VCF West 2023 is a GO!

Posted on by Erik Klein Category: Events, Vintage Computer Festival

It has been a long time coming, but we’ve finally made arrangements to have a 2023 VCF West.

I’ll share some of the boring details later, but, for now, I want to encourage everyone interested in this year’s show to get ready for a great event, but one with a very short runway.  So get those exhibits prepared and registered, get those talks planned and free up your time for FRIDAY AUGUST 4th and SATURDAY August 5th.

Yes, you read that right.  One of the big hang-ups with getting 2023 off of the ground was that our traditional, and preferred, venue, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, is not available for Sunday on our normal show weekend.

So this year’s event will be Friday and Saturday with setup on Thursday.

While this scheduling issue was the main holdup to getting the show off of the ground – It took a while to come to terms with the CHM for the rental, dates, etc. and that’s on me – the good news is that the CHM are very excited to have us back and they will help us promote the show, hopefully increasing our attendance even with the awkward days.

That said I do apologize profusely for the delays and inconvenience this will cause.  I also apologize for “ignoring” most of the emails from folks asking about our progress.  I really wasn’t sure until just today that the show would even go on and I didn’t want to spur a rumor mill in advance of an announcement.

Thankfully the announcement is a positive one!

Exhibitor registration is now open.  Because of the short timelines I’m encouraging everyone to sign up ASAP.

The same goes for speakers.  If you’d like to speak at the show please let me know soon.

Thank you all for the encouragement and support.  This show can’t happen without you all.  Once again I apologize for compressing all of the planning.  This won’t happen again.

VCF East 2023 is coming! April 14, 15, 16.

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: east, Events, Vintage Computer Festival

VCF East 2023 will be again at The InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, NJ.

The dates are April 14, 15, & 16. Updated information can be found here: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

We will have a great lineup of speakers and exhibitors!

Click here for the VCF East main page: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

Exhibitor Registration: https://forms.gle/iKZNPqFPSeobjnau5
Vendor Registration: https://forms.gle/zGsPxCcuDQBXm3fb7
Volunteer Registration:  https://forms.gle/UEbiFYvgEiBk9MS27
Speaker Registration: https://forms.gle/yvV311ucBEWXzqpx9

 

IBM 1130 Repair Fundraiser

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: Fundraiser

The Vintage Computer Federation has started a fundraiser for our IBM 1130 computer. We are looking to repair and restore this machine to operating condition. To accomplish this, we will need two things: Funds to repair and an expert to repair it.

UPDATE

March 21, 2024

After a long delay, our IBM 1130 is on its way to be repaired in Florida. Thanks to System Source for transporting it. We look forward to giving you updates on the progress of the repair of this machine!

November 14, 2022,

We have reached our goal of $6000! Thank you so much to everyone that donated! We will leave the fundraiser open until the end date of November 30. Anything over our goal will be used for any unexpected expenses as well as getting the peripherals connected to it working such as the card reader and card puncher.

Thank you everyone who has contributed so far!

Donate by clicking this fundraising link IBM 1130 Repair Fundraiser.  We have found an expert in the repair of this computer: Carl Claunch. He is well known in the vintage computer community as a renown and accomplished expert in restoring IBM 1130 computers. After several weeks, we have not achieved our goal of $6000 and our deadline of October 31 to take advantage of our scheduled transportation.

Our IBM 1130 has been on display for several years at The Vintage Computer Museum in Wall, NJ at InfoAge Science and History Museums (formerly Camp Evans).

The IBM 1130 is an early example of what became commonly known as minicomputers (smaller than room-size); one computer for one person. It is also unique in the sense that there are only a small number in existence, and few are functional.

We take pride in the fact that many, in fact most, artifacts displayed in our museum are functional and provide an interactive experience for our museum visitors. We now have an opportunity to add the IBM 1130 to the list of functional artifacts!

A long-time friend of VCF who lives in Florida, Carl Claunch, has experience in successfully restoring these computers to a functional state. Mr. Claunch is not able to travel to us to perform the work, so we need to transport the computer to and from his residence. As you can imagine, this presents various challenges, but we believe this is a very worthwhile effort. To ignore this opportunity to engage with this expert would be a regrettable, permanent loss for our museum.

To move forward with this project, *we need your support*. We need to raise approximately $6,000 to cover shipping and other expenses involved in the repair. Funds donated will be used for expenses related to this repair project and operating costs of the IBM 1130 computer. Funds received that are in excess of the needs of this project will be directed to the restoration and preservation of other artifacts in our collection.

We need to acknowledge that, in a project like this, there is no guarantee of success. We cannot predict issues that may occur during transportation. Additionally, insurmountable problems may be revealed during the repair process that would cause the computer to remain non-functional, and there could be other issues that we can only imagine. Therefore, as hopeful as we are for success, there are no guarantees, and we cannot make any promises. For this reason, we must clearly state that your donation is NOT refundable.

