I have published lot about French, German and Swiss magazines or Club papers.
Now lets talk about one US magazine !
The TRS-80 Microcomputer News was published from January 1981 to June 1984.
A new pocket computer appear in the May 1982 edition : the TRS-80 PC2 !
You can discover the whole collection at Color Computer Archive
If you own the Pocketcomputer Newsletter please contact me…
The Tandy PC-2 was exclusively sold by Radio Shack, in shops or catalogs.
A big thanks to Mike from www.RadioShackCatalogs.com for allowing me to publish here some pages with the PC-2 !
First we have the General catalogs for 1983 and 1984.
It’s strange but there wasn’t any PC-2 in the 1982 one.
The start price was $279.95 for the pocket and $239.95 for the printer.
The printer’s carrying case was sold apart at $29.95
1983 : | 1984 : |
And we have the Computer catalogs for 1983 and 1984 too.
Nothing after 1984… definitely replaced by the PC-3 !
Uh, do you see the PC-2 color page 39 ? It’s light brown, like PC-1500…
Printing problem or does it really exist a non grey version ?
1983 RSC 08 page 38: | 1983 RSC 08 page 39: |
1983 RSC 09 page 116: | 1983 RSC 09 page 117: |
1984 RSC 10 page 57: | 1984 RSC 11 page 61: |
And here are the Additional catalogs from 1982 to 1984.
Yes ! 1982, this the first time on catalog for the PC-2.
But at the last catalog its price was $99.95 only !
Sale 1982 n°358: | Sale 1983 n°369: |
Sale 1983 n°370: | Sale 1983 n°371: |
Sale 1984 n°376: | Sale 1984 n°379: |
You can visit Mike’s website for more informations of Radio Shack’s story and to see these pictures in high resolution.
Here is it, the rare version of the user manual :
If you want to get it run to Gary’s auction on eBay : (Sold)
Auction for this rare manual + a mint PC-2
Gary, thanks for the picture !
With the advent of small 8th and 9th so I have to redo the family photo.
So this is a total of 9 different versions of our favorite pocket computer.
Come on, I made you presentations!
From left to right and from top to bottom:
– Sharp PC-1500 Europe and North America.
– Sharp PC-1500A Europe and North America.
– Sharp PC-1500 Japan.
– Sharp PC-1501 Japan.
– Sharp PC-1500 Japan blue.
– Sharp PC-1500 RP2 Brazil
– Hiradastechnika PTA-4000 Hungary
– Hiradastechnika PTA-4000 + 16 Hungary
– Tandy / Radio Shack PC-2
What makes us 4 beautiful colors!
Few more pictures :
Before you go on your Internet browser to try to find those missing in your collection here is the order of rarity (the rarest to most common)
– Sharp PC-1500 Japan blue.
– Sharp PC-1500 RP2 Brazil
– Hiradastechnika PTA-4000 Hungary
– Hiradastechnika PTA-4000 + 16 Hungary
– Sharp PC-1501 Japan.
– Sharp PC-1500 Japan.
– Tandy / Radio Shack PC-2
– Sharp PC-1500A Europe and North America.
– Sharp PC-1500 Europe and North America.
I wish you good looking …
Do you have these manuals ?
Be patient to find them…
Getting started on the PC2
(282 pages, english)
Radio Shack Service Manual
(70 pages, english)
TRS-80 Pocket Computer Model PC-2
(176 pages, french, german, dutch)
Here are some well known manuals :
PC2 Owner’s manual
(108 pages, english)
Printer owner’s manual
(114 pages, english)
RS232C owner’s manual
(64 pages, english)
Quick reference card
Most of you better know the Sharp system. Why ?
Maybe because Tandy/Radio shack didn’t follow Sharp along the years for this pocket computer.
Here is the Tandy system :
We know some PC-3, PC-4… but the PC-2 is still at the PC-1500 step.
I don’t know exactly why…
Someone can help me with this item ?
I already presented the PC-2.
To be precise I presented one version of the machine.
Yes, you really read “one version”, maybe the third one.
On the picture you can see lot of blue straps and a IC named “SC613128” with “A03”.
We know it’s the firmware revision. Then A03 seems to be the third.
Does someone have the first and the second ? Uh… that sounds mysterious…
I have the fourth !
As you see, no blue straps on the CPU board.
In fact it’s exactly closed to the PC-1500 evolution.
But… one moment please…
With some friends we had a really interesting discuss about Tandy and Sharp.
Like the chicken and the egg … which came first?
After reading this first article you have more questions than answers, isn’t it ?
– who have the versions one and two ???
– who can answer the chicken/egg question ???
Most of us really know much about the Sharp PC-1500.
But only a few know the Tandy PC2 system.
It is a complete system with peripherals, software and supplies.
This will be the subject of next articles.
Say connected !
Radio Shack decided to sell the PC-1500 with it’s own face.
Look at the keys, they are perfectly ordered !
But i don’t think it’s very useful.
The CPU board is not different.
