Amigan Airwaves iss 5 Nov. 1989 Welcome to this fifth issue of Amigan Airwaves. I am afraid that 5 months have elapsed since the last one due to pressures of work and, to some extent, lack of newsworthy material. VIRUSES: continue to plague the Amiga community. About 10% of all the disks sent to me seem to be infected and it is obvious that people still aren't using VirusX 3.2 in their start-up sequence as they should. Ian G0BMS, points out that IRQ is a particular threat because it attaches itself to executable files, rather than hiding in the boot sector of the disk. The program KV is one that has been designed specifically to detect and eradicate the IRQ virus. MAGAZINE NEWS: As anticipated, the growing number of magazines is polarising into various sectors. "Your Amiga" is now strongly games-orientated and has been joined by "Amiga Action". "Amiga User International" on the other hand still retains a significant programming content with "Amiga Format" and "Amiga Computing" lying somewhere in between. The Canadian "Amigo Times" has only recently become available in the U.K. and may be bought with or without an excellent disk. This magazine is produced entirely on the Amiga and has maintained a consistently high quality since its first issue. The U.K. distributors are T.G. Hamilton who may be contacted on 021 788 3112. The U.S. magazine "Compute! Amiga Resource" also comes with or without a disk and is highly recommended, but is not readily available in the U.K. OVERSEAS REPORTS: Kathy's Group in the States appears to have been less active recently. Kathy herself has less time nowadays to devote to Amiga matters and no-one else seems to be willing to run the Amiga nets with the result that they are somewhat irregular. When I last spoke to Kathy, she told me that she had been sent very little radio-related PD software during 1989 and was therefore not in a position to issue any more PD disks for the time being. The next issue of Amigan Beacon is still in preparation. The good news is that Renato I3EJ is now publishing a Newsletter for his Italian Group and Larry, VK6CP is doing likewise 'down under'. If anyone would like copies of these Newsletters, please contact Charlie, G0EIW. I am still in contact with Peter DF5ZI. Chris G6MBO, kindly sent mea list of SM and OZ call-signs who are Amiga users. Larry is compiling a worldwide (except USA) list of Amigan amateurs on disk and can provide a copy on request to anyone supplying a blank disk and return postage. Charlie went to Sweden earlier this year and his report on the Swedish Amiga scene is attached. If anyone else travels abroad and can let me have a note of what they found (along the lines of Charlie's report), I shall be pleased to publish it in a future issue of Airwaves.. SSTV SOFTWARE: This must be the hottest topic of the moment! I reported in the last issue of Airwaves, that Ben Blisch had sold the rights of his AVT system to AEA and that the upgraded AEA version should be available in the States in July. In the event, all kinds of problems arose, including FCC type approval tests and the product didn't appear until a few weeks ago. As predicted, the price has shot up to $299 from the original $100 that Ben Blisch was charging. Further problems are being experienced with the European 625 line PAL version and ICS are saying that it could be several more months before it becomes available in the U.K. at a price of £299.95. [Why is it that $ prices of electronic equipment and software so often translate directly into £ over here?] In the meantime, a number of our members are still awaiting delivery of the AVT systems or upgrades they ordered and paid for 9 months (or more) ago. Hopefully, I will be able to report in the next issue of Airwaves, that this very unsatisfactory situation has been rectified. U.K PD DISK AARUG 1: is now available. If you haven't already seen it, send for a copy and you won't be disappointed. Charlie G0EIW has put together a disk packed with the most useful PD utilities he could find, together with information about our Group, what PD disks we have available and other goodies. We need your reactions to this first disk in the series so that we can include what you want on future disks. It has been brought to our attention that George Thompson Services, Purple PD and maybe other companies, are selling Kathy's PD disks at £2.75 - £3.00 each. Have you any views on the ethics of this? Remember, they are still available from us for the price of the return postage, provided that you send us blank disks. THE COMMODORE CHRISTMAS SHOW was held at the Novotel Hammersmith from Nov.17-19th in spite of the earlier reports that it was to be combined with the Computer Shopper Show at Alexandra Palace the following weekend. I was disappointed with the Show this time. There were fewer exhibitors than normal and even the Commodore stand was mediocre. There was little new to see and real bargains