DEC 11/23, RL01s,RX01s,VT100,LA120

From: beclassic <beclassic_at_att.net>
Date: Sat May 8 20:37:38 2004

I am just about ready to rid myself of the DEC equipment I have. I'm
starting
with the classic computer mailing list, but I may part the stuff out on
e-bay. I want to preserve the equipment and related manuals, but I'm also
not ready to just make a gift.

The equipment was purchased in 1979 with updates in maybe 1981. It was used
in my business and has only been moved once (Fall, 2001). It is now in my
garage which is obviously not air conditioned. Most of the manuals and
printed materials are in a storage room a few miles away in "conditioned"
air. The computer was used primarily as a BASIC processor, but we also had
compiled Dibol applications we developed (actually DBL).

I have the mid-height (42") newer-looking cabinet containing the processor
and dual RL01's. The dual RX01 unit is stand-alone, desk-top unit with
matching exterior. The original basic unit was an 11T03 with an 11/03
processor. After a few years I swapped the processor to an 11/23 (dual size
M8186): KDF11-AC with KTF11-AA makes the cpu a KDF11-AA. Also added
KEF11-AA FPU to help my number crunching. Current memory is 256K
(MSV11-LK).

The monitor is a VT100 with an extra board for advanced video, plus a
tilt-swivel stand (DEC version). I also have an LA120BA terminal unit with
keyboard that I used as the wide-carriage printer. I generally used TSX
and at one time had a time-sharing client using a proprietary program
through a 1000 baud modem. I believe the latest RT11 I used was v.3B, but
v.4 may also be there.

I have the usual stuff that went with operating the machine:
 - printed docs ( box of paper ) for diagnostics, plus microfiche version
 - original diagnostics on RL01
 - original manuals for each item (I think)
 - some hardware diagrams/schematics, along with installation booklets
 - 8-10 of the small paperback books of equipment from DEC
 - 4-5 large blue notebooks from DEC regarding operating system, etc.
 - maybe 9 RL01 disk packs in total - a few used RX01s
 - software - RT11, BASIC, Fortran?, TSX?, DBL? - some confusion in this
since the distributions came from a third-party developer via RL01, not from
DEC on distribution-type media.

The CPU and memory seem fine. The bottom RL01 powers up but shows a fault
light; the other works fine. Both RX01 drives work. The VT100 works fine.
Haven't tried the LA120 lately.

I recently hooked a PC as the console and used Kermit to transfer all the
data on the RL01s. I have slowly been trying to separate my data from DEC
data on the RL01s and do a wipe routine after, thus protecting client data.
Maybe I'll only release half of the RL01s.

I've infrequently reviewed the digest versions of this mailing list, but
this is my first attempt to participate. I am switching from digest so
that I can try to be responsive on-line (generally between 7:00 pm and
11:00 pm EST). Are other times more appropriate? I can also answer emails,
generally within a half day. I can maybe get some pictures on-line, but
most of the participants in this list know what they're dealing with.

I'm in central South Carolina.

bill bailey
Received on Sat May 08 2004 - 20:37:38 BST