Happy 1991! The turn of the decade certainly has heralded many changes. 1991 sure started out with a bang, Desert Storm and all, but one small shocker was a phone call from Bob Swoger after he read a letter I wrote to CCATS in OREGON. He asked for a disk with my letter to CCATS on it and here is a portion of that letter:
To: CLACKAMAS COUNTY AREA
T/S USERS GROUP
Dear T/Sers,
Is there a SNUG? That depends upon what you call it. I talked to Paul Holgren and the next issue (is it #3) is about ready to be mailed. I got a firm promise of that before the next meeting of ISTUG (March 30th) but also at the last meeting I got assurances it would be mailed within two weeks.
I assure you it does me no good as an editor not knowing when it will get published and mailed so that I will know what material was used in the issue so that I can lay out the next issue. I do have the material for the next few issues and some material of my own to include.
This is not by my design but what has been given to me, I do not have the list of addresses of members or I would have dug into my pocket and gotten something out. For some reason they or Paul wants to retain the control of the printing and mailing. And Paul is 155 miles away and letters go unanswered and telephone calls get expensive. They requested me to be SNUG newsletter editor last November and so far not much has been done. That seems typical of SNUG.
If I had the information to be able to mail out to the SNUG members, something would have been done, at least by last Christmas. Nothing fancy but at least let everyone know that SNUG was still around. Several times I almost gave up but I keep thinking that it will get going. I hope that it will before all the T/Sers leave the fold.
Rumors and hints of a pending election of SNUG officers means maybe someone can be elected to get this going. I will admit that I am not a political animal but more of a doer and maybe that is what is needed. Of course, if I were an officer I might antagonize some members but that would be better than what is going on now.
About elections, I would accept an office, I don’t know the duties of any but I would not turn down any. But I would want to continue the SNUG newsletter if at all possible unless someone with better qualifications comes along. It will be a thankless job I know but if anyone sends me material the newsletter will continue.
Look not only at a persons ability but also at their ability to devote time to it. Nominate someone that will work at it, not a name that just hasn’t time to do it. By default you are almost looking at retired people to do the necessary work. But also most retired people have their time well scheduled and want to do other things too. For example, Bill Jones of UPDATE. I am proud to have known him even if it was by telephone and letters only.
As far as my abilities with the T/S computers, I am still in the beginners stage in many ways. I will admit that since I have attended the ISTUG meetings beginning back in October (I missed the January meeting, swap meet too) I have learned so much more. Not what I would go to the meetings to find out but what was there to learn and what the others wanted to explain. I still have problems but I am further along than before I moved into ISTUG territory.
I only work with the ZX80, ZX81, T/S1000, T/S1500 and the the T/S2068. I do have one T/S2068 with the SPECTRUM ROM but I have not used it. When I feel that I have learned the T/S2068 I will be ready for the SPECTRUM. Since the QL and the Z88 do not use the same language I am not interested in them. At present, the only time I would want to have a QL is when I need to copy an EPROM.
I have much hardware for the above computers and lately, March 2nd, I performed a marriage and now have the LarKen/Oliger disk systems [SUPER DOS] running on my working T/S2068 computer. I did not do the complete hardware modification of the LarKen dock board since I did not bend out pin 1 of the 74HCT74 chip on the OLIGER SAFE board and tie it to pin 14 so that I could power up with both interfaces active without the computer freezing up as suggested by Larry Kenny. The only problem is that I cannot LOAD my Oliger version of MSCRIPT V5.5 with the LarKen board enabled. If I do and I try to LOAD a file the computer does a NEW! A quirk I can live with since I an now aware of it. The reason I did not bend out pin 1 is that the chip is soldered in.
On the ZX81 I am trying to get an AERCO disk interface working with double sided 40 track drives. The used system that I have has one single sided 35 track drive and the docs confirm that it was from the days of 8 inch drives and when the first 5 1/4″ drives were single sided 35 track and quite likely single density since the software asks when you FORMAT if it is single or double density. Changing drives requires a new interface EPROM. AERCO still makes the system and supplies the EPROMs. I have the LarKen ZX81 disk system but to SAVE a program that has machine code in it you have to POKE the start address and the length of the code and I do not know how to find that out.
On the T/S2068 I have been transferring my LarKen MSCRIPT files to Oliger by way of a cassette version of MSCRIPT V5.0 which I converted to LOAD LarKen and to SAVE Oliger. That does beat SAVEing to cassette and reLOADing to the other version of MSCRIPT which I did a few times before I got the LarKen/Oliger marriage performed.
Anyone with comments to send in to SNUG please do this, ask for help, got something to sell, want to buy something, got a problem, got a solution to a problem you have had. Anything at all about any of the T/S computers including the clone of the ZX81, the PC8300 (or IQ8300).
If you write and want an answer please use a LSASE so that I do not have to dip into my allowance to reply. My postage bill is high enough and the new rate does eat into my allowance even more. Can’t believe how fast the stamps go, I buy them about 40 at a whack and it seems like I have to do it more than once a month. Same with telephone calls, I am willing to talk anytime except that my wife when she is home does like to have me do other things. . . . .
Bob Swoger is the Editor for the Glenside Color Computer Club, the Chicago Area Timex Users Group, and both President and Editor of the Motorola MicroComputer Club in Illinois. He suggested that I take the bull by the horns and become the chairman of a new group that would do what SNUG was supposed to do. Now, Bob is some kind of salesman and he feels that we will get the backing of the T/S community if I accept this chairmanship and we, the T/S community, break loose from SNUG and ‘RUN WITH IT’ so to speak. OK, I am willing to give it a try.
I will need your help, I can’t do it alone, but I assure you that when I say that the Timex/Sinclair NorthAmerican Users Group is going to be moving forward in innovative software, user support, and product assistance; you are not hearing the rumblings of a madman nor the visions of a lunatic. You are hearing the convictions of one who knows the binding power of this fellowship, and the collective desire to ‘help the person next to me’.
Don Lambert, Chairman
Timex/Sinclair NorthAmerican
User Groups