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Old 1st Apr 2019, 6:31 am   #1
electronicskip
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Default Do you remember your first?...

Came across my old Calculator the other day in a drawer.
Unfortunately no longer working due to leaky old batteries left n there for years and years but it got me thinking what was the first electrical item you ever bought or received for each unit?

The ones I can remember are.

Calculator,
Computer, ZX81
Cassette player, Waltham.
Clock Radio Binatone Royale
Hi-fi Amstrad TS33
Video recorder Sanyo 9300pn
Watch, Trafalgar LED.
Laserdisc Player Philips VLP600

The only ones I still have are the Calculator,the Sanyo and the ZX81 .
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 11:32 am   #2
TonyDuell
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

In my case :

Calculator : Texas SR51A (but went HP as soon as I could afford them!)

Computer : MK14 (and then a TRS-80 Model 1 a year later)

Cassette player : Philips N2204

Clock Radio : Philips clock radio cassette. I forget the model number, but 1985-ish vintage

Hi-Fi : Stuff my late father gave me when he upgraded -- Leak Varislope Stereo + Stereo 20, Garrard 301 + Decca 'Professional' ffss arm

Video recorder : NordMenda V4405 (JVC internally)

(Digital) watch : an LED thing that I forget the make/model of

Laserdisc player : Again Philips, but I can't rememebr what.

I still have all of the above, most of it still works.

Others in my case :

Multimeter : A cheap thing, about 1000 ohms/volt from Lasky's. Upgraded to a kit from Tandy a little later (which I think I still have)

'Scope : Solartron CD1400. Then a Tektronix 555

Reel-to-Reel tape recorder : Brenell Mk 5.

Minicomputer (!) : Philips P850

Workstation-class computer : Three Rivers/ICL PERQ 2T1

Still have them all apart from the first multimeter.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 12:12 pm   #3
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

A medium wave only 6 transistor pocket radio can't remember the make. Sadly got thrown out by a member of my family.
Binatone Mustang 2 band medium and long wave radio. This did not last very long and was replaced by my first VHF/FM radio which was a Challenge Delux. Like the Binatone it did not last very long.
My first decent radio I owned was my HMV 1124 valve radio which I have still got..
Cassette player/recorder: Duette Automatic not working but I still have somewhere.
Record Player: A Dansette stereo record player which I loved, but sadly this was lost or destroyed by members of my family.
Calculator: CBM with early red LCD segment display dating from about 1976. When this went faulty I replaced it with a Casio solar powered calculator in 1982.
Watch: A red LED watch, unknown make dating from about 1976. Replaced by a Casio digital watch a few years later.
TV: 12" HMV 405 line portable set (BRC 980 Chassis) which was scrapped after some water was accidently poured into it.
Video, A Sanyo Betamax 6500 that I took over from my brother.
Colour TV, Decca Bradford that I have owned since 1977 and still going strong.
Clock Radio, A factory reconditioned Bush with three wavebands that I bought in the late 1980's, still got it and it sort of works
My first multimeter was a small cheap analogue meter I bought in 1976, still got it somewhere but was replaced by my first digital multimeter during the early 1980's.
Soldering Iron: Antex 25 bought in 1976 and is still my favourite iron and still in regular use.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 12:47 pm   #4
Paul_RK
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Calculator, Sinclair Scientific, supplanted after a year or two by a Commodore SR-1800 which I still have.
Computer, low end Hewlett Packard running XP with 40GB hard drive in late 2003.
Cassette recorder, £13 Avenger from Dixons.
Tape recorder, probably a rough old Walter.
Record player, wee two-tone green Emisonic, cast off by a workmate of my father when I was about three, with some '50s singles. The player was lost to time, but I bought a duplicate of it not so long ago. The singles are still here.
Hi-fi(?): Amstrad IC2000 MkII running unmatched corner 'speakers, a Stentorian HF1012 and a Goodmans in a larger Tannoy cabinet (well, I couldn't know the Tannoy unit wasn't there until I'd taken a dozen screws out...)...
Video recorder: used and already aging Sony SL-8080UB, still with us.
Watch, boy's Timex. Then a Trafalgar LED.
Radio, Regentone Regenteener, still around.
Valve radio, Cossor 500 Melody Maker, from Fakenham auction when I'd just turned nine.
Multimeter, little Sanwa which gave a few years' service.
Gramophone, table model Columbia Grafonola with worm-eaten plywood base. Gave the cabinet a coat of Darkalene and the base a drenching in woodworm fluid, the real stuff (late 1960s). It stank for years afterwards but the beetles didn't come back.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 8:06 pm   #5
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

One other I just remembered was my first colour tv I could call my own was a Nordmende TV , the cabinet was polar white with a nixie channel indicator but I might be wrong on the last part.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 8:30 pm   #6
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Hi,

First Record player - Fidelity HF35
First Transistor radio - An Ekco which was probably made in Japan (I received it around 1970 as a Birthday present from one of my sisters and her future husband)
First Tape recorder - Fidelity Playmaster Twin Track, officially it belonged to my parents but I was the only one who knew how to operate it ;-)
First television - Baird M673 I guess, which was given to me by our firendly insurance man who onced worked for Dixons.

