iss 7 Sept 1990 Amigan Airwaves --------------- Hello again and welcome to the 7th issue of our Newsletter. Much has happened in the world of the Amiga since the last issue so let's start as usual with reports from overseas Amiga Groups. USA --- There is little to report from Stateside except that I wrote to Kathy again back in May and still have had no reply. We must conclude therefore that the U.S. Group which she formed back in '87 is now defunct, which is very sad. There is, of course, no shortage of radio amateurs using the Amiga in the U.S., but someone is needed to co-ordinate their activities. Inevitably, the major source of PD software for amateur radio has also dried up but we must keep our eyes and ears open in case something new does appear which is of interest. AUSTRALIA --------- Larry and I have had difficulties with Amtor and packet mail in recent months but I have now had a letter from him bringing me up to date with news down under. There are now 6 VK6 Amigans in the Perth area and Larry is naturally delighted about this. One of our ex-members Steve, G1GOJ is now VK2XOX and has offered to help Larry put together their next newsletter in DTP format, so we will have to look to our laurels! Larry confirms that he has sent Andy G8NTH copies of the best Australian/N.Z. PD disks (see attached list). If you want to try sending Larry a packet message, his mailbox is VK6ZML; I am sure that he would be delighted to hear from you. ITALY ----- Renato tells me that his main interest at the moment is GFA Basic and he would like to hear from anyone who is using it. He is trying to write a terminal program using it which will include the YAPP protocol and has promised me a copy in due course. He has sent me the latest version (2.53) of Amipac which looks impressive and this is also available from Andy. To contact Renato,you can send him a packet message @ I4FP-8 or alternatively, I can let you have his mailing address. GERMANY ------- Peter, DF5ZI has sent me some information about Amiga magazines in Germany which I was able to see (but not read!) for myself during my recent holiday over there. The main magazine seems to be Amiga (7 DM) published by Markt+Technik which is very thick and comprehensive with only a minimal coverage of games. Kickstart (also 7DM) is more like our U.K. magazines with about 50% of its content devoted to games. Also available are AmigaDOS and the American magazines Amazing Amiga and Amiga World, the latter translated into German and selling at about 4 compared with 2.50 in the U.K. 68000er is another very comprehensive magazine covering both the Amiga and the ST. Peter also told me about a new Amtor controller - the AMC, which is available as a basic kit for 100 DM, a complete kit for 300DM or a boxed and tested unit for 400 DM. Peter may be contacted via the Amtor mailbox GB7PLX or you may send a packet message to him @ GB7PLX or direct to his local PBBS DB0GV. Ralf, DL9KCG whose QTH is Cologne, has recently joined our Sunday Amiga nets. He speaks English like a native and is keen to help keep us up-to-date with Amiga news from Germany. He reports considerable Amiga SSTV activity in the Cologne area but not with the AVT system which is apparently not imported into Germany. Ralf recommends monitoring fax activity on 144.700 MHz SSB when propagation is good on 2m. Hanno, DL8RA has recently bought a HP Deskjet Plus printer and is pleased with the results he is getting. However, the output from a PC is noticeably better than that from his A 500 which appears to be due to limitations of the Amiga driver programs, or can anyone offer an alternative explanation? If so, Hanno would be pleased to hear from you; leave a packet (or Amtor) message for him @ GB7PLX. MAGAZINES --------- The June and July issues of Amiga User International did not appear and I phoned the publishers to ascertain whether or not this magazine had also ceased publication in the wake of Amigo Times (see report in Airwaves 6). I was assured that 'The problems are only temporary and the August issue would be out around the middle of the month...' It eventually appeared in the last week of August with a very brief apology for the non-appearance of the June and July issues due to 'production difficulties'. I suspect that their real problem is that with so many games-orientated magazines now available, their circulation has dropped. Charlie tells me that there is a short bulletin on Micronet which confirms that the publishing company has financial problems and is likely to be be taken over. It will be a pity if AUI disappears because the UK needs at least one magazine that concentrates more on