New finds

From: Alan Greenstreet <aeg_at_paradise.net.nz>
Date: Tue Apr 15 16:50:00 2003

Hi
I just thought I'd share with you a few of my finds this week (maybe
someone will be able to shed a little light on one or two items?)

Sinclair Spectrum+ (nice condition in its original box) complete with
data cassette, joystick, games and thermal printer. I've already had
this up and running.

Dick Smith VZ-200 (again good condition) complete with 16kb memory
expansion (taking it to a heady 24kb), twin joystick adaptor. No power
supply with this but I've found out it takes 10V 800mA so that
shouldn't be too hard to rig up. Apparently these were sold in
Australia between 1983 and 1989, the VZ-200 being the first of the
model range. It uses the Z80 processor. (For those that don't know Dick
Smith is a Radio Shack style electronics outlet - he used to use the
catchy but rather self depreciating slogan "The Electronic Dick" )

IBM 122-key keyboard - this is the clicky type board with 24 function
buttons across the top and a group of preset functions to the left of
the main qwerty board. It has an 8 pin RJ45 style plug (rather than the
4 pin versions I've seen on Digital and Wyse keyboards). I don't know
where this comes from or what it was originally hooked up to.

Commodore PC10-III (this is the small case version) very clean
condition, came with the keyboard but no monitor. It powers up without
a problem.

Canon A-200 (that is the model stated on the back) This powers up fine
but the inbuilt graphics card does not like my mono monitor (in fact my
monitor doesn't like most cards, I must get around to changing it). It
has twin 5.25" floppies with a rather neat eject system that requires
you to push the button to lock the disk in and also to eject it (well,
I thought it was neat anyway). There is no hard disk but it came with a
boot floppy of a really cut down version of DOS 2.11 and a word
processing programme. I don't have a keyboard or anything else for that
matter with this. I can't find any information on the web about this
computer, it appears to have an 8086 or 8088 chip - I haven't
dismantled it all yet. Anyone know about this one?

Advanced Electronic Applications PAKRATT model PK-64 radio modem.
This is for the Commodore 64, SX64 and C128 (in C64 emulation mode). It
came with the manual, power adaptor and cables. In the blurb it states
that you can send and receive Morse, Baudot, ASCII, Amtor and AX.25
V2.0 (or below - but to receive morse you need the HFM-64 module). I
haven't tested this and don't have a C64 or Ham radio... it was just
one of those strange add-ons that would have bugged me if I'd let it
pass.

A couple of 2400 and 9600 modems and a box full of cards that I haven't
gone through yet.

Not a bad week in all.

Alan
Received on Tue Apr 15 2003 - 16:50:00 BST