There were a plethora of other things "gifted" to "the lad up the road who played about with those things (radios, telly's etc.) from neighbours and villagers who had updated their equipment to more modern stuff

Andrew
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 9:12 pm   #7
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

First radio was an Ivalek crystal set.


First valve radio was an Admiral AA5 in a bakelite case. That one nearly killed me, though the fault was crossed over L-N in the house wiring.


First tranny was Murphy B581.


First radio kit was Roamer 7 (ugh).


First bike was a wartime utility model, first new one a Triumph Rodeo.


First tools I bought were CK Piano Wire side cutters and a Stanley hand drill- I still have those.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 9:16 pm   #8
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

First music centre - Fidelity, model unknown but identical to the HMV MCH15 posted recently on here

First "proper" Hi-Fi - Pioneer seperates, again model(s) unknown but it had an early CD player, digital PLL tuner and IR remote

First TV - Ferguson (Thorn) colour portable, pushbutton tuner, model unknown but would love another

First piece of valve equipment - Fidelity 1-valve (plus rectifier) wonder, as yet still unidentified!

First valve radio - Ekco A320

Sadly a bit of a theme in that I don't recall the models of most of my "firsts"... Maybe because I tended to go through a fair few bits of electronic equipment, maybe because of my less than sober lifestyle until a decade or so ago, maybe just sod's law who knows? The one thing that rings true for all of the first 3 though, is that I'd know them if I saw them, and I'd own them all again in a heartbeat...
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 9:21 pm   #9
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

First PC,,,zx80 home built
First VCR,,,Philips n1500
First CTV,,,Philips g6 with TBA920 mod for above n1500
First radio,,Sinclair mini66
First HiFi,,,tripletone stereo amp, Garrard autochanger and wharfdale speakers
First tape recorder grundig tk120

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Old 1st Apr 2019, 9:31 pm   #10
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Calculator: a Commodore cheapo, replaced by a H-P33C - RPN for-the win! - when I went as an undergrad to University when I found the University had a Honeywell 6080 mainframe-computer which could run "Compiler B" - a precursor to the now-ubiquitous C-language and derivatives - and a leased-line to the UMRCC CDC7600 supercomputer.

Professionally, in the late-70s and still technically a student, I was designing Kilowatt-carrier-power 1.5-to-50MHz broadband amplifiers for a Government agency. The guys at EIMAC were my friends and we formed a long business-relationship.

Network-access: early-1980s, An IBM-4381 that could access "BITNET" via a couple of peers - TAUNIVM [Tel Aviv] and BLEKUL11 [Katholiek Universitat Leuven] gave me access to the INFO-HAMS forums and in turn via the 'bang-path' UUCP gateways to mil.army.wsmr.simtel20

Then I got to provision the first UK/USA research TCP/IP Internet circuit [56Kbits/sec!] into London, and then was asked to implement a usage-charging algorithm fot it... which was... "intriguing but profitable".

My first 'homebrew'amateur-bands receiver was a 1S5 regen built on the stripped-out chassis of a WS31. With this I got to hear SSB amateurs on 3.5MHz....

First legal amateur-bands transmissions were with a Pye Vanguard FM on 2M - the QQV06/40A could be coerced to produce around 60 Watts of carrier. I later stuck bigger heatsinks and extra inverter-transistors onto the Vanguard so it could produce 100W of FM. More than once it flattened the battery of my poor Ford Cortina 1600L.

First 'personal' computer - an Elektor "Junior'" - 6502 CPU with 1Kbyte of user RAM and a 2708 EPROM containing the monitor/control program. I rewrote the monitor, and went on to use the beastie [with a homebrew PLL decoder] as a RTTY station that converted amateur/commercial transmissions at various baud-rI ates to print out on an ASR43 ASCII teleprinter. It even did black- and red-shift ribbon printing.

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Old 1st Apr 2019, 9:48 pm   #11
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Goodness, too many to remember.
Xtal set I built in 1954. A 12" 405 Bw set in 1964. Non runner but I got it working, but it kept failing so it went (scrap?). Like Electronskip, my first CTV was a NordMende, a brown one, but later I had many (recon and sell) including many white ones. A 1972 L2US (?) came my way, that had nixie display and remote with the little red memory modules containing IGFET and Neons.
I don't expect you need to know about my 1939 New Imperial, first M/cycle bought Dec 1957 do you?
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Old 2nd Apr 2019, 12:09 am   #12
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Calculator: Dixons (I think) own brand, basic functions, gas fluorescent, christmas present. Possibly around 1978 or 79.
Computer: ZX81
Cassette player: We had a Picnica(?) in the early 70s intended for sending messages to a relative abroad, only 1 cassette was ever sent which was retrieved when she passed away as an eerie time capsule of Power Cut Britain.
Clock Radio: Had a Sony(?) "Digicube".
Hi-fi Amstrad: The first I owned was an Amstrad of some model, got it when my dad "upgraded" to... another Amstrad!
Video recorder: Can't remember brand, cast off by my brother in law. VHS. About 1990.
Watch: Casio model (something)200, I think.
Laserdisc: n/a
Video Games Console: Prinztronic MPU 2000
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Old 2nd Apr 2019, 9:06 am   #13
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

In terms of ownership...

