[GreenKeys] printing to KSR 28 was Re: OT: Radio Shack near bankruptcy

[Jim Haynes]

I'd say the first thing you have to do is convert the word document to
a plain ASCII file.  Not knowing anything about word, does it have a
save-as that lets you store the file as a .txt file?

Then you need the computer to have an RS-232 port that will do whatever
speed the KSR set is geared for, and 5 level code.  The built-in COM
ports of the older computers all will do that,  but I've heard it's
iffy with the more recent computers where you have to use a USB dongle
to get a COM port.

You need to build a circuit that will convert the RS-232 signal to
current loop.  It's pretty simple if you can deal with wiring a few
parts together.

Then you need software that will convert the ASCII to Baudot and push
it out the RS-232 port.  One that I use is an ancient DOS program called
rtty12g that is all over the web.  It requires a machine running DOS,
and the way I do that is with a bootable floppy or CD ROM containing DOS
and the program.  There are other options out there, including the
program called heavy metal that is made for getting files off the web and'
printing them.

Then you need to get the ASCII file into the software that does the
conversion, and that might be just a matter of finding it on disk with
the DOS program.

jhhaynes at earthlink dot net