very oddball WANTED request...!!

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firedome

firedome

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Jul 21, 2011
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Know there are some computer folks on here...this stuff is still found in storage!

So on the odd chance you MIGHT know of something,
our short WANTED LIST is below...

complete OR parts OK, any condition OK (unless specified!):

ANY vintage mainframe IBM, Control Data, Cray, Univac, Burroughs, etc.

Vintage Minicomputers:
Digital Equipment DEC PDP 1- thru PDP-12
ANY DEC peripherals, drives, terminals, readers, tape
Data General Nova 2/3, Eclipse S-130, S-140
General Automation SPC12, SPC-16, PDC808, PDC-816
Honeywell 316, others
Hewlett Packard HP 2100A
Interdata 70
Texas Instruments TI 960
Cincinnati Milocron 2100
Microdata 1600
ANY with multiple console switches w/ light indicators

Vintage Microcomputers:
Digital DEC Rainbow 100 complete working, w/ periperals + docs preferred
IMSAI 8080
Apple ][ or ][ + complete working w/ peripherals + docs
old kit microcomputers

reliving old programmer days ca. 1970-80!
please eMail me at: firesweep "at" verizon "dot net
thanks! Roger in NY
 
I have a HeathKit H89 with a dual outboard 5-1/4" floppy drive. I built it in 1982-83. I did power it up about 10 years ago and it still did its thing.

I have been looking for a home for is. Seeing as how I built it I hate to see a recycler toss in on the pile. But I realize it is only taking up space for me as I will never use it again...

Any interest? Doesn't seem it would even be worth the shipping.
 
I'll try a listing I suppose.

The unfortunate thing with the Heathkits is that since the owners constructed them they have a lot more sentimental value then the typical computer you wrote a check for. Its difficult to just to toss them out, so the few people that want one have a number to choose from. My older brother held on to his for a long while before it went to recycling too.

I have a friend that has worked in the IT field since the early 80's. He runs his own business out of his home and a few years back he decided it was time to clean house. Scads of old computers went to recycle, I'd bet there was an IMSAI or two in there and I recall a mainframe CDC(?) that had core memory too. There were a number of trailer loads of history scrapped :(
 
Roger, if you do manage to wrestle up a machine, be sure to let us know. I've been looking for sometime, too, and have made due with gathering bits and pieces of the classics, but prices can get absurd, fast! Frankly, the odds are pretty slim these days that there's much out there outside of the museums so I've decided to build my own. There was a UNIVAC III available a couple years ago, stored in several semi-trailers, but it would take deep pockets and a lot of space to set one up. I think it's since sold. -Cory
 
I think that IBM mainframes run on 408V anyway. Hard to get that kind of power in your home. Even a IBM/System 3 would take up a large bedroom.

At NW we had a room full of IBM 370/168's in the late 70's, early 80's. And those were HUGE! AT NC we only had a IBM 360/50 for a very long time. All the programming was written by in house employees in BAL.
 
Sordid computer history: a System 370/168

"Big Iron" IBM was the very first machine I wrote programs for at the frickin' bank (hated that place!), then an IBM 3033, and lastly a 3081. Started out with ancient card/batch processing and ended up with VS/MVS CICS terminal real-time data base stuff running some of the earliest Diebold ATMs. Quit the bank (yay!) and went back to biophysiolgy lab research, Fortran IV, a DEC PDP-11/45 and DEC PDP-12, and taught programming at night school Vo-Tech, finally ended up teaching full time.

My uncle here in Endicott NY (the original home of IBM) headed the IBM Endicott/Glendale test lab that developed the System/360 and /370, probably the most important machines IBM ever introduced.

I'm mainly into DEC mini's, got rid of a PDP-11/23 QBus but am soon (hopefully!) getting a 11/10 Unibus machine similar to the one I used back in the Bio lab 40 yrs ago... ya I'm that old! and still love the ancient (boatanchor) machines of my youth!

firedome++8-30-2013-19-10-27.jpg
 
Cory...

hang in there, the stuff is around.. I just missed out by a couple of days on a CL ad for a PDP-11/23 with 2 RL-02 drives, VT100 terminal, and DecWriterII... for free!
When I left Voc-Tech they were scrapping out their mainframe Burroughs 3000, or whatever it was, and one could have had it for next to nothing, maybe even nothing! There's still stuff hanging about in those back storage rooms! Google "Vintage Computer Forum" for a good place to find out more. Keep looking, and I'll keep my eye out for you too. If you want a real challenge, getting a 40+ yr old minicomputer up and running makes appliance restoration look like a walk in the park! ;-)
 
Phil...

it's always sad to hear of any scrapped machines, be they appliances or 'puters. I'd love an IMSAI, I remember when they came out in '76 (?,) but prices have gotten kinda nuts on them like with Altair 8800s. A lot of big mainframes were 3 Phase, but no big deal there really. It's the cooled floors and rooms that are the real bugger.
 
Another thing on older mainframe computers-they typically had a 480V 60Hz 3ph or 208-230V 3ph primary to 208V 3Ph 400Hz sec output to run the power supplies in the computer system.Now with modern solid state switching supplies the 400 Hz supplies disappeared.Breifly dealt with a place that has a Control Data mainframe that ran from 400Hz.The rotary convertors were in the building basement-was a school-other MG power supplies were in there for the electric,and motor,electronics lab classes.Was called the building "engine room".
 
208V 3ph 400Hz

Still very popular in aviation. Generator sets (used for testing by ground crews) can be had from military surplus auctions/dealers for not too much money. They are not as popular (and therefore expensive) as 'ordinary' 50/60Hz sets.

I have two small (2KVA) sets which I bought with faulty engines / good alternators which I've never got around to repairing. There were 20KVA sets at the same auction.

All best

Dave T
 
Thats right-aircraft uses the 400Hz power supplies-makes motors,generators,transformers and other inductive devices lighter and more compact,efficient.Same reason older computers used the 400Hz supplies.For the computers-the 400 hz was easier to filter out the "ripple" from the rectifiers with less capacitance.With modern higher frequency switcher supplies-easier still.
 

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