THOMPSON@USC-ECLC.ARPA (08/06/84)
From: mark thompson <THOMPSON@USC-ECLC.ARPA> I had a Rixon modem for a while recently. It is a very nicely packaged box with a VERY good manual. It is very clever, and nicely designed, easy to use. It remembers up to 10 phone numbers and login scripts. Unfortunately, it wont work in 'difficult' phone environments. It listens ok, but did not talk loud enough to cut through interference over a line that i have used Hayes, Vadic (and now USR) modems over (with some difficulty). I had gotten the unit from Priority 1 electronics. Their technical people gave me the impression that they get a lot of them back... work fine until they have to do long distance or handle things like GTE. They talked me into getting a USRobotics Auto Dial. Works fine so far (i will let you know...) The people at Priority 1 are sadly disorganized, but they did give me this one at the @i(sale) price i had paid for the Rixon...quite a deal. -mark -------
tomk@orca.UUCP (Tom Kloos) (08/15/84)
I've had a RIXON R212A modem for almost a year now and have had no
problems over long distance or other marginal connections after a minor
mod. The original design evidently has a problem such that the output
level can vary between the spec'd -9dBm (actually -10 plus or minus 1)
and -16dBm. Needless to say, if it gets stuck at the weak end you'll
have lots of problems. 2 resistors change to fix this bug. The other
main problem that I had was stored numbers getting trashed sometimes
after power cycling. A ROM change is necessary to cure this (to
version 4.2 or greater).
The folks at Rixon were VERY helpful in solving the problems after I
made it clear that I knew what I was doing. I believe the changes were
made last Fall or Winter, but from previous experience with
distributers (both big and small), they can ship lots of junk (modems,
IC's, batteries, etc.) that they may have received a long time ago.
-Tom Kloos, Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon
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