- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Is there a date for the Festivus Party?
by Christian Liendo 21 Sep '26

21 Sep '26

My CG unit is now out of Virginia and my dates are all over the place and I wanted to see if this fell on a drill date

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Workshop Entrance
by Jeff Salzman 19 Sep '26

19 Sep '26

For those new to the workshop, here is the entrance to the Workshop. The door is wedged open due to the automatic lock, but should remain closed throughout the day. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11_MXF40fY0SotE_2EFq8QG7HELd7MPIx/view?usp=… You will be able to see this door from the main gate. When you arrive, let the person at the gate know you are here for the VCF Workshop and they should let you in. Park anywhere along the edge on the road across from the Workshop building, but NOT on the side marked as a fire zone.

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Info about this weekend's workshop
by Jeff Salzman 19 Sep '26

19 Sep '26

The Workshop will still be held in the 9010D building at InfoAge as it has been during 2026. However, part of the room has been commandeered by the NJ State Police for training purposes. The NJ State Police will not be attending class over the weekend, but we won't be able to utilize the space they previously used as we did in the past. Therefore, we will be utilizing the other half of the 9010D room for this weekend's workshop. When you arrive, you will still go into the 9010D room as before, but instead of heading to the left side of the room, head to the right side. We will provide tables accordingly. Jeff Salzman

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Preliminary Member Survey: Exploring Options for Weekend Repair Workshops
by Jeff Salzman 17 Sep '26

17 Sep '26

Hi everyone, When on-site overnight lodging ended at InfoAge, it significantly altered the rhythm of our monthly Repair Workshops. For members driving in from upstate New York, Central Pennsylvania, Virginia, and beyond, having to secure commercial hotel rooms added a major expense to what used to be an accessible, low-cost weekend together. We are currently gathering preliminary feedback from membership to see if exploring alternative venues is practical and desired. *Please note:* This effort is exploratory. Our current workshop schedule at InfoAge remains in place and will not change at this time. If our research finds that an alternative location isn't feasible, affordable, or supported by the community, we will continue hosting our events at InfoAge as usual. To make an informed decision, we need to understand what works for you before taking any next steps: - Realistic budget limits for a full Friday evening thru Sunday afternoon workshop with lodging included - Travel preferences and maximum drive times across the Mid-Atlantic - Openness to a single home base versus rotating regional locations - How you would handle bringing parts and sharing specialized bench tools off-site Please take 3 to 4 minutes to complete our planning survey: Venue Change Survey <https://forms.gle/c5vokfJfRWtFxDGm6> Your honest feedback will guide our next steps... whether that means developing a proposal for an off-site retreat or keeping our operations firmly rooted at InfoAge. Thank you for your time and for continuing to support the workshop community. Best regards, Jeff Salzman VCF/March Steering Committee Workshop Manager

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Request from Compute’s Gazette Magazine
by Christopher Gioconda 15 Sep '26

15 Sep '26

Passing this request along to the group: ~~~ A question for anyone who was there. We are writing the October lead feature on whether software could ever actually damage 8-bit hardware, and the Commodore PET "killer poke" is at the center of it. We have been looking for a confirmed case, and we cannot find one. Not a story about somebody's cousin's school. An actual PET that actually died and had to be repaired or replaced. So here is what we are asking. 1. Did you personally see a computer damaged by a POKE or by a program? Any machine, any brand. What model, roughly what year, what failed, and what happened to it afterward? We are specifically after things you witnessed rather than things you were told. 2. If you typed the killer poke back in the day, what actually happened? Did the machine come back when you switched it off and on? 3. This one is a long shot and would make our year. We are trying to find the earliest place the poke appeared in print. One account has it circulating in a newsletter flyer that shipped with an order, as a tip to make a game run faster. If you have Commodore club newsletters, dealer flyers, or user group bulletins from roughly 1979 to 1981 sitting in a box, we would love to hear from you. Please do not go and try the poke on your own machine to find out. The effect is almost certainly survivable, but there is a real possibility of long term stress from two outputs fighting each other, and no reason at all to risk a 45 year old computer for a magazine article. Comment below or write to us at info(a)computesgazette.com

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Wanted: TRS-80 DT-1 or DT-100
by Mike Loewen 12 Sep '26

12 Sep '26

I'm still looking for a TRS-80 DT-1 or DT-100 terminal. If anyone has one for sale or spots one at VCF Midwest, please let me know. I'm in central PA. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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September 2026 Workshop
by Jeff Salzman 12 Sep '26

12 Sep '26

The upcoming Workshop on September 19-20 is still on. Please sign up on this form if you plan to attend: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gKh8Rr0btGpXQfPoqwGi9J-yQ_6kManfNIq… This Workshop will have a theme to it. While it's still going to be open as usual for traditional Workshop activity, there will be equipment set up to do disk archiving. It will be a Greaseweazle theme. What is Greaseweazle? Greaseweazle is a clever hardware device that lets you connect standard 34-pin floppy drives (5.25" and 3.5") to a modern computer, and with open-source software, you can back up floppy disks at the flux level for later analysis or file extraction. I personally own two Greaseweazle systems and plan on setting them up for shared use. I can also show how I configure the setup and how the software works, in case you want to pursue setting up a Greaseweazle setup of your own someday. So whether you want to learn how to set up a Greaseweazle system of your own, or simply want to take advantage of the opportunity that weekend to archive a bunch of old disks you own, please consider attending the Workshop. Make sure to add your name to the spreadsheet form linked above to let us know you are attending. Under the notes column, let us know if you plan on attending so you can make archive copies of your old floppies. Please note that, depending on the popularity of the event, taking turns using the Greaseweazle may be necessary. If you plan to archive your disks, you must, of course, bring your disks. You must also provide your own portable media to save the archived disk images to. Any portable USB drive or USB thumb drive should suffice. We reserve the right to inspect the condition of the original floppies due to the possibility of dirt, mold, or other contaminants and/or damage before they are allowed to be inserted into the Greaseweazle drives. We also cannot guarantee successful reads and data extraction. Sometimes a bad disk is really a bad disk. Any questions, feel free to reply. Looking forward to seeing you at the Workshop! Jeff Salzman VCF Steering Committee MARCH Workshop Manager

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Wanted: Motorola Astro Saber
by Andrew Mattera 12 Sep '26

12 Sep '26

hi all, Looking for Motorola Astro Saber Model II and Model III for official business, options unimportant as I have the depot software anyways. large lots preferable, needs to be UHF range 2 (450-520MHz) which I understand isn't typical HAM ranges Thanks, Andrew Mattera

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OT: Verizon application to discontinue POTS in New Jersey and other states
by InterLinked 09 Sep '26

09 Sep '26

Apologies if this is somewhat off-topic, but it seems pertinent given InfoAge's location in New Jersey and probably much of the audience here. Verizon is in the process of applying to discontinue copper POTS service to 270,000 lines in 9 states, including New Jersey and some other east coast states: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/26110070306/1 I seem to recall reading here at one point that InfoAge had a POTS line - is that still the case and did anyone receive a notice? Particularly given the significance of Camp Evans in hurricanes and other disasters, maybe somebody with VCF might be able to file comments opposing this discontinuance? (Comments can be filed at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express in docket 26-227.)

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Nice article on LSSM
by Christian Liendo 08 Sep '26

08 Sep '26

Note very detailed but I nice mention. https://arbesman.substack.com/p/visiting-the-history-of-computing

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