In recognition of your support, you have the option to include your name on a donor plaque (or another suitable memorial, to be determined) which will be proudly displayed along with the computer in our museum.

Please follow this link
https://vcfed.org/membership/contribute/transact/?reset=1&id=2 to reach the donation page on our website. We ask that you please act soon and consider donating to this important historic project. We have a delivery window of October 31 so we greatly appreciate your support.

We hope that you will participate in this endeavor. Please share this with like-minded individuals and organizations who may also be interested in helping to preserve computing history.

VCF Swap Meet October 8 2022

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: Events, Swap Meet

VCF’s Annual Technology Swap Meet
Vintage Computers & Electronics, Radios, TVs, Amateur Radio, Other Tech
October 8
8AM to 2PM (General Public)
7AM (Setup for Vendor)
VENDOR REGISTRATION HERE

$5 GENERAL ADMISSION per person!

ADDRESS:
*OUTDOOR Swap Meet*
GPS location: Google Maps
Satellite Map:
Street Map: Swap Meet Parking
EMAIL: swapmeet@vcfed.org
PHONE: 732-722-5015
Talk-In: 147.045Mhz, PL is 67
VENDOR COST is per space. First space is $20, each additional space is $10.

This time it is an outdoor swap meet. Bring your own table! Table isn’t required, but recommended.

A space is considered a 18 feet by 9 feet (the general size of a parking space).
* Reservation doesn’t guarantee sales.
* The Vintage Computer Federation is only providing a space, vendors must bring their own tables.
* In case of inclement weather, money paid will be refunded.
* All items that you bring must be taken with you. No items are to be left behind.
* Porta Potties on site
AFTER THE SWAP MEET, COME VISIT OUR VCF MUSEUM @ INFOAGE!

We are open from 12PM to 5PM: https://vcfed.org/vcf-museum

The Vintage Computer Federation Museum is located near the swap meet and is part of InfoAge Science and History museums.

InfoAge and VCF Museums are open every Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday from 12PM to 5PM

InfoAge museums: infoage.org.

Updated October 6, 2022.

VCF West 2022, Aug 6 & 7! Great speakers, exhibits and consignment!

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: Events, Vintage Computer Festival, West

VCF West is breaking records for VCFs with more exhibits and more speakers than ever! We won’t have 12 original Apple 1s, as in this photo, but there will be several there for you to see, including the first ever! There will be lots of other great exhibits with the current list here. Speakers are selected and can be found here. Lee Felsenstein will be there to give a talk about his Pennywhistle along with almost a dozen other speakers. Consignment, as always, will be very active with more space than ever with lots of sellers bringing lots of awesome stuff. If you are interested in consignment, look here.

The show will be August 6 & 7, 2022 at The Computer History Museum. Show information can be found here. Tickets can be pre-bought on Eventbrite. The first 100 Two day ticket buyers get a unique custom badge for this event.

Other VIPs who will be at the show include Liza Loop and Dan Kottke.

Vintage Computer Festival Turns 25! VCF West 2022

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: Events, Vintage Computer Festival, West

The Vintage Computer Festival started in on October 25, 1997 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, California. Founded by Sellam Abraham after posting to cctalk (Classic Computing) Discussion List. By 2006 it found it’s home at the Computer History Museum. Stopping in 2007 and rebooted in 2016.

VCF West 2022 is fast approaching!

Held again at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View California on August 6 & 7.

Exhibit registrations will be closing after the July 4th holiday and speaker slots are just about full!
If you’re planning on exhibiting please sign up ASAP here.
If you’d like to speak please email me at erik@vcfed.org with your ideas and availability.
Volunteers are always needed to help at our front desk, in consignment, with set-up and tear down and or with any number of other tasks that keep the show running smoothly.  Students are welcome to volunteer and we will sign or otherwise document this for volunteer hours.
And, finally, tickets are on sale at Eventbrite – tell your friends and forward this information far and wide!

Repair Workshop at System Source Following Swap Meet

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: Events, Repair Workshops, System Source

There will be a repair workshop following the swap meet starting at 2PM until 7PM

Signup here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wHIQ-T8EnZdNkUWN_f-rG2hApgCEDqwwdjnAdoNmrWM/edit?usp=sharing

The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer workshop on Saturday June 18th  from 2PM until 7:30PM (following the swap meet) and Sunday June 19th 2022 from 9AM to 5PM at:

System Source Computer Museum
338 Clubhouse Rd
Hunt Valley, MD 21031
GPS location: Google Maps
EMAIL: museum@syssrc.com
PHONE: 410-952-9140

Plenty of free parking, short walk from Baltimore’s light rail (Gilroy Road Stop)

ON SATURDAY, June 18 we will open at 2PM following the swap meet and will lock up by 7:30 PM.