were few and far between, except blank disks, the price of which continues to fall. The European PAL version of the word processor Pen Pal was on sale for the first time at £90 - £99 but no one was demonstrating this important new program which is receiving very favourable reviews; even PD programs were hard to find. An early version of Workbench V1.4 was on display on the Bytes and Pieces stand. This should be available by mid-1990 and will offer some really worthwhile improvements including a 640x480 non-interlaced display, ARrex script language, faster text display and workbench, no Gurus! and no clicking of empty disk dirves. In the meantime, John G6CNX, advises that the WB upgrade V1.3.2 to be found on the December Amiga Computing disk, is well worth incorporating. The only other noteworthy feature of the show, was the advances being made by the Amiga in the music field which were much in evidence. New samplers such as A.M.A.S. and software such as Music X are clearly making a major impact and putting the Amiga at least on a par with the ST in this important application. NEWS SNIPPETS: Ian G6HNJ, tells me that there have been some problems of incompatibility with the recently introduced Enhanced Chip Set. A software fix may be necessary even for some quite recently written programs such as DPaint III. Ian G0BMS, reports that V6.1 of the well-known BBS software written by W0RLI is now available for the Amiga on Fred Fish disk 241. Ian is anxious to get hold of a copy of the program Atree, (not the `preview version` on the September Amiga Computing disk). Metacomco, the Bristol-based software company responsible for the original version of AmigaDos, is reported to have gone out of business. Is anyone able to confirm this? John G1YYH, is an expert on TCP/IP. Anyone interested in this protocol can get a copy of the latest Amiga version (written by KA9Q) from him or Andy G8NTH, by sending 3 blank disks and return postage. Ron G4SHC, is very interested in slow-scan and fast-scan TV and would like to contact other members who share these interests with a view to arranging skeds. According to the December issue of "Computer Shopper", the Amiga 3000 based on a 68030 running at 25MHz, should be demonstrated in the States before Christmas and available some time during 1990. A lap-top Amiga is also expected to be launched. Amiga-Fax users may wish to know that ICS is offering an upgrade for £25. Charlie G0EIW, has circuit details of a simple hardware interface to enable Amiga-Fax to be used for satellite reception. MEMBERS IN THE BUSINESS: Did you know that the following members are professionally involved with amateur radio and/or computing? Peter G4KKN: Amateur Radio Communications, Merseyside. Ian G6HNJ: Digipro, Southampton. Phil G6DLJ: Siskin Electronics, Southampton Andy G8POY: Freelance writer for AUI Phil sent me a copy of his Siskin Newsletter recently and I found it both interesting and unbiased in its reviews of hardware and software available for datacomms etc. Ian looks forward to seeing members at the new and enlarged Digipro premises in Southampton in the New Year. He tells me that he has written an RTTY program that will operate via the joystick port without the need for an expensive TNC but it needs some "tidying up" so we must be patient... Peter has sent me a demonstration copy of a logging program written in Basic by a firm called Leysoft. This also needs some refinement, but should appear as a low cost commercial program in due course. PK 232 DRIVER: Nigel GM0JKN has sent me a PK 232 driver program called Host, written by Steve G0CYT. This seems very promising and will be updated and improved as comments and suggestions are received. Enquiries should be sent to John G6CNX in Sheffield via GB7YAX or by telephoning 0742 477403. A registration fee of £10 will be charged to cover future updates. AMIGA NETS: As I have already mentioned, Kathy's original 20m net on Sunday evenings is very spasmodic nowadays. I hope to be able to update you on her future intentions in the next issue of Airwaves. In the meantime, you are welcome to join us on 40m either on Saturday mornings at 0800Z or on Sundays at 1300 local time. We try to stay between 7090 and 7095 KHz but with the QRM situation being what it is, we might be squeezed a few KHz higher or lower. Those with Class B licences will have to rely on the VHF packet bulletin boards where I regularly post information about Newsletters, PD disks and other items of interest to Amigans. REMINDER: Don't forget to make sure that Charlie has a minimum of one SAE for future Newsletters. Send me a stamp at any time if you would like an update of my database listing of our members which currently number about 110 with a few more being added every week. Well, that's just about it for this time. Remember, I need input from you in order to keep Airwaves going. 73 de Bob, G3LMH @ GB7AEU for packet, GB7PLX for Amtor.