Winter Doldrums, Rumors Mark Current QL Scene

QL industry report for early 1986: steady trickle of QL sales; CompuServe conference active; Tom Bent (SyncWare News) argues QL superior to Atari ST with comparable investment; Sinclair US reportedly not answering phones; Mark Fendrick hints at improved US distribution deal. Miracle Systems Modaptor with QCODE terminal software enables RS-232 modem use up to 1200 baud; QCODE v4.0 allows saving incoming data directly to microdrive. Microdrive reliability assessed as good. SuperBASIC string slicing and LET coercion differences from ZX81/2068 BASIC discussed.