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What were you doing (technology wise) when you were 15 ?

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Longman, Jul 2, 2017.

  1. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    Reading SeanMT's threads (especially his comment about starting a recording before going to school) made me think how some things have changed yet others haven't since I was 15 (back in 1977).

    The big difference is that many of the things Sean is buying at thift shops (like Walkmans) hadn't even been invented back in 1977.

    However, cassettes were well established in 1977 and both myself and a number of friends had our own mono cassette recorders. For playing Vinyl, of which a small range (Music for Pleasure etc) was available at the local Supermarket we had a Fidelity record player (similar to a Dansette). Recording an LP involved putting the Cassette Recorder Microphone microphone in front of it, carefully leaving the room and hoping there were no loud noises outside :ohmy

    Radio cassettes were available as shown in this 1977 catalogue scan but were too expensive for most schoolkids. For a stereo boombox you would have had to have gone to a more specialist retailer.
    1977 recorders.jpg

    I just noticed the fact that Philips were catering for Hipsters back then (item 14) with a suitably inflated price to match :lollegs:

    Blank Cassettes were reasonably cheap but video games (on the adjacent page) definitely weren't.

    1977 cassettes.jpg


    According to the web the average adult wage was £68 back then. My pocket money was £1 a week, although I did also get a magazine on my parents Newsagents account, delivered each month by the paperboy. Having progressed through "Speed and Power" (all about things like Dragsters and Warships), then "Everyday Electronics" by 1977 I was on to "Electronics Today International" which had both news and construction projects for all the latest developments in electronics, Hi Fi, and computers. Most of the stuff in there, like the latest Bang and Olfson Hi Fi would have been far more than my parents would have considered spending.

    However, in 1978 they did pay for a kit for an extremely novel item who's advert said "Now you can have a Microprocessor in your home". The item incorporating said TMS1000 microprocessor was a Doorbell programmed with a choice of 24 tunes. Hi-Tech stuff back then..

    Computers were just starting to get cheap enough for schools to get one (and I mean one). This is what we had in our "Maths Resources Room".

    http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/a-bus2017-1.html

    Programming involved punching out holes with a pen on a pre-perforated punch card.

    Things were progressing though. I remember taking in a cutting from the Sunday Times newspaper about the launch of the Commodore Pet to show the Head of the Maths department which had only recently bought the Busicom.

    Now to the things that haven't changed:

    Collecting old electronics gear

    Vintage Radios_s.jpg

    Back in the 1970s you could buy valve (tube) radios like the one in the picture for pennies.
    I actually used to use this one a bit before eventually selling it at a Radio collctors fair in the 1990s when I was moving house.

    At school I was in an Electronics club and I also did radio communications in the Air Training Corps.
    People were always giving us their cast off TVs and Radiograms from the 1950s and 60s.
    When I started work in 1978 I spent my first weeks wages on a WWII vintage BC348 shortwave communicatiosns receiver that I bought from the ATC.

    Finally to the things that haven't changed I must add "The popularity of Star Wars" although of course it was completely new back then.rather than a 40 year old franchise.

    So what were you doing when you were 15?
    Bemoaning the fact that your parents bought you a Sanyo walkman rather than a Sony ?
    Saving up for your first Boombox ?
    Admiring the one your Grandparents had bought to play their James Last tapes on,
    or getting it as a cast off when they switched to CD ?

    Lets hear your memories.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2017
  2. Cassette2go

    Cassette2go Well-Known Member

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    At age 15 I was in my 2nd year of boarding school on the Cape Cod MA while living in Hightstown NJ & I had a Yorx shoebox style cassette player for recording school classes to re-listen to later the same day.
     
  3. Boodokhan

    Boodokhan Well-Known Member

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    I didnt own any electronic item at age 15 but used to open the home radios and TVs to see what were inside the unit.
    I remember when nobody was home i would grab a screwdriver and open the big TV cabinet to see internal component. As far as i remember would always end up with extra screws.
     
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  4. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    I wonder how many of those shoebox style recorders (of various makes) were sold. They were very popular in the UK as well.

