[vcf-midatlantic] Your First Modem? (was: Help me remember my first modem)

[Brad Kuhl]

Speaking of running up phone bills, does anyone remember PC Pursuit?  I used to use that to get around long distance and dial around the country.  Worked good in the 300/1200 baud days, but fell down as speeds went up.

Brad Kuhl
-BradEK at GMail.com
-Brad at Kuhls.us

> On Dec 28, 2021, at 3:37 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> 
> On 12/28/21 11:28 AM, W2HX via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>> What was your first modem? Mine was a kit from Micromint in Long Island. It was around 1980 or so (I was about 13). My dad drove me to Cedarhurst, LI (I lived in Merrick, LI) to the Micromint sales office and bought this kit. It was an acoustic coupler, 300 baud kit, with an enclosure, a PCB and a bag of parts. I had low expectations that it would work when assembled. I spent a few days assembling and soldering everything. I think the time was around Christmas and my new brother-in-law was over. He was a post-grad at university of Texas at Austin and had a computer account (don't recall the computer). It was time to test it. Me, my brother-in-law and my father were all standing around my TRS-80 Model III and this newly built modem, trying to call into the computer system at UT Austin. In those days, long distance calls were expensive. We must have dialed that computer 20 times while attempting to adjust the pots and make it work, unsure if it would ever work. I can't imagine what the bill was.
>> I was adjusting one of the pots and then, like a miracle, there it was "WELCOME TO THE UT AUSTIN COMPUTING CENTER" I can't swear that is exactly what it said but you get the idea. We all jumped for joy. The darn thing worked as advertised. Great experience and that modem served me well for several years until I upgraded to a Micromint 1200 baud "direct connect" modem before I went to college.
> 
>  Very cool indeed!
> 
>  Mine was a Livermore Data Systems model 71B 300-baud acoustic coupler.  Man did I run up some phone bills with that.  I still have it.
> 
>             -Dave
> 
> -- 
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA