Review of SupraModem 2400. By Danny Bielik -------------------------- I used to look through American Amiga magazines hoping that one day, someone will come out with a 1200 baud modem that used CCITT protocols for an affordable price, as American modems have always been much cheaper than local ones. In Australia, the closest you will come to affordable would be the Bit Blitzer for around $400. Then one day, a company called Avatex came out with a 2400 baud modem that used CCITT protocols for around $US220. So, I decided that I would save up and purchase one of these. Suddenly, a company called Supra, the same people that make the popular hard drives for the Amiga surprised me with a modem that supports 1200 baud and 2400 baud CCITT protocols. The price...a measly $US179. I quickly ordered one from a mail order company and again I was surprised to find that they had it priced for $US149. A week and a half later it was here. I got a yellow card in the mail box saying that I would have to pay nearly $70 tax. But that didn't matter. It still ended up costing around $250 for me so I was happy. Inside the box is the modem with manual, reference card, and subscription forms with free on-line time to CompuServe and the International Airlines Guide (both no good in Australia), power supply and a modular telephone cord (an adaptor is available for this from telephone shops, Dick Smith, Tandy etc.) The power supply is for 110 Volts AC, but you should be able to pick up a 240V to 9V 500mA at Dick Smith (polarity has to be around the right way) and this has a good chance of working. I used a step-down transformer from 240V to 110V because I had one lying around. After checking with Supra, I found that there is a European power supply available, that should work here in Australia. All that would be necessary is for you to purchase an inexpensive plug shape changer, available from K-mart, Dick Smith etc. If you order a modem, you should specify a European power supply and one will be ordered from Supra and packaged in your box. [ED Note: DiskWorks (see below) will be providing an Australian power supply with the modem.] Before I list the specifications, a little explanation is in order. In the United States, they use a different modem standard to the one that we use here in Australia, and is used all over Europe. The American standard is the Bell protocols, from AT&T Bell Laboratories, whereas most of the world, including Australia uses CCITT standards (CCITT is an association that sets worldwide standards for electronic products - the standards that the USA usually ignores). The 300 bits per second speed (BPS or Baud) is totally incompatible between the two systems. The Supra modem does NOT support CCITT V21, the 300 baud speed, it only supports Bell 103. This is no great loss. 300 baud is deadly slow, especially with the size of Amiga programs. If you wish to download a reasonable size program you could be waiting all night and half the morning. This is not an exaggeration. 1200 baud is almost identical between the two protocols, CCITT V22 and Bell 212A, except for the fact that the answer carrier is different. This is only important if you are going to run a Bulletin Board. The Supra Modem supports both CCITT and Bell versions of this protocol so there is no worry with this. With 2400 baud, the CCITT V22bis standard is the same in America as in Australia, so there is no problem with this. Once you have experienced 2400 baud, there is no turning back. The only drawback is that the modem, because of its American origin, does not support 1200/75 baud rates, the one that Viatel uses. This means 1200 baud is received by you from Viatel and 75 is sent (most people type at about 150 baud). This is no great loss either. Ok, now down to the modem's specifications. First of all it's small. I mean really tiny. Measurements are: 1" X 4-5/8" X 6-1/2". Other Specifications are: Auto Dial, Auto Answer, Auto Disconnect. DialTone, Busy, Ringing tone sensing. Carrier detect. Call progress monitoring. Uses non-volatile RAM for storing programmable configuration settings, i.e. no annoying DIP switches. Command Buffer that holds 40 characters. Hayes AT command set compatible. Test and Diagnostic facilities. Special Dialling features: - TouchTone or Pulse dialling - ability to dial stored telephone number - programmable pauses - wait for dialtone before dialling - wait for silence after answer - originate call from answer mode modem - hook-flash - DTMF signals (Touch Tone) 0123456789#*ABCD Programmable escape sequence for going from on-line to command state without hanging up. Indicator lights for high speed, auto answer, carrier detect, off-hook, receive data, send data, terminal ready, modem ready. Separate telephone line and telephone set connectors. 2.5 watt power consumption. Equalization: - fixed compromise equalization in the transmitter - adaptive equalization in the receiver Available from Diskworks, 178 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, Sydney Tel: (02) 4362976 PRICE: $325 including Australian Power supply. If you have any questions, feel free to write to the author: Danny Bielik P.O. Box 713 Bondi Junction NSW 2022. ED: I'm told that this modem doesn't "intelligently" detect baud rates and change accordingly, so it wouldn't be much good for running a BBS. For that, use perhaps a MAESTRO modem from Micro-Educational. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ END OF SUPRA_MODEM.RVW ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^