SOLINET
"The BBC User Group Supporting SOLIDISK Products"

As Editor of Solinet, I read an early issue of EUG and then wrote to Will Watts suggesting we might liase a little. After all, we do have our Maker in common. As we have a few Electron users in our group and apparently there are Beeb owners in yours, I thought we should at least mention each other. Will sent me EUG #5 which I found to be very interesting. Details of your group and the way it operates will have been in our issue for September 1992 by the time you read this.

Solinet is a "disk-based" magazine by post. Members pay £4 a year to belong and they all (Most, well some!) send programs, routines, letters, requests, hints, items for sale and wanted on disk to me. I collate all this material to one DS DFS and ADFS disk and, every two months starting in January, return all the disks with a copy of the mag on. I did have a 3.5" drive in addition to two 5.25" but now one of our members does the 3.5" distributing for me and my small drive has been sold.

When Solidisk Tech Ltd of Southend began supporting the BBC Micros with various addon boards, they had some brilliant items to offer (Remember, this was the early Eighties and we still had a proper Radio 2 and Gas Boards, etc) and the prices were good, but their Mail Order system was chaotic. If we went to Southend for any of their upgrades, the fitting and, in many cases, minor repairs would be done f.o.c., but to deal with them by post was a nightmare. I firmly believed at the time that they thought of an idea for the Beeb and advertised it before it was actually made. Solinet was originally formed as a sort of 'self preservation society' and we all consoled each other with tales of horror.

For details of how we do it at Solinet, please send a s.a.e. and I will post a factsheet by return. Solinet is based at 41 Westbrook Drive, Rainworth, Mansfield, Nottingham NG21 0FB. Tel: 0623 795053.

Ron Marshall, EUG #6