Date   : Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:49:32 +0000
From   : astravan@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: BBC Serial number query

Pete Turnbull wrote:
> Littlefield Aaron wrote:
>> Hi,
>> Can anybody confirm my suspicions please? Does a serial number of 02-UNB09
>> signify one of those converted USA edition BBC Micros? I understand quite a
>> few were returned from export, converted and sold off back in the UK?
> 
> I can't be certain about the serial number, but that looks right.  Yes, 
> Micropower (or Greyhound Marketing) brought quite a lot back and sold 
> them here with little modification (I seem to recall they fixed the 
> video though).  It should have a version of BASIC that uses COLOR 
> instead of COLOUR, as well as a few other changes.
> 

I have one of these too. The serial number sounds right. The machine 
should be much heavier than a normal BBC B, because of all the metal 
shielding, which is visible from underneath. The labelling on the case 
will be slightly different (includes FCC approval information). The 
motherboard is completely different from all the issue 3-7 Beebs I've 
ever seen.

Another clue that a machine is American-spec would be the presence of 
both Econet and the Speech upgrade, unless someone's removed them. The 
speech upgrade doesn't work on mine, if used it just hisses, crackles 
and makes the occasional stutter.

 From memory, I tried COLOR on mine but it didn't work - perhaps someone 
has swapped the ROM at some time, or I was doing something wrong.


-- 
Alex Taylor