Date   : Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:06:13 -0500
From   : jjthacker@... (Jason Thacker)
Subject: Looking for hen's teeth

I am an old-time user of BBC Micros now living in the USA. I would really
like to be able to carry on computing with BBC hardware which leads me to a
couple of options:

 

a)      Buy a USA-spec model B (except I can't actually find any)

b)      Somehow get my UK-spec kit to work in the USA.

 

Option A is looking pretty impossible due to their rarity, so I am
concentrating on option B. I am aware that I can use a step-up voltage
converter (like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Goldsource%C2%AE-Voltage-Converter-Transformer-ST500/d
p/B0022QOSDK/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top) to get the necessary 220-240V that I
will need, but I do have a few questions:

 

1)      Has anybody any experience with using these converters with old
Acorn kit and do they seem to work OK? Is there another brand than the one
above that they would recommend instead?

2)      Are there any adapters that are suitable to convert the Beeb video
output to something that I can use on either a modern PC monitor or a modern
US TV set? I did find this
(http://www.amazon.com/XD-990-Composite-Multi-System-Video-Converter/dp/B006
2BS09O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/XD-990-Composite-Multi-System-Video-Converter/dp/B006
2BS09O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353120366&sr=8-1&keywords=pal%2Fntsc+converte
r> &qid=1353120366&sr=8-1&keywords=pal%2Fntsc+converter) on Amazon. Again,
has anybody used one of these and would it work OK?

3)      I am also looking at purchasing one of the RetroClinic DataCentre
USB/IDE interfaces (http://retroclinic.com/acorn/datacentre/datacentre.htm).
Has anybody any experience with these and would they recommend it as a
method maintaining their BBC software collection?

 

Thanks in advance for any help given!

 

Jason.