In November 1977, this Charles Oropallo is the Charles Oropallo who authored and implemented a Bulletin Board System (BBS). Charles called it called Access-80. Charles’s BBS operated on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I, Level II microcomputer. There were only a limited number of such systems online devoted to public use on the entire planet at that time.
Access-80 provided personal messaging for local computer enthusiasts. It originally went online from Charles’s residence on Ridge Road in East Greenbush, NY.
Access-80 was purely a hobbyist endeavor Charles undertook while CEO of Oropallo Construction & Electrical Contracting, Inc. full time. A 300 baud modem and home brewed auto answering device connected it to dial-up over phone lines. Relative speed and technological changes have been immense – today’s dial-up (if you can even find it at all) at its fastest speed is 53,000 bits per second compared to 300 then!
Access-80 was also concurrently placed online in Schenectady, NY. It was operated there by a friend of Charles’s, Brian, who worked at Ellis Hospital.
In 1982, Charles moved from the Albany, NY area to April Drive in Nashua, NH, and so did Access-80. You can visit http://Access-80.com for more details about Access-80.
Before long, Access-80 was run by Charles’s friend Carl concurrently online in Londonderry NH as well as Nashua. Access-80 remained online until 1987.