the dial unit with 2 and 3 thousand hours on them.  They were serviced regularly tho.  Still, most of those with high hours were prettty much worn out.  

Wayne



-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Gottlieb <nerd at verizon.net>
To: greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thu, Apr 11, 2013 10:16 am
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Fw: Re: Teletype and electronics........


Never had a working PDP-8 but did have a fully functional PDP-11/05 and later 
1/23 system which initially had a current loop ASR-33 as the main terminal 
evice.  The ASR-33 didn't come with it, I had that already, acquired from 
estern Union.  The 33, despite being a lot cheaper in construction than the 28 
r even the 35, still gave me probably into the thousands of hours of service 
ith only minimal maintenance.  I did tons of coding on it, ran through carton 
fter carton of paper and ribbons, and when I finally retired it to go to a 
modern" VT-52 terminal it was mainly to get lower case and quiet operation to 
llow my girlfriend to get to sleep while I was still working.
Peter

On 4/11/2013 9:08 AM, Rokumon Cat wrote:


 --- On *Thu, 4/11/13, Rokumon Cat /<rokumoncat at yahoo.com>/* wrote:


     From: Rokumon Cat <rokumoncat at yahoo.com>
     Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Teletype and electronics........
     To: COURYHOUSE at aol.com
     Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 6:06 AM

     Good lord...
     I had a PDP-8 once. Won it in a GSA sealed bid auction... for five
     dollars. I did not realize it at the time, but the 5 foot rack that held
     the PDP-8 and "floppy drives (8 inch) was not the only thing that I won.
     Seems the GSA in their generosity failed to advise the bidders (me) that
     there were ten of these things that looked like washing machines in size
     and weight came with the PDP-8. They were hard drives... along with a
     multi-hundred pound box called the "hard drive starting sequencer" that
     would start the hard drives one by one, so that the starting current of
     the motors would not blow the mains. They (the GSA) advised me that I had
     48 hours to remove these treasures or that I would be fined 25 dollars a
     day for storage.
     To make a long story short, I rented a flatbed truck with a tommy lift,
     got the (deleted) things home and stashed them in my basement. I actually
     started several of the hard drives. Though I never was a line boy at a
     passenger airport, I suspect that the sound of a 747's engines spooling up
     was quite similar to that of the hard drives both in tone and SPL. The
     heat that came out of those things was also similar to the jet's engines.
     With my basement stuffed with antiquated computer junque, I decided that I
     needed to use this stuff for something. That was in January of one of the
     coldest winters of the 90's. Then on one of the coldest nights of that
     cold winter, my furnace naturally suffered from a burned out blower motor.
     Fearing the specter of frozen pipes and catcicles, I turned on three of
     the drives. Kept my basement uncomfortably /hot,/ and my first floor nice
     and toasty, and the second floor bearable.
     That was the only and best use that I ever came up for the thing. That
     spring, I gave it to a kid for the hauling it away.
     Best,
     Joe




         ...had it hooked to my PDP-8



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