Saga of the Hayes Ultra vs NOISE

Saga of the Hayes Ultra vs NOISE .......... Part 1

12-25-91

Well, I received an Ultra for Christmas.  Gee, can't wait to try it.

Hmmm, it didn't work.  I tried and tried, but it only worked once or
twice.

01-02-91
   to
07-17-91

Sent it back to Hayes several times and they found nothing wrong.
In April, the Ultra started working from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM.  A
friend brought his USR Dual-standard to my house.

                    IT WORKED ALL THE TIME !

In late May, the Ultra started working from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM.  I
called the phone company and they came by to check.  Seems that I have
a bad case of "A.C. Hum" on the lines.  They will try to correct it.
OK, that is the problem, but the USR worked!  I called Hayes again and
suggested they come to my house since I live about 15 minutes away from
their Corp. office.  I told them that they needed to check their modem
in the REAL world.  NO LUCK!  "Oh, you have line noise"!
                         
Wrote a letter to Dennis Hayes and also posted a message in National
ECHOed conferences about the modem not working.

10 days later I receive a phone call FROM an engineer at Hayes:

       "WE WILL BE GLAD TO COME AND CHECK-OUT YOUR PROBLEM".


The following is what happened when the Hayes engineers came to my
house.




       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *




Saga of the Hayes Ultra vs NOISE ........... Part 2

07-18-91

Well,  Hayes sent 2 engineers over to my house last night.  They arrived
about 9:30 PM.  Then they setup their spectrum analyzer and other test gear
and did some calling.  All went well and my Ultra connected everytime.
We called AV-Sync, a board about 15 minutes in another direction, and the
Hayes support BBS, plus a few others.

At 11:00 PM the bottom fell out.  Electrical noise jumped in as if it
was staged.  The Ultra would not connect to anything faster than 300
baud.  They tried and tried until I suggested that they try the USR
Dual Standard that THEY brought with them.

       T H E Y    D I D . . . & . . .  I T    W O R K E D !

Now they are REALLY interested.  I heard alot of talk (before they
tried the USR) about "Boy this is really bad 60 Hz. harmonic noise."
We took a picture with a SCOPE camera and they are going to bring in
their best guru's to work on it.  If they can get the Ultra to talk
thru this, I think they will finially have a good product.  Maybe then
it can become a modem one can depend on.

For those interested, the noise was as follows:
Please note that this is from memory (Hayes has the picture).

Before 11:00 P.M.
=================

50

45

40

35

30                                              |
                                                |
25                                    |         |
                                      |         |
20                          |         |         |         |
                            |         |         |         |
15                          |         |         |         |
                  |         |         |         |         |         |
10                |         |         |         |         |         |
                  |         |         |         |         |         |
 5                |         |         |         |         |         |
                  |         |         |         |         |         |
 0 ___________________________________________________________________
   0   60   120  180  240  300  360  420  480  540  600  660  720  780
                              <--  Hz.  -->


After 11:00 P.M.
================

50

45                                              |
                                      |    |    |
40                               |    |    |    |    |
                            |    |    |    |    |    |
35                     |    |    |    |    |    |    |
                  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
30           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
25           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
20           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
15           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
10           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
 5           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
 0           |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
   ___________________________________________________________________
   0   60   120  180  240  300  360  420  480  540  600  660  720  780
                              <--  Hz.  -->

Please note that before 11:00 P.M. it was every other harmonic and that
after 11:00 P.M. it was every harmonic of 60 Hz.


John Rice (Sysop)
Lanta Systems BBS
(404) 451-0202