ZX-81/TS-1000 Add-Ons
Timex-Sinclair computer users get a boost from Bob Howard WADLI of West Covina, California. He tells us that he was anxious to mention that in the September issue of 73’s RTTY Loop, the answer to VEGY’s question about the TS-1000 was right there, under the ZX-81 banner.
“You see, Timex manufactured the ZX-81 for Sinclair and when they decided to market it in the U.S. under the Timex label as a TS-1000, they only added 1K to the memory to make it 2K RAM plus the 8K ROM. When either the ZX-81 or the TS-1000 is expanded to 16K, it is the same as the other machine in all respects. The TS- 1500 is an improved TS-1000 with movable keys and a built-in 16K memory. The TS-2068 from Timex is the Sinclair Spectrum of England with improvements. With a Spectrum ROM in the cartridge dock or switched internally, a TS-2068 runs the 6000 Spectrum programs.
“The English ham programs include the G1FTU no-interface RTTY program that just connects to your transceiver speaker and mike plugs and feeds the computer mike and ear jacks for the cassette recorder (program save feature). This really works and the program is excellent in features. G1FTU has CW and SSTV programs also. The SSTV is receive only, of course. These may be purchased from a Swedish ham: SM3HBQ d/b/a Chara Electronics, PO Box 119, S-813 00 Hofors, Sweden. The Sinclair net on the air and the newsletter for U.S. hams (from K5XY in Las Cruces, New Mexico) are called QZX. The West Coast net is Saturdays on 7.235 MHz at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. The East Coast QZX net is on Sundays at 1600 UTC on 7.245 MHz. The 20-meter net is 9 p.m. Eastern Time on 14.345 MHz.
“Adding an external keyboard to the ZX-81/TS-1000 makes it an excellent ham computer. It will have better logic than more expensive computers and can be found in garage sales for $10-35, often with memory packs and a TV thrown in. I use the ZX-81 on CW, and with a screen to read the code, I find I have never bothered to tune RTTY [Thanks…mil] as the effect is about the same but more contacts are available in the CW bands. The NU4V CW software and interface copies signals weaker than my Kantronics Mini-Reader.”
My thanks to Bob for this wealth of information on what may well class as one of the genuine bargains of the computer RTTY crowd. Ten bucks? Even I might spring for one at that price!