Vintage technology

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Carburetors. The best invention for a car, or motorcycle EVER!! !! ! I can tune, jet, meter, and calibrate one, or 4, in sync, to work perfectly. The only reason fuel injection was ever made, is because people do not take the time, and do not know how a carburetor functions properly. Sometimes they can be temperamental. Like me

What about slide rules? They have gone the way of the dinosaurs since the advent of pocket calculators the run on photoelectric cells, carry 8 to 10 digits of accuracy and cost under $20.00.

ruveyn

I still have a sony Walkman pro d6 portable cassette deck, which for a time in the 1980s was the most portable way of making live on-location high sound recordings. with metal [particle] tape and dolby C the recordings were relatively noise-free and wide dynamic range/frequency range, and had acceptably pure tone quality/low wow and flutter.

if you are so jealous, then take a look at my "trashed" workbench.

[img][800:600]http://65.60.10.2/~joyangel/images/Trashed-lab.jpg[/img]

feel better now!! !

I have lots of older things. I acquired an old Califone 1430C record player (1970s-early 80s) from a thrift store for $15 one time. Plus I have probably 100-150 78 records, another 30-40 45s and a couple LPs scattered around. I hardly play them anymore, but it's fun to pop in an old Victor or Columbia 78 and hear an antique recording by Billy Murray or Lewis James. I also have some 1940s-50s 78s, mostly big band (Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller etc) and some pop (Frank Sinatra, Frankie Laine etc) that I have acquired over the years.

I also own enough VHS tapes to have a rental store. Probably more than 500 tapes, including over 150 tapes that were home recorded with 1983-2009 movies and TV programming, some with original commercials. Instead of a VCR/DVD combo like most people have, I use a Panasonic VCR from 1999, model # PV-9662. I also have a few (but not many at all) Betamax tapes, and use an old Sony SL-HF300 from about 1984-85 for that.

We used to have lots of older TVs...all of them died or went into the dump. We had an early-mid 90s RCA XL-100 27'' used in the family room of our old place; another XL-100 in the master bedroom from the late 80s; a Magnavox projection TV in the living room, etc. Also had an old RCA VR450 VCR from 1988 that died around 2003. I played all of my old Blue's Clues, Toy Story, Elmo etc. tapes in that VCR when I was very little. A tape with Sylvester Stallone's "Get Carter" in it caused the VCR to get stuck and die.

No really old radios at all, but I do use a portable Grundig for AM, FM and shortwave reception. Shortwave has really been a desolate dial lately, with all the European stations ceasing operation in the past few years (and that also includes Radio Canada International).

I love my old tech! To name off a few things, I have a large collection of VHS tapes, three VCR's, seven computers to my name alone (including the ones I use frequently) with some spare parts, a 10mb hard drive for display purposes, a JVC direct drive record player with a bunch of records, lots of audio cassettes that I use in the cassette deck in my 1986 AMC Eagle, a 1990 vintage Cobra 19+ CB radio, at least seven portable cassette players and recorders ranging from Sony Walkmans to GE and Panasonic models, some vintage car audio equipment (some which I would like to install in my car), nearly every single variant of the Gameboy ever made minus the Pocket, some Playstation 1 games, and I sell vintage tech and electronics as well.

Somewhat I like turn-tables that one can use to play vinyl records as I love music in that form, the of course cassette tapes and cassette players with which to play them. I also remember when cameras actually took film that you had to take in to get developed rather than just taking a pic on your digital camera or phone and simply uploading it onto a computer to do with what you like. DVD's started when I was a teen I think I remember that they where 'new' and heavily advertised if you watch older VHS movies before DVDs got popular after preview it will say 'coming out soon on video and DVD' and they always say DVD like its some very new exciting thing sort of funny to see now that DVDs are more common than VHS. One thing though is DVDs freeze up, or skip or get scratched and effects sound/picture though you don't have to rewind them......VHS doesn't freeze up or skip though after heavy use might get a little fuzzy and obviously must be reminded.

I certainly like the look of vintage vehicles to newer ones, though I know next to nothing about cars...maybe more than some as I've done lots of observing of my dad and other family out in Minnesota working on them so observed but I couldn't probably repair a car. Then computers lol...I remember those pesky floppy disks and of course had my fair share of playing games on Nintendo 64 I myself never had one but other people had them so sometime got to play if visiting cousins or friends or whatever.

I remember those wing window thingies on the fronts of car side windows, you'd tilt them in so as to get a blast of fresh air while the windows were rolled up. I remember the smell of leady rich gasoline exhaust coming out of cars, it had a "sauer-krauty-ey" smell to my nose. I remember when cars went VROOOMMM!! ! and car/truck exhausts were roarty blatting stentorian notes and not the soft whirring hum of today. I remember the overhead transparency projectors at school. dialing old phones that went SHUCK-CHIKCHIKCHIKCHIK and the old telephone exchanges with their BRBDLBRBDLBRBDL dial tone. the hizzy buzzy tinny dull sound of old AM transistor radios. the scratchy old monophonic 78 rpm records. the warm orange glow of tubes, and their ozoney smell. checker cabs. International Harvester automobiles. 4 on the floor. naugahide. double-breasted suits and bell/flared bottom pants. fat belts with big metal belt hook thingies on them. wide lapels, "leisure suits" and garish fat ties. drive-in theatres. the TANG drink being neat and supposedly new tech. the new big CRT 25" console tv the size of a small refrigerator on its side, and humongous console stereos 6+ feet wide. thick orange shag carpeting and poppy-colored appliances, yellow bathtubs, wood paneling all over the place. flowing cars with colorful paintjobs rather than the drab grayish metallic chunks of sharply creased molybdenum you see today. I could go on but I don't want to further bore the youngsters whose eyes may accidentally stray upon this post.

Vintage home computers from the 1980's are a past special interest of mine. I have a whole collection of them, including some very rare pieces of hardware. I'm actually looking to pass these items so if anyone want's to know what I have (or has something they are looking for), do feel free to send me a personal message.

Everything I own operates perfectly. I have a device that even converts the old RF signal for use on anything that accepts VGA input. Donating is not out of the question. The Boston Computer Museum is about an hour away from me. I also went through a phase of collecting ancient artifacts (roman, greek, egyptian, etc.) which I'm also considering donating to an academic collection.