Hello everyone. Decided after yesterday's find I should quit lurking and start posting now that I have a collection to show again (ie more than two boomboxes). There are a couple I used to have that I shouldn't have sold that should be in this topic as well, but I just had to get rid of them and now I have to go find them again in a remote corner of Saskatchewan where these aren't that easy to come by.
Here's what's in the collection currently. First, the very first... a Pulser CC4000 my mother bought me brand new in 1985 as my first. I'd wanted one with a TV but Canadian Tire was sold out. This was the second choice - IIRC it cost just under $120 Canadian. I've kept it fully working, having been an electronics tech since I was 14. That metal "private" sticker up top is covering the hole where the button for dial illumination used to be - a modification I made once when I was sick of not being able to see the radio dial. That mod didn't work out very well... the lamps lit up the whole top panel of the thing. The other mod I did was to replace the red power LED with a green one... I wanted it to be a different color than the red FM stereo indicator next to it.
This was especially irritating to use as a portable. The handle only locks down the speakers when it's in the up position. You put the handle even partway down, and the speakers love to fall off. I think I tried once and once only to put it on my shoulder. Other than that, it's been a great unit. I did a lot of recording off the radio when I was a kid, and the tape deck has quite decent sound quality.
Next stop - a Sanyo M7770K. I found this at a thrift store for $8. Had the fine tuning knob missing, part of the case broken, and a broken antenna. The tape deck is a little flaky, but works well enough that I didn't feel like fixing it. The rest of it is working fine. This gets used during long power failures for the shortwave abilities, and for the fact that batteries last forever in it. It now has a six foot long antenna - helps the shortwave reception a bit.
And now, the one I found yesterday. I work at a church part time, which means I get to see rummage sale items before the public does. There were two boomboxes there this week. One was a Fisher CD model - never liked them much so I left it. I'm picky when it comes to my collection - it has to have something cool about it or some personal significance. But the other one? Jackpot. Here's a Pioneer SK-650. Five bucks. Came with its original owner's manual. I still need to clean this up and go over it... it does have some issues. It's mostly working with a slow tape deck and controls that need cleaning, but that's easy stuff.
And that's it - my collection. Hopefully this will be getting bigger instead of smaller now. The two that couldn't make it are the Panasonic RX-DS20 I bought new back in 1990 and sold a couple years ago still working fine, and an unknown Sanyo one piece that started breaking plastic parts a while back and ended up getting tossed out. Nothing I could do for that one.
There aren't too many units I'm intentionally looking for, but the Panasonic RX-DS30 is on that list, along with several cool models I remember seeing back in the 80's. I'll keep looking.
Here's what's in the collection currently. First, the very first... a Pulser CC4000 my mother bought me brand new in 1985 as my first. I'd wanted one with a TV but Canadian Tire was sold out. This was the second choice - IIRC it cost just under $120 Canadian. I've kept it fully working, having been an electronics tech since I was 14. That metal "private" sticker up top is covering the hole where the button for dial illumination used to be - a modification I made once when I was sick of not being able to see the radio dial. That mod didn't work out very well... the lamps lit up the whole top panel of the thing. The other mod I did was to replace the red power LED with a green one... I wanted it to be a different color than the red FM stereo indicator next to it.
This was especially irritating to use as a portable. The handle only locks down the speakers when it's in the up position. You put the handle even partway down, and the speakers love to fall off. I think I tried once and once only to put it on my shoulder. Other than that, it's been a great unit. I did a lot of recording off the radio when I was a kid, and the tape deck has quite decent sound quality.
Next stop - a Sanyo M7770K. I found this at a thrift store for $8. Had the fine tuning knob missing, part of the case broken, and a broken antenna. The tape deck is a little flaky, but works well enough that I didn't feel like fixing it. The rest of it is working fine. This gets used during long power failures for the shortwave abilities, and for the fact that batteries last forever in it. It now has a six foot long antenna - helps the shortwave reception a bit.
And now, the one I found yesterday. I work at a church part time, which means I get to see rummage sale items before the public does. There were two boomboxes there this week. One was a Fisher CD model - never liked them much so I left it. I'm picky when it comes to my collection - it has to have something cool about it or some personal significance. But the other one? Jackpot. Here's a Pioneer SK-650. Five bucks. Came with its original owner's manual. I still need to clean this up and go over it... it does have some issues. It's mostly working with a slow tape deck and controls that need cleaning, but that's easy stuff.
And that's it - my collection. Hopefully this will be getting bigger instead of smaller now. The two that couldn't make it are the Panasonic RX-DS20 I bought new back in 1990 and sold a couple years ago still working fine, and an unknown Sanyo one piece that started breaking plastic parts a while back and ended up getting tossed out. Nothing I could do for that one.
There aren't too many units I'm intentionally looking for, but the Panasonic RX-DS30 is on that list, along with several cool models I remember seeing back in the 80's. I'll keep looking.
