FULL FEATURE MIRACLE

Power, simplicity and flexibility are the requirements of a good Spectrum modem/comms package combination, and the Tandata QMod modem and Spectre Communications software offers all the facilities you need to log on to Viewdata and bulletin board systems with 75/1200 baud compatability.

The software is activiated on power-up but you can drop back into Spectre's main menu. This gives access to a viewdata terminal mode, Save/Print frame facilities, a mailbox editor, a telesoftware downloader and a scrolling bulletin board utility.

Logging on is as simple as using a VTX-5000. Make sure that the on-line button is pressed and the pilot light is on, dial the number and wait for the high pitched tone from the host computer. When the response comes press the Line Seize button and, after a few seconds, press the On-line button again. If the carrier signal is successfully seized contact is made. If contact is not made within six seconds the line is disconnected and you are returned to the menu.

The viewdata provides the normal on-line state for accessing viewdata hosts and provides 15 screen editor commands which include Escape Generation, Carriage Return and Cursor Home.

Spectre can grab screens from a host computer and store them in memory or on microdrive and cassette. You can have access to a maximum of 26 screens, created either by yourself or downloaded from the host, and erase all or some of the stored frames, to create more Rom space.

Spectre's telesoftware downloader can grab Micronet programs which are encoded as a series of frames and sent down the line by the host. You can choose whether to log-off and run the program after it's been downloaded or remain logged- on and continue.

Mailbox messages can be prepared and edited before you log-on so that you can up load them to a specific box without losing time and money.

Multi-User Dungeon, and some bulletin boards, can only be accessed through the use of scrolling software. Spectre has this facility but you will need a different modem for 300/300 since QMod's default baud does not allow these rates.

The Spectre printer interface default is for ZX-Alphacom-Timex, but you can set up the format for most printer interfaces. Software to drive an Epson compatible printer is provided but you can use a Kempston E Centronics interface.

The Spectre Communications Package and Tandata's QMod modem form a friendly and easy-to-use alliance. Spectre provides an inexpensive introduction to the world of comms while also providing the sophisticated facilities for the more adventurous hackers.

QMod is simple to fit to the back of the Spectrum 128K or 48K and its two button operation - on-line and seize - makes it one of the most attractive modems for beginners.

The Spectre Communications Package and QMod modem are available at an introductory price of £91.95 until September 1. The price after that date is £99.95.

The package can be obtained from Tandata Marketing, Albert Road North, Malvern, Worcs WR14 2TL.

ON LINE WITH SPECTRE

Spectre Communications
£49.95 for £99.95 with QCOM modem)

The Spectre communications pack isn't a modem as such, but when used in conjunction with one (and with the Tandata QCOM modem in particular) it offers a wide range of comms facilities.

The comms pack has been designed with the QCOM modem in mind, and is constructed in the same square, black, modular style as the Tandata range of comms equipment, but it can be used with most modems (including 1200/75 or 300/300 full duplex, and 1200/1200 in both full and half duplex - but it's probably wise to contact Spectre Communications if you're thinking of using the comms pack with anything other than a QCOM).

Setting up is simple; the pack is connected to the Spectrum via a ribbon cable (with an additional connector to allow use of printers etc), and the QCOM fits snugly on top of the pack. Your 'phone is plugged into the modem, and the modem into your 'phone socket. On the front of the comms pack, facing you, are two buttons - for 'mode' and 'line', selecting Viewdata or user to user mode (If you're using a different type of modem) and to seize the signal from the 'phone line. It's a minor irritation that neither of these are labelled, neither is there any indication of which position of the buttons selects which mode. This information is given in the instruction manual, but it's inconvenient, when first starting to use the equipment, to have to keep referring back to the manual.

MENUS

Inside the comms pack is a 16K EPROM containing all the software you'll need to access Prestel/Micronet and other Viewdata services, as well as bulletin boards and a number of utilities for Uploading or Downloading frames, printing frames and so on. The QCOM modem can only access services which operate at 1200/75 baud (which includes Prestel/Micronet and many of the most popular boards and Viewdata systems), though of course other modems offer different baud rates.

Once power is turned on you'll be presented with the main menu displaying the various options available, and choosing an option from there will lead you to the relevant sub-menu. Most of these options are fairly standard, but it's very convenient to have them all gathered together on an EPROM and to have instant access to them, rather than to keep loading several items of software as is often necessary. And the menu system makes it simple to choose an option as it allows the software to do all the work for you.

LOGGING ON

Logging on to Prestel/Micronet was relatively painless. The first attempt failed because I hadn't gotten the 'line' and 'mode' buttons sorted out but on the second attempt I was in straight away. Just for comparison I might add that it took me ages to figure out how to get the VTX 5000 modem (recommended by Micronet) working when I first got one of those, so two attempts on the Spectrum/QCOM set up is good going.

(Incidentally, the Spectre pack is the only unit so far approved by Micronet for use with 128 models of the Spectrum).

Getting onto a couple of bulletin boards proved a bit trickier, but after a little perseverance the manual grudgingly let me have the explanation I was looking for. As a matter of fact, the Spectre manual is better than most hardware manuals, and covers most of the available options in reasonable detail, but it still seems to assume a little more than it ought to.

On the whole though, I found the two units fairly simple to use. The system of menus takes a lot of the fuss out of using them and they gave me fewer headaches than most items of comms equipment do. If you want a modem solely for accessing Prestel/Micronet then you could opt for the cheaper VTX 5000, but then you really are limited to just that service. Buying a combination like the Spectre/QCOM set up also allows you to access a great range of interesting (and often free) bulletin boards as well. Even then the combined price of £99.95 probably isn't the lowest you could find, but the convenience of having the comms pack eliminates so much of the fuss that seems to come along as standard with modems it's probably worth it - especially if you're new to comms.

