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From: rhyre@cinoss1.ATT.COM (Ralph W. Hyre)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Apple-Cat Modem and TDD
Message-ID: <15706@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 90 06:40:47 GMT
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Reply-To: rhyre@cinoss1.ATT.COM (Ralph W. Hyre)
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 907, Message 1 of 10


In article <15513@accuvax.nwu.edu> penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark
Steiger) writes:
>X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 890, Message 8 of 11

>The old Apple-Cat modems can also be used to connect to TTY machines.
>Also to TDD machines.

>[Moderator's Note: Do you mean they had a switch-selectable setting
>allowing them to work both ways?  I had one and don't remember it.  PAT]

No, they had a multiprotocol modem chip that could handle various FSK
and PSK frequencies (Bell 103, 202, several CCIT frequencies and the
'Weitbrecht' modem at 45.5 bps for TDD using Baudot coding (supported
by ASCII Express Pro and Novation's firmware ROM chip.)  An add-on
card supported Bell 212.

The Apple-Cat was a neat modem, you could run a crude voice-mail
system on it and build an answering machine surpassing anything
available commercially at the time.  I heard rumors (on Telecom, in
fact) that the manufacturer was sued by AT&T because of the fraud
potential.  (And perhaps because they heard that John Draper, aka
Captain Crunch, designed it) The modem had an on-board D/A converter
for touch-tone generation and voice synthesis, and some folks wrote
programs to generate 2600hz and other signalling frequencies, TSPS
being the most infamous.  It even had menu items for 'Quarter',
'Dime', and 'Nickel'.


Ralph Hyre,    soon to be  +1 513 575 4972 tdd/45.5/300/1200/2400
               later 4800/9600/fax