edler (08/13/82)
A couple of weeks ago I asked for info on the differences between the Racal-Vadic 3451P and the Anderson-Jacobson 1259. I suppose I should pass on whatever I discovered. They are apparently very similar, but not quite identical. I have not been able to examine and take apart an RV modem, but it is really quite close. Inside the AJ, the circuit boards say Anderson- Jacobson, not Racal-Vadic. The only functional difference I am aware of is the lack of a switch on the AJ 1259 to prevent auto answer; it will always answer if DTR is asserted. Apparently AJ has been manufacturing modems for RV for some time before it came out with the 1259. Also, AJ might be coming out with a dialer for the 1259 that does both pulse and tone dialing, and which you can install yourself. Some people I heard from felt that the AJ would probably not be as good as the RV. In fact, there was nobody I heard from that actually had any bad experience with an AJ 1259. It does seem that if you want to get an AJ 1259, you should be able to get a cheaper price than the RV 3451P. I have since gotten an AJ (because of long delivery delays on an RV 3451P), and it seems to work fine. I have had only one problem, which is in answering calls from a 212 modem. It only affects one particular 212 of three that I tried. Originate mode works fine to all 212's that I tried. The single difficult 212 can originate calls to other 212's and to RV 3451P's. I don't know what to make of it, except to mention a possible contributing factor: the unsuccessful phone calls are long distance. In short, my attitude towards the AJ 1259 is that it is probably acceptable as a substitute for the RV 3451P only if you can't afford to wait for delivery of an RV. Also, you might be able to get a little better price. Jan Edler cmcl2!edler (nyu) pyuxll!jse (btl piscataway)
laura (08/16/82)
I have had my Anderson Jacobson 1259 for 3 days now, so it probably too early to say that there are no problems whatsoever with it - but so far it looks good. I have used it to connect to both local and long distance sites which use the Bell 212 protocal - with no problem. If you take the cover off a AJ1259 and a RV3451P, it looks like the AJ boards are a later revision of the RV board. The layout is identical though some of the components are different. The RV board I saw was revison G (marked on the board) and it had lots of little yellow (oops we goofed) wires, whereas the AJ had a modest 3. AJ will install a switch in your modem (it cost me $12 Canadian) to disable the auto-answer of the phone. If you are Canadian, there is another moby reason to buy AJ modems -- the Vadic warranty is *only good for 3 months from the shipping date for Canadian orders* (US residents get a full year) while AJ's warranty is good for *a whole year*. AJ has a Toronto phone number - (416) 492-1781 and will fix your modem in Canada if it breaks down. (They have another office in California where they also fix modems -- I dont know that phone number) laura creighton decvax!utzoo!laura