HAM-Radio TI-99/4A - HAM Radio (Hamsoft/Kantronics/MFJ Enterprises)

[Schmitzi]

Hi,

 

just to have a thread for the Hamsoft & Kantronics´ Radio solution for the TI-99/4A

here is a list (of course) and some pics of my stuff.

 

The parts I know about:

 

TI-99-4A-HAM-Radio-v1.00-beta.pdf

 

 

Ads from the HAM-Radio Magazine ´84 / ´85:

 

 

The manual:

 

hamsoft manual.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Opry99er]

Want...

[Schmitzi]

Have....

 

[digdugnate]

that's so awesome you have one of those! My grandpa had one in his 'radio room'.

[+Ksarul]

Have. . .although I have a different interface. Mine is "The Interface" as described in the Hamsoft manual.

[Schmitzi]

I think we need some pics

[Flottmann1]

here

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/MFJ-1224-RTTY-CW-COMPUTER-INTERFACE-MFJ-Enterprises-MFJ-1224-/232304775271?hash=item3616719067:g:BEgAAOSwol5YyeEJ

[Schmitzi]

wow, nice. I have a spare one of them, mint in the box

[Schmitzi]

HAM Radio Is Still Important

 

(klick da pic for article)

 

Backup of the article: Emergency Communications Driving Increase in Amateur Radio Operators.pdf

 

[mizapf]

... and when all IP networks will be surveyed, white-/blacklisted, and deepy inspected.

[Omega-TI]

I've been out of the hobby now for about a decade, but even then much of the hardware based TNC's and multi-mode controllers were giving way to sound card based units and having everything handled by the PC instead. Winpack was one popular program for packet radio. I knew quite a few guys who were using the Tigertronics USB soundcard unit. My TNC was the KPC-9612 and with it I could run two different frequencies at the same time with my V7A. I even had fun working the ISS in both digital and analog (voice modes).

 

Politics and the Internet helped to send packet to it's near demise. I'm not sure how much is going on these days other than mostly ARES/RACES activity and APRS.

 

Hobbies change over the years, but it was fun ride at the time.

[Schmitzi]

hmm, very interesting. I should have known decades before

[mister35mm]

G7VFY listening

[digdugnate]

I was AA5KP many years ago. My grandpa was AC5D and my dad was NX5Z.

[+Vorticon]

Had one for my C128D back in the 90's. I was able to connect my SW radio to it and read RTTY transmissions off the air... I did not know there was an interface made for the TI as well!

[Schmitzi]

I was ´TeddyBear14´ on my small(-range), 3-channel "hand-squeezy" :)

 

 

[ElectricLab]

Long time ham here. I have a handful of TNCs but never have hooked any of them to the TI although it'd be easy. I used to create programs to test myself on Morse code competency, and after I got my PEB in '86, the first thing I wrote since I now had "mass storage" was a logger program to keep track of my contacts. It was fun writing search algorithms that would crawl scan the disk for matches. Good times!

 

In '88 I got my first PC which was an 8088, and I made my own memory-mapped interface from which I could read the status of the output pin of an LM567 tone decoder to turn CW (Morse) to text. I'd feed the audio from my transceiver into this circuit and tune the R to be resonant to 800hz or so. Then I remember writing code in GWBASIC that could track the rise/fall of the tone decoder's output pin, convert it to mark/space in memory, then print the text on the screen. I still this interface card.

 

I've done lots with teletypes too, most recently with a Raspberry Pi bit-banging a relay to control a current loop. I also enjoy PSK31 as a low-speed, keyboard-to-keyboard protocol. Lots of operators there.

[+acadiel]

Does anyone have the manuals and software for this? Looking at possibly hooking that Kantronics RTTY unit up.

[+acadiel]

The one I have borrowed has software 2.0 on it. I see above you guys have 1.2 and 2.2.

 

Here's the 2.0 ROM.

 

I'm still looking for a manual and PSU specifications for "The Interface" by Kantronics. The sidecar doesn't need a PSU, but "The Interface" terminal unit does need one. Also need guidance on hooking it up to my shortwave so I can see if it still decodes RTTY and CW.

 

kantronics20.zip

[Schmitzi]

 

Just some more pics from the same stuff:

 

 

KANTRONICS CHALLENGER:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MFJ-1224:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAMSOFT TI-99-MFJ-1224-INTERFACE:

 

 

 

 

HAMSOFT TI-99-CHALLENGER-INTERFACE: (from eBay today)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+dhe]

kj4bdl and I'm a kantronics/hamsoft owner! 😃

[+acadiel]

K5JDG.  I have the sidecar thanks to Mark Little as well as a Terminal Unit (but I have no power supply for it.)  I haven't tried firing it up yet.

 

[+Vorticon]

I really need to bite the bullet and go for my ham license. I've been considering this for 3 decades! I even bought the AARL book from Radio Shack and still have it  Probably long outdated. I did do some RTTY receiving using the C128 at some point.

[Omega-TI]

Amateur Radio was one of the most expensive hobbies I ever had.  Radios for each car, one for the house, an HT for portable use, then there were the amplifiers, specialized antennas and rotor, meters, super expensive coax, power supplies, TNC's, software packages, dedicated computer, hell it never ended.  I let my license expire in 2005.  I still have some equipment laying around that I've yet to get rid of.  Honestly, I don't miss it anymore mainly because 95% of the people I used to chat with are silent keys now.

[+acadiel]

13 hours ago, Vorticon said:

I really need to bite the bullet and go for my ham license. I've been considering this for 3 decades! I even bought the AARL book from Radio Shack and still have it  Probably long outdated. I did do some RTTY receiving using the C128 at some point.

Free review of all the question pool:  http://arrlexamreview.appspot.com/

(Seriously, this is the ones they actually use...)