ON SUNDAY, June 19: We will open at 9:00 AM and lock up at 5:00 PM

Accommodations:

Try https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g41196-Hunt_Valley_Maryland-Hotels.html

Feel free to talk with others about sharing a room.

Food:   There are plenty of restaurants within a short drive.   We will have a catered Indian buffet on Saturday at cost ($12.00?) and catered Barbecue ($12.00?) on Sunday for those who are interested.

We will feature tours of the museum throughout both days and several mini-workshops:

  • Retrobright workshop(bring your yellowed plastics)
  • Lots of New vintage computers from the DigiBarn Collection
  • Hot Metal Typesetting (3500 lb word processor)
How the Repair Workshops work:

Repair workshops are events which are open to the general public where members of all levels technical abilities and experience get together to help each other repair vintage computer hardware. Usually, we will have a signup Google Sheet where we let others know what we are working on and which items we are bringing for repair. This helps others know if they want to work together or just bring tool or software to help with your project. The signup sheet also helps the organizers to plan on how many are coming.

We have been doing the repair workshops for several years at InfoAge and try to do them once per month. We have done them at System Source for a few years and do them once or twice per year. The repair workshop at InfoAge has a fee to rent the rooms while the repair workshop at System Source is no charge. Each location has a different time schedule. Check on the individual pages for more information.

 

VCF East 2022 Wrap up

Posted on by Jeffrey Brace Category: east, Events, Vintage Computer Festival

Hello everyone,

VCF East 2022 was a great success! Initial reports indicate that financially we recouped our large expenses this year. Everyone that I ran into seemed very pleased with all aspects of the show and thanked me for all my hardwork and dedication for making this show great. The talks were diverse and top notch, the consignment was very profitable and great treasures to be found, the food on site was appreciated, the exhibits were incredibly exciting, lots of cool VCF Swag to be bought and the comradery was fun.

I want to thank everyone who volunteered and helped me with the planning, setup and breakdown of the show. I spent countless hours planning for this show over the weeks and months before the show. Despite the huge amount of time and dedication that I put into this show by myself, I would not be able to make this show happen without the volunteers. The quality of the show has been improved due to the volunteers such as the Sea Cadets and all the individuals who made my job easier and improved the quality of the show overall. For me, this is a part time job in the months leading up to this show and a full time job the week before the show. I want to thank Bill and Rick who helped me plan for hours every week ahead of the show. Bill is my right hand man who helps set up the signs, docenting at the museum and with anything that I need, before, during and after the show. Rick helped with the planning and the survey as well as setup, docent duty and breakdown after the show. The Sea Cadets were incredibly helpful with crowd management and helping in all areas of the show. I want to thank Alex for organizing the volunteers and running the consignment. They brought consignment up to a new level with a Point of Sale System, setting up storage carts for a less crowded room, labeling for items, spreadsheet inventory and many other tweaks. Thanks to Corey for running the front desk, helping with setup and breakdown of it. I felt relaxed to know that he would have everything running there smoothly. Jason was great in setting up the tables, managing the exhibitors and for making the campus map as well as Lawson for making the exhibitor map. Ethan O and crew for bringing the A/V to an even higher level of professionalism. They were so good last year, but were even better this year! Thanks to Adam and Tony for setup and teaching and all the instructors for doing the Apple 2 classroom. It was very successful. Glitch had another incredible workshop and adjusted nicely due to lack of kits by making it an S-100 repair workshop. Chris L for helping where I needed at the front gate, breakdown, etc. Chris F for being the speaker coordinator and all the other people who helped with the day before, during and after the show. I was very glad to be able to go home “early” on Sunday by 10PM due to help with breakdown. I’m usually there until 2AM and come back Monday for several hours to clean up.

Thanks to all the great speakers for such diverse, interesting and enjoyable talks. Thanks especially to Bil Herd for wrangling 12 Commodore speakers together in one spot. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see so many of them in one spot. Thanks to all the Commodorians who came. You will never see this happen again. Thanks to Burger Becky for such incredible talks. Thanks to Kathy Kleiman for a fun interactive talk. Thanks to Stephen Edwards for moderating the technical talks with the Commodore folks. Thanks to all the in-person and virtual speakers who had diverse and fun talks.

All the steamed talks were made private so that we have a chance to clean up the videos and release them as separate talks. We need some time to edit and process them before releasing them.

Our next year’s show will be April 14, 15 and 16, 2023 back at InfoAge. There will be two themes for this show. The first is: Computing in Education. The second theme will be announced shortly.

For those that attended the show, please fill out this survey so that we may improve the show: https://bit.ly/vcfe2022post.

I hope to see everyone again next year for an incredibly fantastic show!

Jeff Brace

Showrunner for Vintage Computer Festival East