[SunHELP] Digital PDP 11-34 help

[Fogg, James]

Sorry to do this here, but I haven't subbed to any PDP lists yet.

It looks like I may be living with an old friend again (a PDP 11-34).
Unfortunatly, this is such an old friend that I don't remember enough about
it to know what I'm looking at (college and my last PDP/11 was 18 years
ago).

Q. Is it complete enough to boot/run?
Q. Is an O/S available for this (only one I ran on PDP/11 was RSTS)?
Q. It looks like no drives/storage, is this a big deal to correct for
little/no cash?
Q. Would the odd D/A - A/D boards be good swap fodder?

Here is the inventory:

> Realizing that I don't really know very much about these machines,
> here's what an inspection of the various bits and pieces reveals:
>
> 6' cabinet, rack mount, with power supply (8 110 outlets, plus odds and
> ends).  This is clean, on casters etc.  Has a PDP11 sign on it.
>
> H786 power supply, labelled PDP11-23.  This is separate from the cabinet
> unit, and was grabbed from the other machine that was junked.
>
> What seems to be a PDP11-34 CPU unit, with a card cage attached on top
> of it.  Has a keypad, on/off switches etc.
>
> 2 card cages for the cabinet, slide into the rack mount.
>
> A batch of boards, as follows (I think this is the complete set of
> boards from the machine as junked):
>
> M7856 (2)
> M7859
> M8719
> M8265 (2)
> M7891 (2)
> M8266
> M8206
> M8207
> M8053
> M8032
> M5012 (4)
> 13729
> M8044DK (3)
> M8186
> M9392
> M8044DC
> M9202
> G670
> G7273 (2)
>
> There are a batch of ribbon cables and a set of connectors for
> digital/analogue communication.  This machine was almost certainly used
> for monitoring pumping station equipment at the Portland-Montreal
> Pipeline pumping station here in Waterford, hence the D/A-A/D equipment,
> and probably some of the boards if I knew enough to identify them.
>
> 2 binders:  one with documentation for at least some of the parts of the
> machine, one with the maintenance record for it (carbons of the DEC
> maintenance call records).  Early dates seem to be about 1988.
>
> So if you're looking for complete history, this isn't bad, it seems to
> me.  And if you're clever about it you might be able to set it up to do
> something weird like monitoring all the stuff in your house.
>
>
> Anyway, I'd be really pleased to pass it on to your friend, or anyone
> else you may turn up.  I'm here most all the time, and it's a pretty
> straight drive across NH to western Maine to get here.  So get in touch,
> and with luck we can manage it all.  Thanks.
>