Calculator: does one of those mechanical slider things with a stylus count? If so, that was probably my first.
Computer: BBC B.
Cassetter player: a Philips portable, but I don't remember the model number.
Clock radio: I don't think I've ever owned one!
Hi-fi: Heathkit kits for stereo valve amplifier and transistorised stero-FM tuner, with a Garrard record deck and an Amstrad cassette deck.
Video recorder: Philips VHS (bought for about £450 from one weekend's overtime). I don't recall the model.
I don't wear a watch and the only videodisc player is a Philips VLP(?) 700 that I bought at NVCF some years ago with the intention of getting it working - not yet achieved.
My first oscilloscope was also built from a Heathkit kit.

In terms of use, my first encounter with calculators was a mechanical one at school, where I also had my first encounter with the IBM 1900 computer belonging to the National Institute of Oceanography (later becoming the National Oceanographic Institute and moving to Portsmouth), who leased land from the school.
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Last edited by Dave Moll; 2nd Apr 2019 at 9:13 am. Reason: add first usage
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Old 2nd Apr 2019, 11:38 am   #14
Junk Box Nick
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Personal ownership: either given to me as gifts or personal purchases and listed in chronological order:

First 'consumer' electrical item: Philips AG4000 battery powered record player

First hobby electrical item: Philips Electronic Engineer set EE8 A20

First shortwave receiver: HAC one/two valve kit

First vintage radio item: HMV 'vanity case' typical battery 4 valve set*

First electronic calculator: Commodore 'scientific' with tiny nixie tube display

First digital watch: Unknown item free with a gallon of motor oil

First clock radio: Grundig Sonoclock SC36 - still in use.

First computer: Yet to own a computer

*Could be considered vintage at the time as it was one of several valve radios I was given by relatives and friends as transistor sets supplanted valve sets. I rigged up a mains power supply for it and used it daily for years.

Have acquired a few other items down the years.

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Old 6th Apr 2019, 6:58 pm   #15
JohnBHanson
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

First

Clock Radio - Philips, 2nd Dixons Prinzsound
First Tape Recorder Marconiphone 2 speed 4 track
First Computer Mk14 - paid 10 pound for it and gave it away to someone in Portsmouth... Had extra RAM/IO
Second Computer ATMOS
First Calculator Commodore Minuteman MM3M. I re-wired the keyboard to change the percentage key to a square root function
Most other calculators Commodore upto PR100 - Then I got given a graphics calculator (CASIO) for hard work.
First Digital Watch - Sinclair (LED)
First Video - Dixons Matsui 888 (Had teletext on it!)
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Old 6th Apr 2019, 10:46 pm   #16
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

Hmmm...had a Texas instruments Ti 33 calculator. Lovely thing, big and in a dark red translucent case.

Soldering iron...small Antex job. Loved it.

Tranny...dunno but a pocket sized thing it was, tinny as heck but I loved at.

Tape recorder was a reel to reel job, cheap from a catalogue I had as a kid for one Christmas. I wentnout into the streets and interviewed people. Duh!

Computer, no idea.
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Old 10th Apr 2019, 9:38 am   #17
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

A few other "firsts" for me include.

CB Radio (Harrier CBX) which again I still own and in GWO
Atari 2600 (first proper games machine which wasn't a computer)
I have half a dozen of these nowadays and about 600 carts too.

Decca radiogram was my first record player given to me by my mum when she bought a newer one and in fact my first electric shock was given to me by this beastie when I tried to extend the mains cord with extra pieces of wire and Sellotape!!
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Old 10th Apr 2019, 10:22 am   #18
peter_scott
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

First calculator: Faber Castell slide rule.
First multimeter: Avo Multiminor.
First 'scope: Cossor 339.
First soldering iron: Antex.
First sig gen: Avo All Wave Oscillator.
First television: HMV 1808.
First video: JVC 3300.
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Old 10th Apr 2019, 10:43 am   #19
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

I had a ZX81 with a morse tutor program, very good it was too, in fact amazing for 4k or whatever it was. Got me through my morse test and on to HF.

First soldering iron, Solon 60w!

First TV Denco kit about 1952

First tape recorder Truvox with Mullard type 'C' amplifier

First FM tuner Jasonkit.

Many other things but can't remember them any more.

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Old 12th Apr 2019, 3:41 pm   #20
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Default Re: Do you remember your first?...

First calculator: Simple thing from Tandy
First cassette recorder: Ferguson 3T07 "shoebox" recorder
First computer: Sinclair ZX81 (still going strong, possibly world's oldest extant ZX81 ROM dated March 1981 with no patch for the square root bug)
First VCR: Ferguson Videostar 3V35
First laserdisc: Marantz CV55 (still have it but power supply is dead)
First receiver: Harman/Kardon 330c (still going strong)
First record player: Vanity case style possibly Fideilty
First stereo turntable: "Medly" based on a Garrard 2025 (still going strong)
First stereo cassette: Realistic SCT-24
First multimeter: Micronta 22-188 (still going strong)

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