On April 16, you wrote:
> Upon looking in our closets here at school, I've found several RA80's,
> RM80's TS-11's, two Super Eagles, two 11/750's and one Mystery setup--
> (let us figure out what we want to use first, then I'll ask for bids :-)
> 
> We got the mystery system surplus from Columbia "a few years back." It
> seems to be a very packed communications server rack setup. There are nine
> rack mount modems at the bottom, and I assume the part labeled H3014
> sitting at the top of the unit is the actual term server-- It has 25 DB25
> ports on it, as well as a port labed "T1 Port" which looks the same as an
> AUI ethernet port.

  That's not a terminal server...I have one of those as well, and as
far as I can tell, it's a T1 mux of some sort...similar to a channel
bank.  It seems to allow individual synchronous serial (56/64k) access
to the T1's constituent DS0 channels.

> In the middle of the setup there is an RM81 (I know what that is :-) and
> also what looks to be a Unibus "cage" turned on its back and mounted in
> the rack. It has an ethernet controller plugged in (you can trace a cable
> from it to an AUI port labled "DIGITAL Ethernet Controller") The
> controller seems to either take up two slots. There seems to be nothing
> else plugged in. I coudln't find a cord from the Unibus section going
> to the other parts in the rack-- not even a slot for a console.

  The two-slot ethernet board is a DEUNA.  That's a moldy-oldy, but
it'll move packets!

> Is this a usable system? Is there a processor board on the Unibus segment
> of this setu that I'm unable to find? Another "clue"-- this case claims
> that in order to be stably mounted, it needs to be attached to an 11/780
> rack unit. I assume I could remove the ethernet controller from that
> Unibus backplane and stuff it in one of the 11/750's we have, and take it
> from there.

  My memory is pretty foggy in that area, but that may be an 11/780
Unibus expansion cabinet.  You should be able to yank the ethernet
controller and its cabinet kit and stuff it into one of the 11/750's.

  Good luck rescuing these old VAXen...They're WORTHless, but not
USEless, and they have more personality than some of the women I've
dated. ;)


                          -Dave McGuire
                           mcguire@neurotica.com