Further information from Spectre on 09315-362, or Micronet 800 on 01-278-3143.

SPIRIT IN THE SKY

Ian Burley looks at the new Spectre modem.

Anyone who has contemplated using a 48K Sinclair Spectrum for comms, let alone the new Spectrum 128, will have encountered a rather solid brick wall, namely the lack of a "proper" RS232 interface capable of modem-compatible baud rates to allow connection to standard modems. Until now, the job of interfacing Spectrums to the burgeoning world of communications has been left almost entirely to the venerable and infamous Prism VTX5000 modem from OEL Ltd.

The VTX was a bare-essentials serial interface connected to a simple modem card, all in one box. It attached via the Spectrum edge connector expansion bus. The VTX had a straightforward Prestel/viewdata terminal program on ROM and so offered a simple but effective plug-in-and-go Prestel solution.

The Spectrum 128 arrives and, horror of horrors, the VTX5000 which 99 percent of Spectrum comms users use will not work with it. Meanwhile, Spectrum owners wanting to access 300-baud bulletin boards, or use standard RS232 modems, are either becoming very frustrated or resorting to upmarket micros. Spotting the market gap last year, Laurence Cook, formerly of OEL and hardware designer of the VTX5000, set up Spectre Communications Ltd.

Cook has produced a very attractive and serious alternative to the VTX, offering a full RS232 interface with excellent multi-purpose terminal software written by Dave Gorski. The new Spectre comms pack was designed with parts of Tandata Sinclair QL Qcom modem system in mind. Some may recall that the Qcom system began life as an OEL project.

With co-operation from Tandata, Cook has produced an RSZ32-based comms module housed in the same black stacking ease used by the part of the Tandata Sinclair QL. Inside the Spectre comms pack is an 8251 UART situated on a very neat board, with a 16K ROM containing a full viewdata/scrolling terminal. There are two LEDs to indicate power and on-line status, while a pair of buttons select full- or half-duplex mode and on/off line status.

Perhaps the obvious modem to connect to the Spectre unit is the matched plug-in stacking Tandata Qmod which will be available complete with comms pack at a special combined price of around £80 plus VAT, with the comms pack and Qmod being £50 plus VAT each separately. Qmod is satisfactory for 1,200 baud but to access 300-baud systems you have the alternative nine-pin joystick D-type connector to attach standard 300/300 or 1,200/75 baud RS232 modems. Unfortunately reverse Prestel - 1,200TX 75RX - is not possible on the Spectre unit, though 1,200/1,200 half-duplex is possible for user-to-user link-ups, with suitable software.

To indicate 300-baud operation to the Spectre unit, two of the nine D connector pinouts need to be bridged. That odd feature could require something like a switch incorporated into the RS232 cable when linking multi-standard modems. Spectre will supply or make up necessary cables to order for a small charge.

The Spectre unit is connected to the Spectrum bus expansion edge connector via a three-way ribbon cable. with the Spectre tapping off the centre socket. There is no through-port so the end of the ribbon cable acts as the expansion bus continuation. For some peripherals that is satisfactory but others refuse to rest firmly on the end of the cable and flop about. Unfortunately you should expect several popular peripherals to clash with the Spectre unit while it is plugged in but there seem to be no major problems with Interface 1 and there is no need to power-up your Spectrum directly from the mains, as with the VTX.

Who better than Gorski, of VTX Editor fame, to write the firmware in the Spectre unit? What we have is a considerably tidied and streamlined version of the Editor, now almost completely in machine code though still retaining the ability to be user-extended or enhanced from Basic.

On power-up, you are presented with a 10-option main menu:

0. Log on
1. Viewdata
2. Save frame
3. View frame
4. Print
5. Downloader
6. Mailbox message
7. Edit upload frame
8. Scrolling bulletin boards
9. ZX restart

If you are using a Spectrum 128, 48K Basic is used and the unit behaves as if it was attached to a standard 48K Spectrum, unless you incorporate your own routines to extend the frame buffer. Access to main store - Microdrives or disc - is handled by Basic routines to maintain command compatibility where possible.

Immediately there is a different look to the screen when you first see the Spectre working, as Gorksi has re-designed the VTX character set to good effect. In Prestel mode there are subtle enhancements to the way double-height characters are handled; many of the old minor bugs of VTX Editor are absent from Spectre Editor. Held graphics are also improved.

Twenty-six mailbox or viewdata frames can be stored in memory at one time, identified alphabetically. There is an improved frame editor and mailbox send function with the option of sending a sequence of mailboxes edited previously and stored in memory, with auto log-off at the end.

An Epsom-compatible monotone graphics dump has been included and is reasonably fast, though a much faster text-only print option may be included in later versions of the ROM, firmware upgrades possibly being an attractive feature. It is hoped that frame-tagging will be added later, too. There is also a graphics dump to ZX printer and compatibles.

Finally, there is a new scrolling terminal routine which does not suffer from the common VTX problem of character loss, especially with XON/XOFF flow control on. Unfortunately XMODEM file transfer protocols are not present, though no doubt someone will rectify that sooner or later.

The Spectre comms pack is a much-needed boost to Spectrum comms abilities. The system is not perfect; there is no auto-dial facility and the Tandata QCALL dialling unit cannot be used; it was found that the Spectrum power supply could not drive the full Qcom stacking system. The Spectre unit, however, is a much-needed replacement for the ageing VTX5000 and is considerably more versatile. Above all, you do not need to load VTX ROM overlays all the time and the Spectre unit is much more reliable to use.

Spectre Communications, The Old School House, Tenter Row, Crosby Ravensworth, Penrith, Cumbria. Prestel MBX 109315362. Tel: 0931 5362 or 0204 57293.