[GreenKeys] Under 40?! Call out for age...

[Chris Elmquist]

Great stories from all age groups!

I'm 53 and got into TTY stuff primarily because of my vintage computing
interest.  I first used a M33 in 1975, when I was in 7th grade.  Here in
MN, we had a state-wide computer network called MECC which in those
days, you accessed via dialup modem from M33s, Teleray CRT terminals,
some DEC LA36 and LA120 terminals and misc other real and glass TTYs.

In my 7th grade computer class, we would write our programs, in BASIC,
by coloring in mark-sense cards and then feeding them into an HP optical
card reader that was in the same loop with an M33 and a Multi-Tech MT300
acoustic coupler.  This was really turning interactive sessions into batch
but it was pretty efficient since it took most of the kids several days
to fix their programs while a few of us were able to turn them around
in minutes after memorizing the Hollarith coding and able to whip out
replacement cards in seconds to fix the bugs.

Anyway, the output was printed by the M33 and life was good.

I pretty quickly figured out how this dialup stuff and the login process
worked and before long convinced my dad to bring home a TI Silent 700
which I then setup on the kitchen table, tied up mom and dad's phone
line for hours and hours every evening and life was better. Probably
played way too much Oregon Trail then too.

By '76, I had built my own Motorola 6800 microcomputer (an MEK6800-D1 eval
kit) and no longer had to dial anywhere to do some serious computer
learning.  Life was better still and that original Silent 700 is still
with me and working.  Somehow it never made it back to 3M :-)  But, I
never had an M33 of my own in those days.  They were the "standard" for
console I/O on all of these early eval boards and early microcomputers--
KIM-1, SWTPC 6800, the MEK6800-D1 and -D2 kits and the Altairs--  all
of which I have.

Back in 2008 or so, I restored an M33 that came along with an Altair
680 microcomputer that I got from an estate of an OM that was big
in the computer industry here in MN (he was a CDC VP) and also a
very active ham and computer hobbiest.  It was downhill from there.

A couple years later I obtained another M33 and restored it and then
got the bug for 5-bit stuff and restored an M28 "skin tight" TT-176C/UG.
There's another M28 KSR and an M33 (from very near the end of production)
in the garage both waiting for restoration.

"Someday" I really hope to get one of the M28 on the air for some actual
heavy metal RTTY.

Chris
--
Chris Elmquist NØJCF