Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Electronics Gadgets used by people of our generation.. contd..

Continued from last post..
I have covered valve radio, gramophone, transistor radio and spool tape recorder in earlier post..

Gadgets used & being used by our generation :

5th Gadget in my list is record player and later record changers. These used to play 45 and 33.33 RPM records called EP and LP respectively. I purchased a Phillips record player in 1973, which I use to hook up with Phillips transistor's Aux input to listen to melodies of yesteryear. 




6th Gadget in my list is a cassette type tape recorder. Later there were 2 in ones (radio and tape recorder) and 3 in ones (Radio, tape recorder and Audio CD player) became popular. I had brought from Germany one Toshiba make 2 in one with digital tuning for radio model in 1983. Later we had other 2 in one and 3 in one as well. Now people invest in high end music systems - san the tape recorder part. 
 

7th Gadget used by us was a calculator - 1st with LED display later with LCD display. A table top model which was used initially. Later   scientific calculator with trigonometrical, exponential, Logarithmic functions and with LCD display. An improved version of programmable calculator also was used by some technical persons but it did not become much popular.  I purchased another variant-calculator watch. Though not so popular now, we can still see calculator being used by some shop keepers.


8th Gadget which became popular with people of our generation was a electronic diary. This was mainly used to replace mini diaries which listed telephone numbers. I still have one with 32 KB of memory.  64 & 128 KB models were also available. This is not in use now. 



9th Gadget in my list is land line telephones became popular around this time with introduction of subscriber trunk dialing (STD)  & ISD service made available by the department of telephones (DoT) now called BSNL. Telephone was not a new device and was used by many people but we took a connection only after subscriber trunk dialing (STD) was introduced in Ranchi.

Later wireless models were available and still are under use. 


10th Gadget in my list is Television sets. In 1983, Doordarshan established a high power TV tower in Ranchi. I was trying to convince my wife and kids to allow me buy a portable BW (Black & White) 14" TV with battery back up set. Some how one of my friend's 3 in one with 4" mini TV came to me for repair. When the family saw DD's programs like Humlog, Chitrhar etc I was allowed to purchase 14" BW Onida TV later around 1986 we purchased Onida 21" colour TV. Now Plasma, LCD, LED are in use.  


Other gadgets PC, laptop, camera, mobile, tablets are also being used by our generation effectively.