XPost: rec.radio.amateur.policy, uk.radio.amateur   
   From: nomail@example.com   
      
   FranK Turner-Smith G3VKI  wrote:   
   > ISTR, in the days when audio cassettes were the common storage media, an   
   > early BBC experiment where the viewer was asked to mike the TV speaker and   
   > record the tones normally sent directly from the computer. The cassette was   
   > then to be replayed into the computer in an attempt to load the program.   
      
   This has been done here in the Netherlands for many many years, but on   
   the radio, not (I think) on the TV.  Certain tech shows had a weekly   
   program section where you heard 3 minutes of cassette tape sound.   
      
   After some initial runs of audio specific for one computer (e.g. Apple ][),   
   a format was decided upon (Kansas City Standard, 1200/2400 Hz AFSK at 1200   
   bits per second) and software was written for all home computers of those   
   days to read that into memory, so a single transmission could be used.   
      
   This went into history under the name "Basicode".  I wrote the decoder   
   for the TRS-80.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)