How to transfer things to a computer when the only connection you have is serial console ?

I was reading something and suddenly got a flashback to when I was playing with an old IBM RS6000/320 I got many years ago. Getting it up and running was a fun exercise in patience, installing AIX 3.2.5 (I think) from tapes. It took a couple of hours. And I had to do it twice if I remember correctly as the HD I had was too small.

Anyway, when AIX was up and running the next problem was getting a bit of basic software into it like gcc and ssh. That should be easy, right ? Just use scp.. oh wait, AIX 3.2.5, that is kinda old. Even at the time (2000), very, very old (AIX 3.2 was release in 1992). So no nice tools to use. And I didn't have suitable network cabling for it at home at the time either, so no use of any primitive networking tools. The only connection I had was the slow serial console.

The simple answer: uuencode and uudecode


And that reminds me, need to check if it still runs after all these years.