serious applications for the Amiga. Next time you are in the newsagents looking at magazines, have a look through PC Plus and you will see what AUI ought to be doing. PC Plus publishes more than 200 pages each month but only about three pages are devoted to short games reviews. The magazine covers a very wide range of serious applications, with tutorials on topics such as MS DOS, communications and hard drives. Reviews of software are either grouped so as to compare competetive products or in-depth if a major new product such as Windows 3 is launched. All this, with an excellent regular 'Helpline' feature costs 2.30 with a cover disk. Fast Access Amiga which I reported on in the last issue, has decided 'not to launch at the present time'; at least they returned my cheque...... The less said about the new disk-based magazine Stampede (now Rampage!) the better, except that at least the name(s) are appropriate.... EXHIBITIONS ----------- As you will have noticed, the Commodore Show is no more. Instead, we had the 16 Bit Computer Fair in London in June covering both the Amiga and the ST, which was not supported by Commodore. A number of other well-known companies were also notable by their absence. Nothing much new was to be seen, but hard drives and memory expansions were very much in evidence and prices are continuing to fall. Another 16 Bit Fair is scheduled for January 1991 at the Novotel but if you can't wait till then, you can go to the Computer Entertainment Show at Earls Court in September or the Computer Shopper Show at the Wembley Conference Centre at the end of November. WHITHER COMMODORE ? ------------------- Commodore have launched two major new products with much ballyhoo in recent weeks, the Amiga 3000 and the CDTV. Should these newcomers give us cause for rejoicing about Commodore's continuing commitment to the Amiga in the '90s? I fear not. Both give a clear indication of Commodore's change of direction towards new markets. The Amiga 3000 is aimed at the professional 'Workstation' market where price is (almost) no object and backwards compatibility is very much a secondary consideration. It is rumoured that the next machine in this series is not likely to even bear the Amiga name. The CD TV is aimed at the education and top-end games markets and is likely to divert many of the major software houses away from more conventional projects. I believe that there are other ominous signs that Commodore's market strategies for the '90s do not look favourable for the home computing enthusiast. However, we must wait and see what they do about the A 500 and the B 2000, now both beginning to show their age. The $64,000 question is, will WB 1.4 (or 2.0) be sold as an upgrade for these machines? In the meantime, their competitors are certainly not standing still. For example, the 386 and 486 series IBM compatible machines with VGA displays offer superior resolution and Windows 3 now offers an excellent graphics interface with multitasking. Apple Mackintosh are now the acknowledged market leaders in DTP and Commodore is unlikely to catch them, even with the A 3000. WHITHER THE AARUG ? ------------------- Perhaps while pondering the future direction of Commodore, we should also give some thought to where the AARUG is going. I started the Group in May '88 to try to stimulate some interest in amateur radio applications for the Amiga. That original aim has certainly been achieved and we now have a membership of 160+. However, this growth has brought with it a number of problems, notably the workload and costs that now fall on Charlie, Andy and myself in trying to provide the various services to members. Both Andy and I have had to replace disk drives and other costs we have to bear include paper, envelopes, printer ribbons, photocopying and postage (yes, people still sometimes forget to include sufficient (or any) return postage when they write to us). We always intended that there should be no ubscription for AARUG membership but we are beginning to wonder whether this laudible intention is realistic with our growing numbers. It may be that we are now facing the same problems that Kathy did when her Group reached 300 and continued to grow. Some members have made unsolicited donations which have been much appreciated but if we are to continue, a modest subscription from everyone might be the best arrangement. An alternative might be to affiliate with the ICPUG which is well established with its own (excellent) newsletter, PD copying service, discount arrangements and advisory services to members. I attach details of the ICPUG for those who are not already familiar with it. In order to ascertain