The Real Pro: The Little 100 in Africa

(I've recently found that there is a Club 100 for sentimentalists like me who still trot out their Tandy 100s and plug them in, run them around the block and coo at them. Inspired by this warm and supportive contact, I dug out and updated the following piece.)

Did Tandy have any idea reporters and such would go completely crazy over their little Model 100? I doubt it, but they responded well. Professionals -- ranging from reporters to ichthyologists and Tandy executives -- used the Models 100, 102 and 200 all over the world.

Some at the time found a dearth of information on problems and solutions.

Ed Juge, in the 1980s Tandy's Director of Market Planning in Fort Worth, told me that the company did foresee business use for the tiny computer, but there was no notion of the runaway success the 100s had among reporters.

"We didn't target it for reporters, but the first one who tried it in a preview -- well we had to use a pry-bar to get it away..." Juge recalled. I can identify with that.

How did Juge feel about the information gaps? U.S. and overseas arms of the company, he agreed, were compartmentalized and ...probably didn't know as much about it as they should. That's a bit of a problem.

He was very understanding when I described my predicament on assignment in Africa. Two of the five countries from which I tried to file stories had direct-dial capabilities and other technology through which I should have been able to work. In a laudable effort to be prepared, I had checked with Fort Worth before departure and followed the advice I received. Unfortunately, the advice was incomplete.

Those were ancient times, so many of the difficulties may no longer apply. The 100's dandy internal modem (300 baud) used the Bell 103 signal - great for analog lines. But it was virtually the same as the international disconnect signal. Wonderful.

The Fort Worth expert suggested I pick up a certain external modem in Paris, neglecting to mention that it would not interface directly with my North American standards mainframe back home. It was suited only for working through a European-type CCITT (International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee) standard system.. He was mum, too, about the Telenet transpak in Libreville, Gabon, my first stop, with which my news agency might have been able to set up a relationship. Without proper information, I ran up LD charges of about 156,000 francs before falling back on telex.

Next stop was Douala, Cameroon, which makes no pretense of direct-dial. It was a matter of handing the Meridien Hotel telex operator the narrow strips -- sort of like grocery store cash register tape -- of tiny but crystal sharp printout from the little NEC. She flinched, but soon found she could read the print. After that, stories flowed without a hitch.

Maputo, Mozambique, was a rugged experience. Our party, including four members of Congress and one Senator plus several reporters, took charter aircraft to outlying refugee camps. We were surrounded by armed troops at all times because the bush was full of hostiles, and the Mozambique government did not want to lose any of the Americans or their own Minister of the Interior, who accompanied us.

The Polano Hotel back in Maputo was short of food and other amenities, but it had telex which worked early and late. The money there was not worth anything, least of all to the locals, so I tipped in used double AA batteries. There is plenty of transistor radio left after hours in the computer.

Packing here was a joy. I carried soft-sided luggage and all this equipment was wrapped in Hang-Ten T-shirts. (I have a piece of Mkonde sculpture traded at Mto Wa Mba in Tanzania for 100 shillings and a Hollywood YMCA Tee... you never know.)

Every one of Africa's 50 nations must have had different standards for telephone and telegraph communication. I suspect these have simplified by now... perhaps. Africa was not the only complex continent. Our reporters had interesting variations. Filing with the acoustic cups from Ireland, Belgium and the United Kingdom was smooth as silk. Half a story came through from Khartoum, Sudan; nothing from Geneva, Switzerland. I heard that transmission was great from Beijing in China, but the security system would kick in almost at once and demand to know "What's this?"

Tanzania, my final stop on this particular trip, presented a special problem. I was warned on landing that my little computer magically became an electronic typewriter. If the user forgot to use this term, the devicewould be impounded. The hang-up was a hold over from a Government belief that computers could thwart the country's hope for full employment. The attitude changed, but it took time for it to filter down to rank and file bureaucracy.

Africa assignments brought out the utmost in my 100's resources, its versatility, ease of operation and sturdy resistance to fearsome conditions.

I worked on airplanes -- U.S. Air Force, TWA, Air Tanzania, Scandinavian Air Service and charters to the bush. In those days no one worried about interference. The 100, the NEC printer, the tape recorders used for unloading memory and the Sony M11EV recorder used for interviews were all powered by AA batteries of which I brought mountains. Only my hair dryer was subjected to Africa's electric current. Previous voyages taught me not to risk other equipment. Imagine waking up to hear your tape recorder talking to itself when it is not turned on?

For this working travel, you mostly schlep your own stuff. I moved in two small duffel bags, plus a camera bag and the Chip-Tote made by Kangaroo Video. I made no best-dressed lists, but I could carry it all myself.

The Chip-Tote was a great investment; simple design, sturdy padded construction with room for note pads, acoustic cups and in the long zippered pocket my top-secret stash of dollars. Kangaroo may never have realized another advantage. The Tote has a plain, homely non-luxury look about it; important in the third world where conspicuous consumption has disadvantages. One improvement I would have liked: a topside pouch pocket for passport and other papers. I used the Tote and the camera bag for personal items, avoiding a conventional handbag. Passport and wallet were in the sides of the camera bag whence they had to be extracted with a dramatic "RIP!" of Velcro and exposure of all my photo equipment and the microcassette recorder at every stop. Not good in dicey settings.

Looking back to pre-laptop Africa assignments seems like peering into dim pre-history. Advantages of the darlin' Tandy were awesome even when things went awry. In earlier years, I've come out of the bush with stories, hand-written on notebook pages, and given this mess to a secretary in a capital city - Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Dakar. The dear lady would cringe, but bravely type it into cable form with understandably varying results. I have borrowed the only typewriter in a village, fearing I would break its weary old bones at any moment, leaving the village headman totally without technology.

When there was no typewriter, no telecommunications and no time, I've sat with a Kenyan telex operator and scrolled the 100's eight lines at a time to get my story into Washington before deadline. Bless you, Victor Nwego!

And Bless you, Tandy 100. You were the best for a long time -- and maybe you still are!

Email Jo Campbell

The Model 100 Page of Pages by Andy Diller

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