Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.1488
Posted: Thu Feb 17 20:33:27 1983
Received: Sat Feb 19 05:05:02 1983

#N:uiucdcs:10500016:000:1959
uiucdcs!schwager    Feb 17 20:15:00 1983

ok, as long as nobody else wants to talk...
i have a question that i hope some one can respond to with some enlightening
information.

my little zx81 works just fine, even though the 16k rampack likes to lose
contact once in a while and destroy my programs.  but thats beside the point.
my main problem is this:  for one brief length of time, when i was able to 
borrow my friend's cheap Radio Shack tape recorder, i enjoyed the luxury of
being able to save and retrieve my programs on and off tape.  ever since, 
and for a long time before, not one of the tape recorders i used ever
loaded a program from tape reliably.  yes, even after hours of adjusting 
the volume and/or tone controls i met only failure.  whats wrong?  is it me?
you see, im becoming quite upset with my little machine.  i give it weeks to
live.  i think my tape is ok; i use a maxell normal bias (type LN).
maybe its the tape recorders ive used, but i wonder really because ive tried
4 or 5.  to wit: a honeywell portable, a GE portable, a sony boom box, a 
panasonic portable, and maybe another, im not sure.  even with the radio shack
it took me an hour to get it to where i could load a program with any sort of
reliability.  do i just have a lemon?  it seems very finicky with the volume 
controls.  or do i just expect too much for my $100 (i dont think so)?

oh, well... enough complaining.  if anybody can help, id appreciate it.
on the positive side of the zx81/timex 1000-- i built the kit version 
(this could relate to some of my problems above, but then again it did
work on the RS recorder) so if someone is in dire need of the circuit diagram
ill be glad to copy it for them.  just send me unix mail or respond to this
note and we can arrange to have it sent to you.  also i was able to attach
a full size keyboard to my machine. if there are some non-hardware folk out
there who might be interested in how it is done ill be glad to let them know.
-mike

uiucdcs!schwager