Despite warnings from UltraSoft to the contrary, you can up and download from/
to disk in the Text (F7) mode while online with the direct-connect modem -- at
least with CompuServe and the M200.

No "Chipmunk" style ease, to be sure:

1. You have to leave Telcom go to Text via the F7 key

2. Open a new file, upload a file from the disk (Load from: 0:FILE.DO)
,

3. Push F8 to return to Telcom

4. Upload FILE.DO 

You cannot simply push F2 or F3 from Telcom, and up or download by adding a
"0:" to the file name as you can with the Model 100 Chipmunk (try that with a
Model 200 Chipmunk or a TDD with any machine, and you'll disconnect the modem).

Your up- and down-loads are limited by available RAM. Not perfect -- 
but just to be able to do this with the direct-connect modem without 
disconnecting from the line is amazing.

Here is the explanation from SYSOP Tony Anderson:

The TELCOM ROM for the Tandy 200 is different from that of the Model 100, in
that it offers the "Disconnect Y/N" option.  With the Model 100, If you leave
TELCOM, you disconnect... with the Tandy 200, you don't. That's always been
there, and was documented in the June 1985 issue of Portable 100, in an article
by Carl Oppedahl (pg 16; "Tandy Portables: What's the Real Difference").

Quote: "The TELCOM program in the 200 differs in a few respects from the
100's.  If you push F8 to dosconnect and answer "N", you'll end up out of
terminal mode.  This is disconscerting the first time it happens. There's good
news though.  You can go to the main menu, run a program, reenter TELCOM and
push F4 putting you back online - all without losing the distant computer."

Naturally, while you're "on hold", you can load and save to to TDD, I do it
all the time, and think nothing of it. In fact, you can do it with POWR-DISK
or TS-DOS, too.

The thing that I have always pointed out, is to watch what you're doing....
while you are happily on hold, and working with the disk, your CompuServe
clock ticks merrily along, and the minutes add up.  Should you forget, the
timeout period is more like 20 minutes, and at ten cents a minute, that's two
bucks you've cost yourself.

The manual claims such file transfers can be done ONLY with the acoustic cups.
For me, that would have been a serious limitations, since the acoustic cups are
worthless overseas -- you can get a handshake to the U.S., but the audio is
insufficient to transmit in most cases (note breve: half duplex is supposedly
3db better than full duplex -- worth remembering on a flaky connection). 

However, as Tony explains, the manual is correct for the M100, not for
the M200. Now -- if someone could only tell me how to list the files on a disk 
from basic with Disk Power -- LFILES doesn't work, and neither to any programs
that call it (eg, READIT.BA, TURBO-READIT)...I have a lousy memory...