.AU Retro Computer Cult

[vk4akp]

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know that I am in Qld Australia area and am very interested in the Vintage Computer scene.

I grew up in the Apple II and Commodore era.

As a kid I used to ride the old pushbike into town to marvel at Tandy's TRS80 Model III computers with the big 8" disk Drives.

My First computer was a Vic 20, But before this I used Apple IIe 's at my High School.

I ended up working some 5-10 years for a local CBM outlet before CBM unfortunalty went down. They were the best years of my life.

My Current collection consists of Vic-20, C64, A1000, A3000, A600HD, A500, DSE Cat (Apple IIe clone), Tandy 100 's, different drives and other paraphernalia. I have many Disks from these platforms and I hope to archive and share them with others through the Catweasel project. (My Catweasel Mk4 Plus is on it's way as I speak from UK).

In the more modern day arena I am playing with Sabayon Linux (Gentoo) and Asterisk doing some Phone PBX and Amateur radio Voip stuff, with the hope of also doing some web server pages at some point as well.

I also have a keen interest in the Holden Starfire 1.9ltr 4 cyl motor (Retro Holden) and alternative energy among other things.

I am currently searching for a nice set of 8" dual drives to help me with my archiving.

I hope to hear from other Retro enthusiasts in my area and further abroad.

~ Ken - vk4akp ~
.-.-.

 

[wmmullaney]

Welcome, Ken! Nice collection you have there.

 

[Druid6900]

Welcome indeed.

I think you meant the Model II with the 8 inch drives.

I'm thinking of parting out some of my Tandy business machines, so, although I'll have a pair of Tandon 8" slimline drives, the shipping cost alone would probably make you pass on it, let alone the cost of them.

 

[vk4akp]

Giday!

Giday!

Hi,

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I never got a reply bump via email.

As for the 8" drives. It never hurts to give me some figures / estimates.

Its sad to see these big machines parted out. But who can store them these days?

I had an old Colour machine that had dual 8" drives. I made the wrong decision a decade ago and stripped mine down.

I often look at the steppers I kept and hate myself for it. :|

Oh well. Catweasel should arrive soon. So I'll be playing with 5.25" disks in the mean time.

.-.-.

 

[Yzzerdd]

Welcome! Very nice collection, indeed! I see you really like Commodore's. I can understand, though, seems you worked at a CBM outlet. I bet that was pretty cool.

I like to mess with Linux, as well.

Druid: Don't part them out unless they dont work! I've been looking in to getting a Tandy business machine!!!

Once again, welcome to the forums. So is the cult like a suicide one?

--Jack

 

[Druid6900]

@vk4akp

Well, these drives are out of a Model 12 that has an intermitent motherboard problem that I have been playing around with for a few months, without success. Seems that you have to turn it on, wait 5 minutes and then hit the reset button to bring it up correctly. After that, it works fine until you turn it off for a while and then you have to do it again. A minor annoyance, but, I don't sell things that don't work perfectly. The drives, however, according to the Tandy II/12/16/16B/6K diagnostics, work flawlessly. Next time I'm down in that workshop, I'll pull the drives and frame and weigh it up.

@Yzzerdd

Not to worry, I also have a 16A and a 16BHD that I can get going.

I'm considering parting out all the complete computers I have because I'm finding that I sell a HELL of a lot more parts through my site than I do whole machines. The idea is to move this stuff out, not have it sitting around on shelving units.