KFC CA-2011 Monitor

Unless you're a podcaster or a music producer, your computer's monitor surely ranks as one of its most important components.

It's also one of the most overlooked -- although, ironically, it's the one that stares you right in the face, and most computers aren't nearly autonomous enough to be of much use without one. Obviously, you'd want a monitor that's good on the eye of the beholder. Bigger is better, and it's a component that generally outlasts whatever other upgrades your computer might undergo. Right?

And a 14-inch monitor is so standard... so ordinary!

So, in October 1995 I tracked down a distributor by the name of TVR Computers in Rivonia and forked out R5735,00 for a 20-inch monitor made by a hitherto unknown Taiwanese company with the rather unflattering brand name of KFC.

20 inches of KFC

KFC = Kuo Feng Corporation

Although the company had a respectable catalogue of products and the CA-2011 was an otherwise fine unit, its CRT's blue gun did go faulty on me. Twice! Luckily it was still under warranty.

From 1996 onwards this was THE monitor. This thing rocked!

By the time we relocated to Germany I had already bought a new PC (which came with a new monitor) and this one was demoted to a 30kg paperweight that got lugged around when building or restoring other machines.

PC workshop

User's manual (English) | More photos: In operation | Dot matrix control display | Connectors | Sticker

So, from 2001 onwards this was the SPARE monitor; it was kept as an emergency unit and in case there's need to view some exotic device's video output. This never really happened, just about everything's gone from CRT+VGA to LCD+DVI/HDMI since.

It's June 2013. It's with a sad heart that I'm bidding this monitor farewell. Thanks, buddy!



This page last updated: 24-12-2022