[GreenKeys] [External] Teletype model 33 sold by mits altair?

[Harold Hallikainen]

On Mon, September 29, 2025 7:32 pm, Jones, Douglas W via GreenKeys wrote:
> From:  Jeff Albrecht <jeffa at rodaw.com> -- Monday, September 29, 2025
> 12:05 PM
>
>
>> I'm looking for ... ways to identify ASR 33 ... sold by Mits Altair for
>> use with the Altair 8800. I'm wondering if they were shipped by Mits?
>> What serial number ranges ... ?
>>
>
> I helped build an Altair 8800 with a serial number around 34.  It was
> purchased by the Medical Computing Lab at the U of Illinois, and spent
> much of its career as a protocol converter with 4 9600-             baud
> asynch serial lines (with XON/XOFF flow control) on one side and 4
> parallel ports driving Magnavox Plato IV Student Terminals on the other
> side.  For info about the latter, see: --
> https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2430
>
>
> We didn't buy a TTY for it, so I don't have quick answers to your
> question, but I note this:
>
> By the time the 8800 hit the market, there were companies in the business
> of reconditioning and reselling used Model 33 teletypes.  The ASR 33 I
> currently maintain for the U of Iowa PDP-8 was probably built in 1964 (to
> judge by the low serial number and cast zamac pan); it has a sticker in
> it saying that it was remanufactured by Carterphone on 10/30/74.  I
> assume the U of Iowa bought it then from Carterphone as a second teletype
> for the PDP-8.  I just had it working today.
>
> I'm sure Carterphone and their competitors were undercutting the price of
> new ASR 33s back then, and if I were MITS wanting to sell Teletypes to my
> customers, I'd have gone the low-price route and not purchased directly
> from Teletype.
>
> Doug Jones

I did not know Carterphone rebuilt Teletypes. I'm most familiar with
Carterphone with regard to the FCC decision to allow customer owned
equipment to be connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/carterfone-40-years/ ).
Mentioned in that article is the Hushaphone, a plastic device that clipped
on the receiver to make converstations more private. ATT did not like it
since it was a "foreign attachment." I think ATT also complained when
companies gave away plastic phone book covers that had advertising on them
since the cover was an "attachment" to the phone book.

Carterphone is a VERY FAMILIAR name!

Harold
https://w6iwi.org


-- 
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