Letters from Robert Edmonds

August 3, 1977

Dear Joe,
I have your two letters, but I don't get time often enough
to answer as soon as would be nice. Anyhow I've reached a pause
stage in my writing and can put my mind back on computers for a
little.
I called Jerry on Monday to find out whether he had
solved the recording-read back problem which he had told me about.
It seems that he has. He uses a J.C.Penny $39.95 recorder, cat.
#851-0018. He turns the treble high, to 10 or 12. He uses
volume in a mid range for recording and for playback, in the 3 to
7 range depending on what the recording volume was. I assume that
the treble may have been part of his problem because I worked with
him and his recorder one day and got good results. Anyway, he is
now quite well satisfied with the tape operations.
I do not have my machine here. It is in San Francisco and
is for sale because I just don't have time to use it. I'm doing
mostly writing on economics, working on a book and some papers.
I hope to get a word processing or text editing unit some time so
my problems will be eased. The Apple won't be able to do that for
me, so I won't be doing anything with it after I sell the boards I
now have.
Regarding pricing, I am now asking $200 for the bare board,
$50 each for each 4K memory, and $50 for the ACI. I have one or
two keyboards left which cost $67 (No, I think $77). They are <--New
the Datanetics ASR 33 type. Quite suitable. I've sold several of
the keyboards for $50 plus $15 for installing a strap and interconnect
cable to plug into the Apple. That would all add up to $350 for
Apple with 8K and ACI plus $65 for Keybd ready to plug in. In
addition you need two small transformers which I believe I no
longer have. (I suppose my friend, George Wong in S.F could get
then someplace.) I have accepted one offer to sell below these
prices and I would again if they seemed not competitive enough or
attractive enough. If you want to make an offer against those
prices I'd be glad to consider it.
I'll enclose both a manual and a BASIC manual with this.
(Also the ACI manual). If you want them after reading but don't
want to purchase an Apple, I suppose they should be$1 each. That's
what they cost. But if you don't go ahead with purchase, you prob.
won't need them, so it would be fine just to send them back without
charge. Back to the recorders. I have used a Panasonic $34.95
Model RW-309AS. It does not have a tone control, just volume. It
has frequency done quite well for loading or playback, but not so
reliably for saving or recording programs. I've not tried any internal
adjustments. I've also used a Rad.Shack Realistic CTR 30B Mod 14-836.
It has both tone and vol controls. I use tone at max, vol at mid or
little less. It has auto level control and tape coutner (Pana does not).
Again, playback is OK, recording and saving unreliable for me. I don't
know why.
Guess that's all for now. Write when you can.

Sincerely,

Robert H.Edmonds
565 Bellevue Ave. #706
Oakland, CA 94610