[Milsurplus] Mil PDP-8 , Tempested systems and the DRMO

[Ray Fantini]

I have an obsession with DRMO and other government sales and saw most of
the PDP-8 and 11 systems sold off back in the early eighties. The same
PDP-8 systems that the civilian world used the government bought tons
of, along with lots of second source knock off of the eight. Today
almost all that enters the system is 486 or P1 stuff, with all the
286/386 stuff being long gone. Maybe once in a while I will see a
"vintage" system, like the last couple NASA sales I did see a HP-85
and a older HP rack mounted system but these always are part of larger
calibration or charting systems (HPIB still lives?). The stand-alone
early PC stuff is long out of the system. A question: back about ten
years ago their were lots of huge heavy special built  "tempested" XT,
286 and 386 systems that were being scraped. But now its all 486/P1
systems being sold. They are basically desktop consumer systems, Compaq,
Dells and Gateways. With the exception of the systems like the SIAC V2LC
and the Getac, and they are far and few between you do not see many
special built tempested systems, just commercial off the shelf systems
like the Panasonic "tough book". Has the government moved away from
special built way over priced systems? Maybe there is no longer the need
for tempested systems now that the newer stuff is not as RF noisy as the
old stuff? Perhaps there is sufficient interest to start a reflector for
Milcomputers as another list?
Ray Fantini KA3EKH