On 12/24/21 9:22 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I'm trying to find a picture of my first modem online, and can't seem to find one..
I remember my first modem (I was ~ 7 years old or ~ 1983-1984 when we first got it, but had it for years later) being a 300 baud "Bell" modem. I *believe* it had an acoustic coupler, but it *might but I do not remember needing to use it to initiate connections to BBSes at the time. I'm not sure if there were hybrid modems where they still had an acoustic coupler, but also supported auto dial of some kind.
My memory also tells me it was a black modem, rectangular (metal?) exterior. I think the modem might have said "Bell Labs" rather than just Bell on the front. I'm also 95% sure that the modem .. disappeared .. from Bell thanks to a family member who worked there/at AT&T (and also was an Atari 800 owner like us). We attached this modem (and later modems) to an Atari 850 interface, so it had a standard serial interface.
Lastly, I'm certain it was *not* a Bell 103 modem - which would have been positively ancient by the early 80s, but some other design from Bell. Or at least not an original appearance one..
I recall the Bell 300 modem (non-acoustic coupled). It had a AT&T Bell logo on the front. So either Commsphere or Dataphone, probably Dataphone. I think it had 103 on the front. Black plastic front, rest of it was metal and an external 48v DC power brick, 2 screws on the brick. I can't recall if the modem had screws or was hard wired. I do recall a DB25, male I think. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies