[GreenKeys] Fwd: Fwd: Looking to purchase a teleprinter

[Sheldon Daitch]

My recollection of the AP machines in North Carolina, 1978-79 time frame is that there were a handful of Extel printersin AP subscriber locations in the state.

My understanding of the AP business model was that the basic agreement with the member press organization normally called for a M-15 or M-20 machine, depending on the wire service to which the subscriber was buying.  Most radio and TV stations had the slow speed wire, 66WPM, and that was covered by the M-15 units, but if they wanted an Extel, AP could and would supply it, but at an extra cost.  Most subscribers did not opt for the extra cost machine.

The M-20s were almost exclusively at newspaper operations, although I seem to recall that maybe WRAL-TV also had a M-20, as they must have subscribed to a slow speed newspaper cycle.  For the newspapers, the M-20 printer wasn't the only AP supplied device as many of them had six-level tape punchers.  The tapes were used in two ways, either the tape was read by a tape reader connected to their photo-offset typesetting equipment or at least in one case I remember, the Durham Herald-Sun was still using hot-lead and the tape was fed into their Linotype machines.

One of the problems with those tape readers is they were optical readers and it didn't take much fuzz in the punched hole for the readers to misread characters.  AP was going through the punch mechanisms at a fair rate.  

There were also newspaper subscribers which had the high-speed wire, 1200 baud, I think it was, and for those subscribers, the AP generally supplied a M-40 page printer and the modem also fed a computer port in their photo-offset typesetting equipment.

My UPI experience in North Carolina was very limited, to one radio station and I think the UPI in North Carolina may have had a different business model, for this radio station that I worked for, 1976-77, in North Carolina, did indeed have a UPI supplied Extel printer.  
One other interesting difference between the AP and UPI Extel machines is that the UPI machine had the data card built into the unit while the AP units used the Lenkurt 25 carrier system single subscriber boxes.  

The Lenkurt unit at the AP state bureaus was a rack mounted system, with slots for maybe 25 slow speed wire circuits and the subscribers got the small box which had the filter for the slow speed service for which they subscribed.  

73Sheldon      From: Steve Garrison <steve.n4tty at gmail.com>
 To: Paul Heller <paul0926 at comcast.net> 
Cc: Greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
 Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2018 8:59 PM
 Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Fwd: Fwd: Looking to purchase a teleprinter
   
To my knowledge AP did lease dot matrix printers to end users in the early to mid 80s.  Notice the date on the letter was in Feb 1983.
The information came from a gentleman from SC who had worked at a local radio station in 1984 as copy boy/gofer and he saved a M15 KSR on its way to the dumpster by a AP tech who had just replaced the M15 with an Okidata dot matrix printer.  There is more to the story, but that is for another day.
Anyway that young boy, now grown, brought me that M15 just a few years back after having had it in his possession all these years.  While he had powered up on multiple occasions since 1984, he never had a loop to connect it to, so it only ran open for a short time on each power up/down.  There is more story there too, but this is already getting to long.
The M15 which had the AP plague on the front is now in the possession of our own Nick, N0NCQ.

Steve G./N4TTY
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