Fwd: Acoustic modems?

From: Aaron Mailing Lists <af-list_at_is1.wfi-inc.com>
Date: Thu Oct 14 21:19:52 1999

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, Mike Ford wrote:

> >Certainly the use of a coupler limits the bandwidth of the signal
> >that can be reliably exchanged. It worked in the days of two-tone
> >300 baud, but I don't think it would stand a chance at 4800, 9600
> >or above.
> >
> >- John
>
> Acoustic couplers, not the earlier ones, but later units made for $$$ and
> people who did a lot of "remote" travel worked up to about 4800.
> Essentially we are really just talking about a certain level of "fidelity"
> between your hardware and the telco hardware.


I remember the days of being vewwy, vewwy *quiet* while downloading "huge"
80K files with an Atari 830. Then, 78K through, you'd lean back and your
chair would give out a loud "creeaaakkk" and it was all over.

We did all kinds of things to try to insulate from noise; eventually, I
used bathtub caulk and dedicated a cheap phone to the cause...caulking
every place I thought it might leak noise. Then I'd bury the thing in
pillows...

I've seen several devices in the past couple of years for travellers to be
able to have data access in hotels/pay-phones, etc. I know they were at
least 4800b, and I believe some even claimed 9600b. I remember because I
was on a plane to Chicago with a friend who used to geek around Atari's
with me and I wistfully sighed, "Remember back when we were on the Dragon
BBS, trying to download with that acoustic modem?"


Aaron
Received on Thu Oct 14 1999 - 21:19:52 BST