- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Earliest version of MSDOS recovered
by Richard Cini 04 Sep '26

04 Sep '26

All — I haven’t been able to talk about this early MSDOS recovery project since a few of us began working on it in September, but you can see the blog post by Scott Hanselman here. Scott’s post links to both @BrokenPipe’s site and mine where we discuss the process. In short, I was able to get 700-ish pages of original source listings from Tim Paterson which I scanned and then we converted to workable source code. It’s the earliest known version of DOS code to exist in the wild. https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2026/04/28/continuing-the-story-of-ea… Rich http://cini.classiccmp.org/ https://github.com/RichCini Long Island S100 User’s Group Get Outlook<https://aka.ms/qtex0l> for iOS

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OT - Wanted for use at CDL
by Martin A Flynn 04 Sep '26

04 Sep '26

Thanks to a kind stranger (OK, really was one of the folks who help out), CDL now has a APC SUA3000RM2U UPS for the audio rack in the studio. Hopefully this shields the Studio gear from any additional spike and surge damage. It needs fresh batteries and mounting hardware, so check your junk & leftovers piles for a rack kit Part number is APC SU032A, picture is at http://compdecon.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/apc_rack_kit.jpg

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Re: Possibly OT: vintage vacuum tubes question
by Bob Shuster 04 Sep '26

04 Sep '26

Thanks for the advice! So these were my father-in-law’s. He was a PhD electrical engineer who did communications research and implementation for RCA and NASA/DOD (through RCA) in the 60s and 70s. He also built his own stereo equipment - amps, crossovers, etc. - and I suspect most of these were from that, although he may have scavenged some from work. I guess it would behoove me to catalog what’s there, but I’m not going to the trouble of testing. This is truly out of my area of expertise as I've never done anything with vacuum tubes other than building a Nixie clock. There may be some valuable ones in there but honestly I’d be happy to sell the whole unit as a lot for say $100. I definitely appreciate the input! - Bob Shuster

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VCF Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee Nominations
by Jeff Salzman 03 Sep '26

03 Sep '26

Members of the VCF MidAtlantic Mailing List, Another year has passed by, and it's time for the VCF-MA annual Steering Committee elections There are currently four seats becoming vacant. Jeff Salzman, Dave McGuire, Doug Crawford, and Ian Litchfield have either reached the end of their appointed terms or have resigned. Nominations to fill those positions are now open. The election will be held according to sections 4 and 5 of our published by-laws, listed at the end of this email and linked below. https://vcfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VCFMA-Charter-Jul2022.pdf) Anyone who directly receives this message and has been a member of the VCF Mailing List for at least 30 days is eligible to vote. There is no 30-day restriction to mailing list membership to be nominated as a candidate. Current members of the mailing list in good standing are eligible to submit nominations for Committee member candidates. Nominations can be made by simply communicating the nomination via e-mail to a current Committee member: Thomas Gilinsky - thomas.gilinsky(a)vcfed.org, Dave McGuire - dave.mcguire(a)vcfed.org, Douglas Crawford - douglas.crawford(a)vcfed.org, Ian Litchfield - ian.litchfield(a)vcfed.org, or Jeff Salzman - jeff.salzman(a)vcf.org) Members of the mailing list may also self-nominate. To be eligible for the election, the prospective nominee must then accept the nomination by replying in the affirmative to the nomination email. One nomination per member can be made. Nominations will close on November 23nd at 11:59PM. An updated list of eligible nominees will be published regularly. Nominees are also encouraged to provide a position statement, which will be posted to the VCF-MA website for prospective voters to read. Voting will commence on November 30th, and will close at 11:59pm on December 13. Winners will be announced on December 14 during the Town hall event at our annual VCF Holiday celebration. Thank you, Jeff Salzman Chairman - VCF-MA Steering Committee ---------------------------------------- 4. COMMITTEE ELECTIONS Steering committee membership includes representation of VCF membership, as determined by the VCF governing board and VCF-MA sponsored elections. - The committee membership will be determined by elections to be held on a yearly basis (currently November). - Committee membership is ideally comprised of five people but may vary due to changing circumstances. Any committee vote to determine an increase in committee members shall be held within six months after a new election cycle. - A minimum of one seat will be up for election in every cycle, unless additional vacancies create the need for additional seats to be filled, in which case all vacant seats will be up for election in that cycle. - In the event of a tie, a two-week runoff election will be held. - If a tie still exists after the runoff, the non-running committee members will determine a winner. - In the event of a committee tie, the current chairperson or chair delegate will determine the winner. - Nominations for committee members can be made by current members in good standing simply by communicating the nomination to a committee member. One nomination per member can be made. Said members may also self-nominate. - In the case of off-cycle vacancies, the committee may move, without a public election, to appoint by simple majority vote new committee members to fill the seats until the next scheduled election. - A committee chairperson will be appointed by the committee members within 30 days of each completed election cycle. At that time a recording secretary will be selected. - Prospective committee members should be knowledgeable in some aspect of computing, preferably vintage computers, and show a demonstrated interest in vintage computing, computing history, and museum management and governance. - In order to be sufficiently aware and have proper perspective of museum and warehouse issues, prospective committee members should be able to physically attend VCF events at least quarterly and attend meetings regularly. 5. VCF MEMBERSHIP VCF general membership is open and granted to anyone who joins the mailing list. Voting rights will be granted to active list members who join no less than 30 days before an election.

