SIN_QL_AIR, Dutch Sinclair QL Users Group

An introduction

If you're not so long into computers, you might wonder what the Sinclair QL is. Well, the QL (or Quantum Leap) designed by Sinclair Reserch in 1984, was the first personal computer to offer features like multitasking and screen windowing at a price affordable to the average home and small business user. Things you do today on a 486 or Pentium PC with many megabytes of RAM and harddisk space were possible on a QL back in 1984, using only 128Kbytes of RAM!
The original QL was based around a Motorola 68008 (8-bit databus version of the 68000) processor, had 128Kbytes of RAM and two built-in storage devices known as Microdrives which could store both up to 100K. Now that sounds not much, but remember that most home users at that time used cassette storage or at best a single-sided single-density floppydrive to store their programs and data on! Also, computer programs were programmed much more efficiently then; the Quill wordprocessor shipped with the QL occupied only 52Kbyte.
Even though the production of QL's stopped when Sir Clive Sinclair sold his company to Amstrad in 1986, there are still lots of QL enthusiasts around the world and, because the QL has a flexible design and can be extended quite easily, there are still peripherals being developed like accelerator cards and harddisk interfaces.

The Dutch Sinclair QL User Group, Sin_QL_air, was founded in 1984 and still has a lot of active members who meet each other regularly at the club meetings in Eindhoven. These meetings also draw a lot of attention from outside the Netherlands, resulting in many foreign QL enthusiasts to join in.

Sin_QL_air meetings in 2005:

26 March
18 June
15 October

The meetings are held in Eindhoven, at the St. Joris College (Roostenlaan 296). The meeting venue is easily accessible both by car and public transport, and a motel accomodation is located in the vicinity.

`Contact addresses:`

Sjef van de Molengraaf, secretary, Quasar Magazine editor and meeting organisation. Phone: +31-40-2442309 Jan Bredenbeek , Chairman and Internet site editor. Phone: +31-35-6236823, fax: +31-35-6239291.

`Other interesting Sinclair QL-related sites:`

The Official QL FAQ TF Systems Jochen Merz Software Phil Borman's homepage Thierry Godefroy's homepage Jonathan Hudson's homepage Peter Jaeger's QL Support page ERGON BBS Marco Vacquier's homepage

`FTP Servers`

ftp.nvg.unit.no ftp.gui.uva.es