From: uhclemLOSE.aug07@nemesis.lonestar.org   
      
   Skipp  wrote:   
   : No radio for 1/4 mile around the computer was safe from interference...   
      
      
   Ah yes, thank you for providing the context for a topical Radio Shack   
   joke of mine from around 1982/1983.   Here goes:   
      
   If you remember the period, Ronald Reagan was running a war of words   
   against all the communists he could find because there just always had   
   to be an enemy (in order to focus support of the public on that and   
   away from other things that may be going on).   
      
   As part of this campaign, there was some U.S. Government funded   
   propaganda radio stations directionally broadcasting at Cuba,   
   encouraging the citizens to overthrow the government, plug up the   
   toliets, and take any other action they could against Cuba, other   
   than coming to the U.S.   
      
   Well, the Cuban government got tired of just jamming the specific U.S.   
   propaganda frequencies as the U.S. would simply change frequencies or   
   boost the power, use an ballon-lofted antenna array or fire up two more   
   stations.  So at one point the Cubans retaliated by jamming a wide swath   
   of frequencues in the US commercial AM band, and that was causing   
   owner and citizen complaints all along the Gulf coast.   
      
   To accomplish this wide range of frequency jamming that the Cubans were   
   doing, I suggested that probably all they had done was put four   
   or five Model Is out on the beach, propped the lids open, and pointed   
   them towards the U.S. mainland...  :-)   
      
      
   Such was the generally accepted view that the Model I was a big RF   
   trash emitter, and certainly some of the souped-up ones were horrible.   
   Still, perhaps not all of them were that bad.   
      
   About ten years later, I was cleaning out a bunch of old files (before   
   the remains of Tandy Electronics moved out of the Technology Square   
   building) and found an independent lab evaluation of a Model I system   
   done in the early 1980s, and the unit tested actually passed the   
   Part 15 Class B criteria, which meant the Model I (at least the   
   one tested) should have been suitable for use in a residential area.   
      
   Even if that lab report had been well known inside Tandy in late   
   1981, Tandy management still wanted the Model I off the shelves   
   because it was such a maintenance and support headache.  The Model II   
   and Model III were each designed to address at least some groups of   
   complaints and feature requests, with the Model III focusing on   
   getting rid of the maze of cables and iffy user-accessible connectors.   
   In particular, schools wanted a system with far fewer cables that   
   students couldn't unplug or hook up in the wrong places, and a   
   system that could be secured to furniture with a keyboard that could   
   not be stolen.   
      
      
   Frank Durda IV - send mail to this address and remove the "LOSE":   
       http://nemesis.lonestar.org   
    "Bill Gates is smarter than anyone in this room.  Except me,"   
     - Tandy Vice President of Software Development, circa 1984.   
   Copyright 2007, ask before reprinting.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)