---
title: "2026 Vintage Computer Fair SouthWest"
id: 70722
type: "event"
slug: "2026-vintage-computer-fair-southwest"
url: "http://localhost/event/2026-vintage-computer-fair-southwest/"
markdown_url: "http://localhost/event/2026-vintage-computer-fair-southwest.md"
published_at: "2026-08-23T00:33:44+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-08-23T00:35:50+00:00"
author: "David Anderson"
featured_image:
  url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/jeff-kuhlmann-vcfsw-2026.jpeg"
excerpt: "Jeff at his table. VCF Southwest ran May 29–31 at the Westin DFW Airport in Irving, Texas, across multiple show halls. Jeff Kuhlmann held a Timex/Sinclair table for all three days, with his friend Joseph helping. The anchor of Jeff's display was a TS1000 running on a small black and white television. The machine had…"
category:
  - name: "Event"
    slug: "event"
    taxonomy: "category"
    url: "http://localhost/category/event/"
post_tag:
  - name: "Computer Fairs"
    slug: "computer-fairs"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/computer-fairs/"
  - name: "Handmade Software"
    slug: "handmade-software"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/handmade-software/"
  - name: "TS 1000"
    slug: "ts1000"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/ts1000/"
  - name: "TS 2068"
    slug: "ts2068"
    taxonomy: "post_tag"
    url: "http://localhost/tag/ts2068/"
model:
  - name: "Timex/Sinclair 1000"
    slug: "ts-1000"
    taxonomy: "model"
    url: "http://localhost/model/ts-1000/"
  - name: "Timex/Sinclair 2068"
    slug: "ts-2068"
    taxonomy: "model"
    url: "http://localhost/model/ts-2068/"
indiv:
  - name: "David Spinnett"
    slug: "david-spinnett"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/david-spinnett/"
  - name: "Jeffrey Kuhlmann"
    slug: "jeffrey-kuhlmann"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/jeffrey-kuhlmann/"
event_date: "29/05/2026"
location: "Irving, Texas"
---

# 2026 Vintage Computer Fair SouthWest

[![Image](http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/jeff-kuhlmann-vcfsw-2026-768x1024.jpeg)](http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/jeff-kuhlmann-vcfsw-2026.jpeg)Jeff at his table.

VCF Southwest ran May 29–31 at the Westin DFW Airport in Irving, Texas, across multiple show halls. [Jeff Kuhlmann](http://localhost/indiv/jeffrey-kuhlmann/) held a Timex/Sinclair table for all three days, with his friend Joseph helping.

The anchor of Jeff’s display was a TS1000 running on a small black and white television. The machine had a [Zebra Systems](http://localhost/company/zebra-systems/) replacement keyboard, and Jeff gave the company repeated shoutouts for it. He kept his original TS1000 keyboard on the table with its cracked ribbon traces visible, as a demonstration of what happens over forty years and how straightforward the replacement is. The RAM pack wobble came up more than once.

Jeff displayed a copy of *[Applied Sinclair: Subroutines for the Mathematically-Minded](http://localhost/book/applied-sinclair-subroutines-for-the-mathematically-minded/)*. One visitor typed in one of the early math programs and was astonished at the patience the machine demands. Several people were surprised that a book of advanced math routines for the TS1000 existed at all.

The [Timex 2000 preliminary design drawings](http://localhost/indiv/gary-grimes/) turned out to be the strongest conversation starter on the table. A former Texas Instruments employee stopped to talk about TI’s design team, their sketches and mock-ups, and which other companies had industrial design groups at the time. He understood immediately why Timex would have wanted to learn from TI.

A [Jupiter Ace](http://localhost/tag/jupiter-ace/) emulator running on a TS2068 pulled in people interested in FORTH, including several who came at it through embedded FORTH in computer BIOSes.

### Jeff’s Baudot keyboard

Jeff’s reproduction 1880s teletype keyer drew the widest range of visitors. Children from about five to fifteen worked the chorded keyboard and watched letters appear on the monitor, standing in for what would have gone out to a remote teletype operator and onto punch tape, with parents explaining as they went. Many of the children expected the keys to sound tones like a piano and were surprised that the work happens out of sight. The number of visitors in the 18–25 range who were curious about Baudot and about what 1800s technology laid the groundwork for is the thing Jeff was most surprised by.

Two collaborations came out of it. The Commodore 64 team behind Whack-A-Doodle, which uses five oversized buttons as a C64 interface, came over to talk through how to turn the keyer into a game that teaches Baudot code and its place in computing history. The CoCo Collector proposed porting the Baudot keyboard to the analog joystick port on the CoCo machines.

### Around the floor

[David Spinnett](http://localhost/indiv/david-spinnett/) of [Handmade Software](http://localhost/company/handmade-software/) brought a TS1500 and a ZXpand with the released hi-res games, and ran them on Jeff’s black and white television with a wireless gamepad.

Compute’s Gazette had a booth with every issue in magazine holders and a display for each, though they packed out Saturday. In another corner, the Techknight/Genericable team kept a 19-inch rack of broadcast equipment running, hardware shipped in from around the country and assembled the day before.

The Timex Computer Club cards went fast, sitting alongside Randy Kindig’s Floppy Days podcast cards. Jeff had not expected business cards to be in demand, and the Timex ones brought back memories for a lot of people. [Tim Swenson](http://localhost/indiv/tim-swenson/) supplied hardware, software, and hard copies of [ZXzine](http://localhost/category/periodicals/zxzine/), which found takers. The [Bill Miller](http://localhost/indiv/bill-miller/) funds were used at the show to buy a box of Timex/Sinclair material, arranged by Tim Swenson.