

 Experiments in airborne BASIC—"buzzing" computer code over FM radio - robin_reala
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/08/experiments-in-airborne-basic-buzzing-computer-code-over-fm-radio/

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kellishaver
My dad and a friend used to transmit TI-BASIC programs to one another late at
night over the 2-meter HAM band back in the mid 80s. They both had TI-99
computers with "tape drives" (really just a regular tape player set next to
the computer) and microphones. One would key the mic on the HAM radio and hold
it next to the tape player's speaker and the person on the other end would
hold the radio speaker next to the TI-99's mic input. They shared code and
collaborated on a few projects this way.

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tluyben2
I remember it well; in NL we used to have those radio programs but also
plastic 'flex' records you would put on your record player connected to your
computer. You would be able to run the Basicode on any supported computer
which gave you the ability to share between C64 and MSX for instance;
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASICODE>.

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habosa
How could the data not be lost? Especially when this equation involved an FM
broadcast, a commodity FM receiver, and then a microphone to record the FM
output to a cassette tape. Can someone with a better understanding of these
things explain to me why this didn't come out as nonsense?

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johansch
The really, really slow bit rate (75 or 300 baud) that was common for these
types of computers back then didn't require much fidelity.

I remember some similar radio show in national Swedish radio a long time ago.
It was broadcast very late in the evening in an effort to avoid mass confusion
about the strange sounds.

