Msg: 6550 *Conference*

05-25-96 05:58:26

From: RICHARD HANSON

To : GARY WEBER

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #6542 (NEC 8201 AND RAMPAC)

Gary: Just thought I'd chime in on the RAMPAC discussion with some words of
interest and facts.

I was talking with Tracy Allen, EME Systems, Berkeley CA.  Tracy has the
licensing from Ron Alspaugh, Node Systems (...the inventor/engineer) and Paul
Globman (...software engineer) to develop RAMPACs.  I get RAMPACs from Tracy
for resale through Club 100.  Anyway, I was checking on availability, the other
day.  Tracy said he had 3 RAMPACs available and enough parts, except the metal
cases, to make many more.  Seems that the case is a big, expensive deal.

The cases are made to spects.  If he needs more cases he must order and
purchase the entire production run.  The minimum cost, I believe he said, is
$800.  I should also add, RAMPACs are so well engineered that their total cost
is very close to their sales price.  If it wasn't for the fact that Tracy uses
them in some OWLs (Onsite Weather Loggers ... made with a Model 100 or 102
connected to data-sensing equipment ... used for data collection) for his
clients, RAMPACs would be long gone, i.e. they are too expensive to build for
the hobby market.  On the flip side, if we could muster enough interest in
RAMPACs, I feel we could raise the necessary revenue to cover the cost of
another production run for cases.

Well, that's my 2 cents on this subject.  -Rick-