    I don't think I would have dared open the family TV which was rented. However, whenever the repair man visited I tried to get a good look inside.
    At about 14 I wanted to be a TV repair man, which was probably the most Hi-Tech job I had seen anyone doing.
    Regarding taking things apart I remember taking apart a switched Multiway mains socket adaptor, which was only slightly easier to get back together than completing a Rubiks cube :iconconfused:. I obviously didn't learn as years later took apart a mechanical digital clock in the cooker (to oil the noisy mechanism) only to find it was a nightmare to reassemble.

    In my early teens I often bought stuff from Jumble sales (which were held in a hall really close to my parents house) simply for the fun of taking it apart.
    I wonder how many now collectable 1950s radios and clocks I destroyed for the fun - and educational experience.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2017
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  5. autoreverser

    autoreverser Well-Known Member

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    when i was 15 it was 1982, i was allready owning a sony WM-2 wich was my 2nd portable stereo player, 1st one was a TPS-L2-clone (Westman) in late 1980 from my uncle

    with 10 i owned my 1st own record-player, wich was a combi radio (vacuum-tube) / turntable, i remember its made was GRAETZ (radio) and DUAL (turntable), it was all in a wooden cabinet and from the late 60'es, the records for it were all the unwanted "shellac's" i got from the whole neighbourhood, but in 1978 i bought my first own record wich was AC/DC - DirtyDeedsDoneDirtCheap (european pressing, still have it)...

    ...but back to me beeing 15: the cassettes i was listening LOUD in the school-bus (the Westman used to be WAYS loder than the WM-2) were all recorded on a SANWA 7050-A boombox wich i got also from my uncle when i was 13, sources were fm-radio and a Lenco- turntable connected through a Grundig mc-pre-amp to the box. one year later i worked in school-holidays in a carpentry and the complete sellery was (well) invested in a 2nd. hand Hitachi tapedeck and amplifier with a Dual turntable.
    i also had my first own tv-set, given from a neighbour who said it was unfixable broken i fixed it up with my dad's help (my dad used to be electronic teacher), it had some strange "sensor"buttons - but we could receive only 3 stations, wich only started transmitting roundabout 4pm untill midnight - very few series to watch, but at least some important series like "startrek" (i allways liked startrek more then star-wars), "pink panther", "hawaii 5-0", "tom & jerry", "popeye","mission impossible" etc. etc.

    music rules my life since i remember, also do portable stereos, luckily with beeing a bit more established as in tose young years i can afford a serious hifi-set and leave my Walkmen & bbx's in the shelve just to look at them ;-)

    1982 was great, i had to redo 9th. school-class as i put more enthusiasm to work on my skills in playin pinball then learning for school and i must admit my parents probably had a hard time with me, but now at the age of 50 i must say there's no question my pinball- and pool- skills, all the crazy people and lifestyles i discovered in those days etc.etc. were much more important then best marks in school, learning for a pracical, not a theoretical living :smoke
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2017
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  6. 5B2BEE00

    5B2BEE00 New Member

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    at 15, it was 1990. Got my first "real" cassette deck at a yard sale on a hot July afternoon, a Pioneer CT-F850, for $5. Between that and a Sony WM-F15, and my 10-speed, I ruled the streets and hills, kept in great shape as a result! The CT-F850 replaced a Fisher BPC all-in-one compact stereo, and I then acquired a Technics receiver, some old Realistic speakers, and a Pioneer PL-7 turntable found at another yard sale around labor day for $10, and I began a lifelong quest in all things two channel. I remember going to Turtles records and tapes (a big chain in the Atlanta metro back in the day) and buying both LPs and struggling which blank tape I could afford (back then they had single packs of just about every TDK, Maxell, Sony and BASF you could want in all formulations).

    I would spend hours making my own mix tapes and home made "radio station airchecks" where I was the D.J.

    Man has time really flown by.
     
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  7. Chris

    Chris Active Member

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    Well, considering I was 15 3 years ago, it wasn't really that different to today.

    At 15, I was considering getting back into cassettes (something I hadn't done since I was about 5). I definitely started listening to music from digital sources much later than other people my age because it didn't really appeal to me as I didn't (and still don't) use my phone or tablet that much. Instead, I just bought CDs and listened to them on my laptop.

    Now that I've finally got back into cassettes, I've never enjoyed listening to music more than I do now.
     

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