[HECnet] punched tape

[Brett Bump]

On Sat, 20 Apr 2013, Dave McGuire wrote:

On 04/20/2013 08:40 AM, Brett Bump wrote:
Oooold people. ;-)   I was still in high school at that time.   My introduction
to a paper-tape device came about 4 years later (in college) when my physics
prof and I put together a Heathkit H-11 (PDP-11/03 really) that had the
nastiest paper-tape device ever created by man.   I think we could get it to
load maybe 1 time out of 20. We then got the 8 inch floppy drive functional
and I think the paper-tape device was relagated to the trash heap.

Ah, bet he's kickin' himself now!   I'd easily drop $1K for one of those,
and the few that have hit the market recently have gone for more than that.

$1000.00?   For this?:

http://ns1758.ca/winch/heathkit0029.jpg

It was a nightmare. lol   And the box containing the 11/03 wasn't much
better.   Except for the dust, our H-11 looked exactly like this one:

http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/heath11.jpg

And you haven't had joy in your life until you've put together and tried
to type on that tinker-toy Heathkit terminal (clickity-klackity).   Don't
forget you can't delete characters by using backspace, you use rubout:

http://www.thepcmuseum.net/comp_images/photo_HeathkitH89_02.JPG

I "DID" like that 8" drive however as it would format floppies. ;-)

The DEC paper-tape drive on the other hand, worked like a dream.   It
is probably worth the $1k+ to get it:

http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~djg/htdocs/pc04/frontasmb.jpg

The 8-inch
floppy drives ran the Heath branded RT-11 V02.

Ahh, the Heath BASTARDIZED RT-11. ;)

About a year later was when our resident math guru (Name Drop) Keith Olson
moved to Montana and handed us the keys to the PDP-11/20. We actually USED
the paper-tape device on that machine (because it REALLY worked).   I loved
making my assembler students load an absolute loader, EDIT-11, MARCO-11,
LINK-11 and have them paper-tape punch out ONE of their project, if for no
other reason then to show them how nice having a disk operating system was.
I still have digital copies of the DEC paper-tape software,

Neat!

but sadly after I
left the college, I was told the paper-tape was tossed in the trash and the
PDP-11's (11/20, 2 11/45's and a 11/70) were disected for the cabinets and
power distribution supplies (sad).

SUITS!

                                -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA