EDIT -the newsletter continues to grow as we try to squeeze as much as possible onto the six sheets of paper that the post office says we can mail for 22 cents. 6 sheets, if you did not know, is all we can mail, 1 more sheet and we have to add a 17 cent stamp! We do not have enough (about 110) to meet bulk mailing rates. Anyway, this revised format just adds two (2) full pages of text to your monthly newsletter! So read/enjoy!!
NEW – ads on pages 5 & 6 for “The English Micro Connection”
NEXT – meeting should be very exciting. If you’ve not been in [illegible]hile, stop by Wednesday night- Wes Brzozowski will bring in a newly arrived MICRODRIVE and INTERFACE ZERO (read pages 7 THRU 10 of this issue for the hardware details.) I have seen the microdrive in action, and it substantially increases the power of a TS2068. Being able to access very quickly other parts of a program or data or files you can do many things you can’t do now. It is more important than the pure decrease in the time it loads a program. TASWORD TWO in 15-20 seconds! So even if you are not hot for the 2068 I hope you’ll stop by because we can’t ask people to transport expensive equipment.So take advantage of Wes’ generosity and come and see this really neat addition to Sinclair computing. Thanks in advance, Wes.
THEN – don’t overlook Charlie Koeth’s part of the program -he has built a Speech Synthesizer (to go along with his clock) and he will be hauling that in for a demonstration. Hopefully there will be time to also demonstrate the telecommunications software package that Dave Schoenwetter has developed (see pg. 4). If not that will be on the schedule for the next meeting!
AND – if the above were not enough – the hardware class on Sat the 23rd (1 PM, Vestal Library!!!) will be a demonstration by Glenn Wilson on etching your own printed circuit board. Plus, a chance to review those initial soldering/wire wrapping fundamentals. If you think you might want to try an electronic project [even NOT computer related] stop by and let the experts help. I found the first class most informative- thanks Dennis [illegible]e for the good teaching job. It has helped me get a fresh [illegible]art on the printer interface designed by Dave Schoenwetter. I will keep at until it is DONE! John Sims had loaned me [many MANY months ago] his Aerco I/F so we could print SINCUS NEWS! He even bought one of the cases of printer paper last month!! So, John order your printer!!! Thanks, John – pick your Saturday night for one of Gary’s gourmet beef fondue dinners!! Thanks so very much!! #### SCROLL OF THE SCREEN TO JOHN SIMS!
FOR -the TS1000 folks [we really do want to keep you active in SINCUS meetings!] Wes Brzozowski has promised to bring in his design for his keyboard that just plugs into the ZX81/TS1000. Noone has had enough time to verify how hard hooking the $2.95 keyboard [see pg 2 Paul Hill’s column] will be.
COPY – any programs submitted to newsletter onto tape, PLEASE! I appreciate your efforts, but believe me I do not have any spare time to type in code. I have both TS2068s and TS1000/ZX81s so I will try your program if it is on tape. It will help me a great deal, so thanks in advance.
INPUT – again from John Colonna [see page 11], plus a program that was too big for newsletter-I’ll demo at meeting.
IF – calling me at home, expect my modem to answer!!!!
CONTINUE – to try to use CLONE and report the results. Wes has told me that he thinks it is a timing problem in the SAVE! He would like as much information as possible, so please try real programs of some size-the larger the program the more likely a problem may occur. The test is seeing if the “copy” loads OK.
FORMAT – for the back issues of SINCUS NEWS has been arranged for. Many thanks to Paul Hill who took time out from painting his kitchen to edit/format all back articles to 64 character columns and set them up on VU FILE not to mention the color coded labelling of the cassette cases!! A great job, Paul. Now we will continue to proceed in printing out the articles, some will be reedited and typos corrected. We want to arrange them by broad topics-ZX81/TS1000, hardware, reviews, etc. We will then formulate a projected “Sale Price” of producing them. I would ask a couple more people to step forward and help with the physical printing of the articles-using TASWORD and my printer. So, please be patient, this will be worth it!!
AT the April meeting we will be nominating for elections to be held at the May meeting, so have candidates in mind. We will try to keep the business part as brief as possible.
OVER the past two years we have published various listings of programs and routines. How about a couple members type in the code and save it to tape, and we’ll produce a couple tapes of the things that have been listed in the newsletter.
SEE YOU AT THE MEETING ON THE 20th – THINK SPRING!!
GARY ENNIS, SINCUS
EDITOR – SINCUS NEWS