your views on this matter, a short questionnaire is enclosed with this issue of Airwaves and your co-operation in completing and returning it would be appreciated. RECENT SOFTWARE --------------- Des, G0LKZ has kindly provided the attached review of Digiview Gold 4.0. This has become the digitising program by which all others are judged and some idea of its impressive performance can be judged from the latest Newtek Demo(3). I have recently purchased Amos and am favourably impressed with it although with a 263 page manual, it is not something you can just dabble with! Version IV of Leysoft's Logbook is now available but I understand that the price has increased to 20. If anyone is using this program, I would appreciate a review of it. I receive many enquiries about the availablity of a standard logging program for the Amiga which complies with U.K. licence requirements and to the best of my knowledge, the Leysoft program is the only one available. LANDLINE BBS ------------ Since the last issue, I have tracked down some more telephone BBS numbers to add to our list: Treasure Island 0992 447273 The Plug 'ole 021 472 0256 The Alien BBS 0472 250690 Amiga Board Basildon 0268 510495 I would be pleased to hear from anyone using Amiga telephone BBSs, particularly concerning their usefulness or otherwise. PD SOFTWARE ----------- I have been playing around with NComm 1.9 and am so impressed with it that I now use it in preference to my tried and trusted Comm 1.34 (from which it was developed). I shall send a copy of my self-booting version to Andy in case others would like to try it. Charlie is making good progress with AARUG Disk 3 and it should be available by the time you read this. Andy asked me to mention that he now has the TCP/IP source code in C and the latest version (6.6) of the CBBS program. It has been suggested that we should all catalogue our PD disks and compile a list that could be published from time-to-time so that anyone who needs copies of PD programs knows where to obtain them for the cost of the postage. However, with the astonishing number of suppliers of PD software now advertising in the various magazines, would all the effort involved in compiling our own list be worthwhile? SNIPPETS -------- Both Charlie, G0EIW and Reg, G1TEY have had problems with the BSG 9 virus that I mentioned in the previous issue of Airwaves. This is a particularly troublesome virus because it does not reside in the boot block of the disk but attaches itself to executable files. Pat, ON9CBF has returned to his native Canada and will operational from the Ottawa area shortly as VE3MPZ and keeping us up-to-date with the North American Amiga scene. The popularity of the AVT SSTV system from ICS continues, in spite of some residual bugs in the European PAL version. Members that I know of that have the system include: Rod EI3CZ Peter G4GEW Bob GM4VIK Owen G4TLK Mel G0BVS Des G0LKZ Although the Sunday Amiga Net is thriving (1300 local time around 7090 KHz), the Saturday morning net (0800 local time around 7095 KHz) has been poorly supported since Pat, ON9CBF returned to Canada in mid-July. There is little point in continuing with this net if only one or two people join it. It has been suggested that because of the amount of discussion that takes place on the AVT SSTV system during the Sunday net, it should be in two parts: 1300 - 1345 General Interest and 1345 - 1415 AVT topics. Your views on this are sought in the questionnaire. I have been given the sad news by Rod, EI3CZ that Jim, G3EKP is now a silent key. I have now re-inked several printer ribbons using the special re-inking fluid available from Caspell Computer Services of Poole. Although it is a very messy business, it certainly does work and gives nice dark print which makes all the difference to the readability of text. I have found that it is best to re-ink every 2-3 months rather than wait until it is absolutely necessary. 73 until next time... Bob, G3LMH @ GB7XJZ or GB7PLX Questionnaire: 1. Do you believe that the AARUG is worth supporting by an annual subscription/donation/ other means? Yes/no 2. If so, how much would you consider to be reasonable? 2, 3, 4, 5 pounds. 3. Would you favour affiliation with ICPUG as an alternative? 4. Would you be willing to help with compilation of an AARUG PD library? Yes/no. Would it be worth the effort? Yes/no. 5. Would you prefer an alternative time on Saturdays for the Amiga Net? Please indicate preferred time. ........... 6. Are you in favour of splitting the Sunday Amiga Net into two parts? Yes/no 7. Would you like a For Sale/Wanted column in Airwaves? Yes/no 8. Any other comments about the AARUG?