Tandy 6000 Power Supply Replacement

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Aug 162020
 
Tandy 6000 Power Supply Replacement

I bought this Tandy 6000 computer system back in 2013. It’s the last model in the Tandy/TRS-80 model II/12/16/6000 series. It would not power up, and I began an on-again/off-again project of fixing its power supply spanning over several years while being distracted by all sorts of other shiny objects. I ended up temporarily (?) replacing its power supply with a modern generic power supply in 2018. This is a summary of what I did, in case it might inspire other owners of the Tandy/Radio Shack business computer system line.

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AN/TGC-14A(V) Mite Teletypewriter

 Radio Room  3 Responses »
Apr 082020
 
AN/TGC-14A(V) Mite Teletypewriter

I got this AN/TGC-14A(V) Mite Teletypewriter at the 2019 Military Radio Collectors Group meeting. One of these days, I plan to mate it up with an AN/PRC-47 transceiver and CV-2455 converter to make an RTTY set like Dave Ross N7EPI (SK) used to operate at MRCG events. I think that his Mite was one of the rare as hen’s teeth models that was configured to be powered by 28 VDC. Mine is configured to be powered by 115 VAC 400 Hz, which is going to be a lot less convenient to produce… but at least it’ll be a power source which can also directly power the AN/PRC-47 set.

This Mite has a single external 12-pin connector. I believe that its connector is Amphenol part number 165-11, and the mating connector for it would be Amphenol part number 165-10. I don’t have any cables or mating connectors for it yet, and I don’t know if it works yet, either.

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Meet My New Money Pit

 Motor Pool  13 Responses »
Apr 272019
 
Meet My New Money Pit

Say hello to my new money pit… a 1989 Allegro M-28 Basement model RV made by Tiffin Motor Homes! At least I think that’s the model… it’s not marked anywhere I can find on the RV, and I have not yet gotten my grubby fingers on any old Tiffin brochures from that era.

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What’s This HF Digital Mode? (Spoiler: It’s FT8)

 Radio Room  1 Response »
Feb 112018
 
What's This HF Digital Mode? (Spoiler: It's FT8)

At the moment, I’m hearing a whole bunch of traffic around 14.074 MHz in a digital mode that I don’t recognize. I haven’t been able to get intelligible text out of fldigi from this yet. From the amount of traffic, I wonder if this might be some sort of contest activity. Can anybody provide a hint about what this mode is?

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Audio Frequency Monitor AN/PTA-1

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May 142017
 
Audio Frequency Monitor AN/PTA-1

At the 22nd annual Military Radio Collectors Group meet in San Luis Obispo, CA, I gave a presentation on an interesting piece of equipment called Audio Frequency Monitor AN/PTA-1. This set allows wiretapping of both two-wire and ground-return field telephone lines, using several different intrusive and non-intrusive coupling methods.

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Backhoe Alignment, and A Simple Upgrade

 Motor Pool  Comments Off on Backhoe Alignment, and A Simple Upgrade
Apr 302017
 
Backhoe Alignment, and A Simple Upgrade

I discovered an issue with the alignment between the backhoe and its subframe on my tractor, which is getting it a free vacation at the dealer’s shop so they can take a look at it. I’ve also made a simple little upgrade to the implement height adjust lever stop.

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Canadian CRT-1/CPRC-26 Radio

 Radio Room  41 Responses »
Nov 062016
 
Canadian CRT-1/CPRC-26 Radio

I found this 1950s-era Canadian military radio in an online Goodwill auction, of all places. It is missing its whip antenna, but a friend in Australia is helping me out with that. This one may be tricky to repair if it doesn’t already work, because all but one of the vacuum tubes are hermetically sealed into individual metal cans. The modular construction made these easy to repair in service, but I don’t have a stock of spare modules to draw from. Updated 2020-09-15: Added manual scans.

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My First Teletype Model 28

 Radio Room  4 Responses »
Nov 052016
 
My First Teletype Model 28

Thanks to David Reid W6KL, I now have my first Teletype Model 28! I’ve had a number of Teletype Model 33 machines over the years, but this is my first 28. I’ve always been impressed with the 28 machines I’ve encountered at Military Radio Collectors Group meets, so I’m happy to finally add one to my collection. This one was owned by Al Tipsword W6GER (SK) before David adopted it.

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An S-100 Computer Chassis

 Computer Room  2 Responses »
Oct 162016
 
An S-100 Computer Chassis

A friend of mine just brought me this old rack-mount chassis containing two " half height floppy drives. It turned out to be much nicer than just a box with a couple of floppy drives inside: It also contains a 7-slot S-100 bus backplane! So, now this begins my quest to acquire a set of S-100 cards to turn this back into a working computer.

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Retrochallenge 2016/10: Convert a DEC RL02 into a Ginormous USB Hard Drive

 Computer Room  Comments Off on Retrochallenge 2016/10: Convert a DEC RL02 into a Ginormous USB Hard Drive
Oct 012016
 
Retrochallenge 2016/10: Convert a DEC RL02 into a Ginormous USB Hard Drive

I have decided to participate in Retrochallenge 2016/10, which is pretty much an excuse to spend the month of October working on a retrocomputing project. Ok, let’s be serious: That doesn’t really make October much different than the preceding or following months for a lot of us retrocomputing enthusiasts. But this month, it’s official!

I’m taking on an ambitious project which will almost certainly remain unfinished at the end of the month: Converting a DEC RL02 into a ginormous USB hard drive, so I can use it for imaging and writing RL02 packs!

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