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From: lazlo%triton.unm.edu@ariel.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Apple-Cat Modem: Quite a Hacker's Toy
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Date: 28 Dec 90 07:24:21 GMT
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penguin@gnh-igloo.cts.com (Mark Steiger) writes:

> 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]

The Apple-Cat (I take umbrage to their being called "old", because as I
type this I'm using one with a Bell 212 (1200 baud) upgrade board
attached :-) could/can handle the following baud rates, as listed in
the manual:

	50/75 baud -- for, as they call it, "very low speed communication"
	110 or 150 baud -- "TWX or TELEX transmissions"
	300 baud -- the old standby, Bell 103
	1200 baud -- in half-duplex Bell 202 mode . . . which a lot of
		folks actually wrote software to handle; it wasn't much
		fun for calling boards with, even when they supported it,
		but it was just fine for 1200 baud transfers.  Anyone
		remember Cat-Fur?
	45.5 baud -- "communications with the deaf network"; this last
		required a "simple, no-charge hardware modification" from
		the factory, probably a trace cut on the board.

All these modes were supported right out of the box (except the latter
which required the hardware modification and special software that was
free but not supplied automatically when you bought the modem) and
were switchable from software.

In addition to the 212 upgrade board, you could also get an expansion
module that added an RS-232 connector, a BSR interface, and
input/output/remote control jacks for a cassette recorder; a firmware
ROM that let the modem be easily controlled from BASIC, a BSR
transformer for the expansion module, and an IC that added touchtone
decoding.  There were pins on the expansion port I/O connector that
allowed for a speech synthesizer interface but I don't think it was
ever developed, though I have some underground software that takes
advantage of the onboard DAC to produce synthesized speech from
software (as well as music, phone-related sounds and tones, and other
esoterica).

Quite a hacker's toy.


Lazlo (lazlo@triton.unm.edu)