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Re: Possibly OT: vintage vacuum tubes question
by Bob Shuster 03 Sep '26

03 Sep '26

Hopefully I can post a link, but I finally got around to laying out the tubes and taking some photos (link below.) Any interest? I’m near the Fort Washington Exit of the PA Turnpike - just outside of the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. There are 166 tubes in total, 8 are boxed, plus clips, sleeves, and sockets, plus a boxed Series 200 Relay Coil Assembly. - Bob Shuster https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14eD4bBqvaYx5AgVcnEKYGIePCNHwJlOa?us… > On Sun, Aug 9, 2026 at 12:53 PM Bob Shuster via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >> In going through my FIL’s things I came across a box with a few hundred >> vacuum tubes, most just loose in the box. For reference, my FIL was a PhD >> electrical engineer who worked at RCA - on NASA and other projects - but >> also liked to build his own speakers and amplifiers. I do not have a tester >> and in fact my electrical knowledge starts with transistors. I don’t want >> to give these away - I’m sure he spent hundreds if not more on them - but I >> also don’t want to go through the process of packing them all for shipping. >> There are some monster 13cm x 5cm tubes down to smaller c. 5cm tubes. I >> will lay them out and take photos and try to do some ID, but does anyone >> have any thoughts on these - or perhaps any interest? >> >> - Bob Shuster

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Re: Possibly OT: vintage vacuum tubes question
by Sentrytv 03 Sep '26

03 Sep '26

Bob If those were transistors from the 50’s, I would be interested. Maybe you have some of those ? Since the tubes are loose and not boxed, there may be a few that are new and in good condition. But most are average tubes. Personally, I would not be interested in the tubes, sorry. Mike Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > On Sep 2, 2026, at 9:38 PM, Bob Shuster via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Hopefully I can post a link, but I finally got around to laying out the tubes and taking some photos (link below.) Any interest? I’m near the Fort Washington Exit of the PA Turnpike - just outside of the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. There are 166 tubes in total, 8 are boxed, plus clips, sleeves, and sockets, plus a boxed Series 200 Relay Coil Assembly. > > - Bob Shuster > > https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14eD4bBqvaYx5AgVcnEKYGIePCNHwJlOa?us… > >> On Sun, Aug 9, 2026 at 12:53 PM Bob Shuster via vcf-midatlantic < >> vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: >> >>> In going through my FIL’s things I came across a box with a few hundred >>> vacuum tubes, most just loose in the box. For reference, my FIL was a PhD >>> electrical engineer who worked at RCA - on NASA and other projects - but >>> also liked to build his own speakers and amplifiers. I do not have a tester >>> and in fact my electrical knowledge starts with transistors. I don’t want >>> to give these away - I’m sure he spent hundreds if not more on them - but I >>> also don’t want to go through the process of packing them all for shipping. >>> There are some monster 13cm x 5cm tubes down to smaller c. 5cm tubes. I >>> will lay them out and take photos and try to do some ID, but does anyone >>> have any thoughts on these - or perhaps any interest? >>> - Bob Shuster

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September 2026 Workshop
by Jeff Salzman 03 Sep '26

03 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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RCA 2020 tube
by daveyk021＠gmail.com 02 Sep '26

02 Sep '26

Someone asked me if I could locate some tube for him, an RCA 2020 tube. It is a Photo Multiplier Tube. I really do not know where to ask. This is Vintage, but I doubt an VT Computer used one, but one never knows -lol. If anyone has a forum suggestion, please give it. Thank you, kindly, * Dave

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Cray supercomputer dollar coin, coming soon!
by Jeffrey Jonas 01 Sep '26

01 Sep '26

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/invention-featured-wisconsins-american-… NJ's coin continues Thomas Edison's PR campaign for the light bulb :-( https://www.usmint.gov/american-innovation-2019-1-reverse-proof-coin-new-je…

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VCF Swap Meet Oct. 17
by Jeffrey Brace 31 Aug '26

31 Aug '26

https://vcfed.org/vcf-swap-meet/ Signup for vendors: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXtLdCVrP3NOj7vPiSrCqlBBh8fQAJE7k… We are having it again in Brookdale's parking lot. Jeff Brace

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