The BYTE-BACK MD-68 Modem beat Anchor’s WESTRIDGE 2050 to the market place and therefore was the first modem used on my TS2068. It has some interesting features not found on the TS2050. The ability to receive BASIC programs from non-TS2068 computers in such a way as to allow the editing of these programs into working TS2068 tokenized programs is the most outstanding feature of this modem package.
This unique ability is provided by Spectrasoft’s SpectraTERM V1.3 software. When the receive buffer is open, the REM transfer mode is in effect, and a line number between 1 and 255 along with a REM token is placed in front of each downloaded line. One need only edit each line starting at the bottom and the program can be turned into TS2068 BASIC. This one feature alone made it an important device to have on hand in my computer room.
A built-in RS232 port for the printer or even another (read faster) modem, is another feature of the BYTE-BACK modem. One day in the future I might try to use the serial port to run a Terminal Node Controller for Amateur Radio Packet communications. The software for printer operation from that port is not provided.
The ad for this modem can be found elsewhere in this newsletter. Make Dave an offer if you don’t have one of these fine modem packages.
Below is a LarKen driver for SpectraTERM.
SPCTRA.B1
10 CLEAR VAL "61183": LET h=C
ODE "d": PRINT "SpectraTERM 1.3
0"
20 PRINT "© 1984, Spectrasoft
Inc."
40 PRINT "Licensed to Byte-Ba
ck Co."
60 PRINT ,,"Program loading.
."
80 RANDOMIZE USR h: LOAD "spc
tra.C1"CODE
110 CLS : PRINT "%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%"''"0) EXIT"
''"1) ENTER SpectraTERM"''"2) R
ETURN TO SpectraTERM"''"3) CLEA
R BUFFER & RETURN "''"4) SAVE S
pectraTERM"''"5) STOP AND ENTER
BASIC"''"%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%"''" RANDOMIZE USR 61
184";TAB 43;" CLEAR BUFFER & RE
TURN "''" RANDOMIZE USR 61187";
TAB 43;"RETURN TO SpectraTERM"
120 INPUT "Enter selection >";
A
130 IF A>5 THEN GO TO VAL"110"
140 GO TO VAL "200+(10*A)"
200 GO TO 9998
220 RANDOMIZE USR VAL "61187"
222 GO TO 110
230 RANDOMIZE USR VAL "61184"
232 GO TO 110
240 GO TO 9990
250 STOP : GO TO 110
9992 RANDOMIZE USR h: SAVE "SPC
TRA.B1" LINE PI
9993 RANDOMIZE USR h: SAVE
"spctra.C1"CODE VAL "61184",VAL
"3241"
9994 GO TO 110
9998 RANDOMIZE USR h: LOAD "L.B
1"