[R-390] Other Fun stuff

[blw]

>
>
> Recently I wanted to revive this project.  In the mid-'80s, I built a simple
> interface to handle TTL to RS232 level translations so my VIC-20 could print
> to an RS232 printer and I figured I could adapt it.  It turns out the Kenwood
> requires an active low interface and this project did not accommodate that.
> After a failed attempt on my part to adapt an optoisolator, I came across a
> very simple interface diagram from a fellow in Italy.  I decided I would give
> his circuit at try.
> 
> 
> Thanks and 73,
> 
> Barry(III) - N4BUQ


Barry and list,

That reminds me of starting out with home computers a long time ago with
Atari 800XL's and other 8 bit computers. I remember the first memory upgrade
to the 64k RAM. We piggybacked the chips per an article by someone, Scott
Peterson I think. This was in the mid 80's when 64k was the limit in RAM.
But, it needed to have DOS bankswitch to get to the other 64k banks.
Finally, one night I decided to decode the memory boundaries in hex and
patch MyDOS to jump hex boundaries in hopes it would see the new memory
banks. It did the first time and I remember being elated that I made it
work....kinda like you hooking the VIC-20 up to a RS-232 interface.

More off-off topic- today I went and looked at some old home radios and
tubes that a lady had for sale. I got a few good tubes for a decent price,
and brought home 3 unusual radios to tinker with. The best one is a metal
case RCA. It is bigger than an old breadbox and gets the AM band and SW from
around 9-12 mHz. The most unusual part is that it is a hotel coin operated
radio. It has the chromed quarter coin slot with a  change return hole in
the side. I looked in the back and it looks like either a 5 or 7 tube radio.
The only thing on the remaining part of the sticker on the bottom is
??MI-13182. 

Does anyone know more about hotel type pay radios? I'll probably repaint the
case and recap it just because it is unusual.


Barry