TTYs for the deaf

From: Michael Sokolov <msokolov_at_ivan.Harhan.ORG>
Date: Sat Dec 11 14:04:05 2004

Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com> wrote:

> Do you know of any timesharing host or BBS that is compatible with TTY?

Sure, any PDP-11 or VAX UNIX timesharing host with a Bell 103 modem
attached to one of its RS-232 ports will happily accept calls from an
ASR33 TTY.

It's a pity that the deaf TTYs are 5-bit rather than ASCII. The reason
for my question had to do with my campaign to get the few people I care
about to switch from PeeCees to timesharing computing, i.e., instead of
using a PeeCee, paying for Internet service, etc., get an account on my
VAX and dial into it from a Teletype. One of the problems is of course
that no one has Teletypes any more. I was wondering if the deaf ones
could be used, as in the current horrible state of the world it seems
like Teletypes are now only used by the disabled, rather than by 100% bodily
abled people who are more intelligent than the masses and want to use
timesharing UNIX (or VMS or RSX or TENEX or ...) instead of a pee sea.

BTW, has there ever been a Teletype model that did 300 baud instead of 110?
Perhaps Model 35 or 37? My Courier V.Everything modems are great, and
they can go down to Bell 103 or V.21, but to my knowledge they do not have
an asynchronous pass-thru mode between the RS-232 TxD/RxD lines and the
Bell 103 FSK modulator/demodulator, it always has to go through the modem's
internal buffers, which requires it to know the baud rate, and as a result
it can only operate at 300 baud with Bell 103 / V.21, even though this
modulation scheme is in fact asynchronous and baud rate-oblivious for the
range 0-300 baud. The end result is that they can't answer 110 baud calls
from ASR33s. Bummer.

MS
Received on Sat Dec 11 2004 - 14:04:05 GMT