Greetings from the UK

Introduce yourself to your fellow forum members - what was your journey into the Sinclair world?
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valentin
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:57 pm
Location: Faversham, UK

Greetings from the UK

Post by valentin »

Hello all,

As my username shows, my name is Valentin, I have just turned 50, and I've been living in the UK for the past 14 years.

It was early 1987 and I was 15 when my parents bought me a ZX Spectrum clone for the equivalent of about US$1,000 in today's money. I was living in my home country, Romania, being a freshman at the only High School in my home town with an IT class. After a few years I intended to DIY a "Cobra" (one of the ZX Spectrum clones, see the link below), but all I did was to acquire the PCB and very few components.

Back then, Romania was a communist country, and any IT devices designated for a home user (not many) were somehow discouraged, although they begun to show up in some high schools. Students at the "Politehnica" University in Bucharest were building some clones in the campus, with components "leaked" from the only specialised factory in Romania - IPRS Baneasa. For those curious, an excellent article in Ars Technica: "The underground story of Cobra, the 1980s’ illicit handmade computer". Cobra was only one of the four or five ZX Spectrum clones made in Romania.

About 10 years ago I purchased of eBay a job-lot of three ZX Spectrum computers, sold as "not working, for spares". As electronics is my other hobby, I somehow managed to fix two of them and re-sold them on eBay for a profit. Unfortunately, re-discovering my old passion for the ZX Spectrum was short-lived then. Until about a month ago, when randomly surfing the web I stumbled onto some websites advertising DIY kits. In a moment I took the decision to build my own Harlequin 48K, in an attempt to rekindle my passion from 30 years ago.

After having an unpleasant experience with one of the kit suppliers, I ended up buying the PCB from an eBay seller, and the components from Farnell, Mouser, RS Components, and eBay. I ended up paying more than if I was to purchase the kit.

Anyway, currently nearly all the components have been soldered to the PCB. I am still waiting for the low-height 14MHz quartz oscillator and the mini-DIN connector. I have some questions, these will be asked in a different thread, hoping other member will be able to answer them.
Valentin
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1024MAK
Posts: 5102
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:56 am
Location: Looking forward to summer in Somerset, UK...

Re: Greetings from the UK

Post by 1024MAK »

Hello and welcome to our forum Valentin!

:D :D :D

A very interesting story. Thanks for sharing :D

I hope you enjoy this forum :D

We will certainly try to help with any questions you have.

Mark
ZX81 Variations
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Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
Looking forward to summer later in the year.
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