If the intent was to be the first one to wed computers and vacuum tubes, you have missed the boat by several decades. I, and I am sure many others did it long ago. I ran HF AX.25 Packet Radio on my Heathkit HW-101. Of course, if the desire is to wed the PDP-11 and vacuum tubes, if it hasn't been done already the same could be done. I would bet I could put an old version of the KA9Q software on a PDP-11 running BSD or even Ultrix-11. And then, fire up my HW-101 (yes, I still have it) and the deed is done. Of course, I could also use my HF rig which is also of the vacuum tube genre. Drake Twins. :-) bill -- Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves bill(a)cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>

But only if you have Joan Collins to inspire you.

Hello! (Resend because a member missed it.) The term is Trekker, Kevin. And it takes place during the second act of a very important episode. But I freely admit that I am interested in this decidedly strange mix of technology. -- Gregg C Levine hansolofalcon(a)worldnet.att.net "The Force will be with you always." Obi-Wan Kenobi   On Behalf

In addition to the DECtalk standalone device, there was a Qbus module called DECVoice (DTC04) that was intended for telephone systems (voice response systems). I have the module in my personal collection; unfortunately, what I've been told is that there's a lot of others' intellectual property in the software (it's a microcoded device) so it would be a serious challenge to get the code to run it - too bad. -- Ian ________________________________________ From: pups-bounces(a)minnie.tuhs.org [pups-bounces(a)minnie.tuhs.org] On Behalf Of Ross Tucker [rjtucke(a)gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 6:49 PM To: pups(a)minnie.tuhs.org Subject: [pups] PDP-11 / vacuum tube interface Dear all, (This has got to be the strangest cross-post I've ever done.) I have just taken a bet from a friend to challenge my geekiness. I was telling him about my love of Vintage Technology and he proposed that I combine two hitherto separate hobbies and see what happens. The topics: the DEC PDP-11 minicomputer (vintage: 1970s) and vacuum-tube ham radios (vintage: 1960s). I do sincerely apologize for cross-posting, but I am rather younger than either of these technologies (vintage: 1984) and this seems like a monumental challenge. My question for y'all: how could I possibly design+build a project that uses both of these technologies? My thought is to port some radio receiver Digital Signal Processing (DSP) application into PDP-11 assembler, compile and run it via emulator on my PC, then use it with the vacuum-tube regenerative receiver that I built a few years ago... Does anybody know if PDP-11 UNIXes even had the capability for a "sound card"? Or, to get ambitious, I would LOVE to design some interface circuitry between PDP-11 digital circuitry and vacuum-tube electronics... The challenges are legion: the tube side of the circuit operates around 350V DC levels with radio-frequency (RF) signals at 7 MHz (almost the clock rate of some PDP-11s!) and I don't have the DEC Handbooks, but I'm pretty sure that even those ancient pre-TTL circuits operate below 350V! So... any, er, "ideas"? Best regards, Ross Tucker CCed to: 'glowbugs' list at &lt;glowbugs(a)piobaire.mines.uidaho.edu&gt; _______________________________________________ PUPS mailing list PUPS(a)minnie.tuhs.org https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/pups