[Ham-Mac] Re: History of MacRATT

[Richard Kriss]

Brian,

> Anybody remember the name of the program before AEA bought it?
> Or, is the author of it on here, maybe?

Brian,

I enjoyed reading your history of MacRATT.  I  remember the old days very
well with the PK-232 and Red Ryder that was replaced by White Knight.  John,
WD1V and I became self-appointed script junkies and we could make WK do just
about anything with a PK-232.  FYI, I stared the PktMac list of Mac users on
Packet in HyperCard format updated by packet and WD1V created and still
maintains MACNET.  The Mac tcpip software was MAC/Net maintained by PA2AGA

About the time you were working on MacRat, Steve Fine from State College, PA
introduced a shareware program called NetMAC (or something like that) that
ran in the PK-232 host mode.  Steve lost interest and licensed his software
to AEA and it became MacRATT.  I purchased MacRATT from AEA and even
purchased the last update, version 2.1.  Something happened between AEA and
Steve and AEA contracted with someone else for new software they sold as
MacRATT III. I did not care for the user interface and never purchased
MacRATT III.  Dino, KL0S,  likes and still uses MacRATT III.  I still use
MacRATT v2.1 in the OSX Classic mode for RTTY.  I gave up on packet a few
years ago.  I would really like to see an OSX version of MacRATT but it is
not clear who owns the rights to the software or who has the source code.
Timewave did not obtain the rights to the Mac software so I don't really
know who owns what.  I tried to reach Steve Fine and he did  not respond.  I
don't think he subscribes to this list

As far as I am concerned the MacRATT version 2.1 by Steve Fine is great and
I will continue to use it for RTTY until something better comes along.
Sound card application seem to be hot stuff today; however, I prefer the
PK-232. 

I wonder if anyone else still uses MacRATT v2.1?  The only problem I have
found is the old Y2K glitch with the automatic DAYTIME setting at launch.

73 de Dick, AA5VU

> Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 11:46:50 -0400
> Subject: Re: [Ham-Mac] Wtd: MacRatt
> From: Brian Short <bshort4@cox.net>
> 
> A bit of history...
> 
> Years ago (1988-89) I had my Mac Plus and the Thesis for which
> I bought it was complete.  I had a new PK-232 and wanted to use
> it with my Mac.
> 
> The first thing I did was create a series of "scripts" for RedRyder,
> a terminal program, that allowed operation in various modes.
> 
> Then, I bought LightSpeed C and wrote my own host mode for
> the Mac which I called MacRat (like PCPakRat).  During this time
> I became aware of a program written by someone in PA which
> did about what my program was intended to do.
> 
> I used my program on the air for RTTY and Packet, mostly.  Usually,
> I would describe it to everybody I contacted on the air.
> 
> Some time later, AEA purchased the PA guy's program and began
> selling it as MacRatt.  I got the program somewhere along the way
> and used it for DX Packet Cluster for some time.
> 
> Anybody remember the name of the program before AEA bought it?
> Or, is the author of it on here, maybe?
> 
> Brian