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

Wed Dec 29 14:09:31 UTC 2021

I had a Practical Peripherals 1200 baud ISA modem in my DeskPro/386 and a Modem 1200 on my Fat
Mac. That was 1985. The Mac Modem cost $495 if I remember correctly.

http://cini.classiccmp.org/
Long Island S100 User’s Group

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________________________________
From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces at lists.vcfed.org> on behalf of John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2021 9:05:04 AM
To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org>
Cc: John Heritage <john.heritage at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Your First Modem? (was: Help me remember my first modem)

Ok you started with a Cadillac modem then :)

On Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:07 PM Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> With my own money a Courier 33.6
>
> On Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 10:05 PM Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic <
> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
>
> >
> > Multitech Multimodem 224E on Tandy 1000sx.
> >
> > I'm not sure if finding BBS systems helped me in life or hurt me tho :-)
> >
> > Still good friends with people I met on those things 30+ years ago.
> >
> >                 - Ethan
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 28 Dec 2021, 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 t
> >  he 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.
> > >
> > > 73 Eugene W2HX
> > > Subscribe to my Youtube Channel:
> > https://www.youtube.com/c/w2hx-channel/videos
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces at lists.vcfed.org> On
> > Behalf Of Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic
> > > Sent: Friday, December 24, 2021 10:29 PM
> > > To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org>
> > > Cc: Neil Cherry <ncherry at linuxha.com>
> > > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help me remember my first modem
> > >
> > > 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 at linuxha.com
> > > http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
> > > http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
> > > Author of:            Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
> > >
> >
>