I didn't think I'd make it. 😰 🎉

65th achievement for me now. 👍

Cake Day 🍰

I consider this a personal achievement.

I first joined Reddit in July 2016, and I didn't think I'd last this long.

Here's to many more years! 😂

From 1986, with full logic, auto reverse double cassette, 4-band tuner, 5-band graphic equalizer.

The neat thing about these is TAPE 2 can record in the reverse direction as well as forward. Both models support Type II and Type IV tape recording/playback.

I believe I paid ~AU $750 (QT-95E) and ~AU $550 (QT-94Z) + shipping. They were surprisingly clean and in excellent cosmetic/working condition when I got them and no chipped plastic.

** No repairs necessary. ** 👌

Each tape deck has 2 motors + a solenoid. The mechanism is mostly geared, and only uses one drive belt. High speed dubbing is redundant by today's standards and music quality suffers in that mode. Dolby NR is a luxury feature on the QT-95E.

I AM NOT PLANNING TO RESELL. They will be added to my growing collection. 😂 👍

I recently acquired this little red Sharp boombox from eBay. I paid over AU $475 with free postage/shipping included. I bought it for the double auto reverse tape decks and, because it has a nice red front panel and black casing.

When I first got it, the cassette doors would not open, even when the eject lever was pressed (eject is built into the doors on this model). I wasn't willing to force them open. Turned out the door release sliders (located inside the front panel) for both decks were broken. I replaced these with identical undamaged parts from a black QT-94Z I have which has several electronic faults and isn't worth repairing.

This solved the eject problem. Next step was to re-line the speaker grilles as the original foam was long gone (someone must have removed it when it perished). I fitted brand new transparent 3mm (thickness) acoustic grille foam (ideal for boombox speakers) which improved the appearance.

Radio tunes all FM stations in stereo nicely. Line in seems to work. Tape 1 fast forwards, rewinds and plays fine in both directions. The only issue is with Tape 2; most times it won't play in the forward direction but reverse works OK. Rewind and fast forward work in that deck too.

The final step at this stage was to clean the 4 push switches on the front, as the TAPE/RADIO was flaky and causing the left channel to drop out.

All in all, for its age, it's not a bad little boombox and makes a nice addition to my ever-growing collection.

UPDATE: After some quick online research (without opening the unit up again), I discovered this double cassette model features full auto-reverse; both decks require a specific main flat drive belt and a secondary smaller mode/cam belt to facilitate the forward/reverse switching mechanism. This may explain the play direction issue with Tape 2. I have since ordered the correct belt kit which is specific to this particular model only and once it arrives, I will arrange a workshop to fit the new belts at cost (as I am not comfortable replacing them myself).

Cop Shop was a long-running Australian police drama television series produced by Crawford Productions that ran for seven seasons between 28 November 1977 and 23 July 1984. It comprised 582 one-hour episodes.

While many Crawford Productions police dramas combined videotaped interiors with location footage shot on 16mm film, Cop Shop was shot entirely on video, including external scenes.

After a run of 6 years, the show completed taping its last episode on 22 December 1983 and the final episodes were screened in the first half of 1984.

Several of them went on to other series; e.g. Neighbours, Sons & Daughters, Home & Away, All Saints, Blue Heelers, Prisoner, etc.

Cop Shop won many awards, including Logie Awards for most popular series and most popular actors, with Peter Adams and Paula Duncan winning multiple times. The show also won a number of other industry awards.

During its long run, many of Australia's new and established actors appeared in the series.

• Peter Adams as Det Jeffrey 'JJ' Johnson
• Tony Bonner as Det Snr Const Don McKenna
• Liz Burch as Liz Cameron
• Andrew Clarke as Max Saunders / Mervyn Young
• Terence Donovan as Det Sgt Vic Cameron
• Paula Duncan as Det Const Danni Francis
• Nicholas Eadie as Const Sam Phillips
• Alan Fletcher as Const Frank Rossi
• Billie Hammerberg as Insp Joyce Stratton
• Alwyn Kurts as Sgt Reg Wallis
• John Lee as Insp Ian Timms
• Joanna Lockwood as Valerie Johnson
• John McTernan as Sgt Tom Shannon
• George Mallaby as Det Snr Sgt Glen Taylor
• Terry Norris as Sgt Eric O'Reilly
• John Orcsik as Det Mike Georgiou
• Louise Philip as Claire O'Reilly
• Gregory Ross as Const Tony Benjamin
• Bill Stalker as Det Sgt Peter Fanelli (previously appeared as Fanelli in Skyways)
• Lynda Stoner as Const Amanda King
• Olga Tamara as Det Const Julie Mitchell
• Gil Tucker as Const Roy Baker
• Rowena Wallace as Pamela Taylor
• John Walton as Terry Linford Jones / Tom McNamara
• Patrick Ward as Const Peter Fleming
• Diane Craig as Alison Finlay / Eve Kadar (29 episodes)
• Lisa Armytage as Jennifer Grant (12 episodes)
• Anne Haddy as Louise Francis (8 episodes)
• Scott McGregor as Constable Stephen Waters (7 episodes)
• Peter Sumner as Detective Tom Foster (7 episodes)

The First Episode (1977)

Source

A few of the original cast have since either retired or passed away. An earlier "cop series" of the 70s was Matlock Police (1971-1976) which starred Michael Pate, Vic Gordon, and Paul Cronin (Cronin later appeared alongside Lorraine Bayly in The Sullivans (1976-1983) as Dave Sullivan, husband of Grace) which was set mainly during the second world war.

Division 4 (1969-1975) was also produced by Crawford as a police drama series.

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch a few episodes of Cop Shop, The Sullivans, and repeats of Matlock Police toward the end of the 1970s even though at the time, I was only 9 or 10 years old. I like old cop shows.

The images in this post are screen captures of the opening titles of the first episode of Cop Shop and a YouTube link to the video of it has been included.

Here you go. Meow.

A nice feeling. :)

This is not a recent pickup or score, but while spring-cleaning over Mother's Day weekend, I came across a large box marked "X Files" so being curious, I took a look inside.

• First image: side cover view of four tapes (out of a total of approximately 100).
• Second image: two X-Rated tapes. I obscured the front cover image of the one on the left as it contains graphic nudity. They are nice blue cassettes with white "Axis" spines.
• Third image: two R-Rated tapes. Both of these have "Walt Disney Home Video" printed on their shells (I showed them before).

Surprisingly all VHS tapes are clean and rewound. I must have obtained most of these via private mail order at some point a few years ago since X-Rated videos cannot be purchased publicly where I live.

I won't show the other 95+ tapes in the box as they are just the usual 18+ content (nothing illegal or special); however, several of them have hard core images on their covers, which in my opinion are not appropriate for this sub. You get the idea.

** These are the only four movies I noticed with "unique" cassettes. If I find any more like them I will mention it in the comments.

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe I've had these films for close to 25 years. The last time I watched any of them was back in 2001.

I didn't realize I'd unlocked this achievement recently. Now I have it 6x.

(light-hearted/amusing image)

People are bound to disagree with this; citing the slower the driver, the more chance of accidents and/or road rage happening.

(tongue-in-cheek caption, but I like classic cars)

Last week I picked up this Sharp GF-800Z (D) boombox from 1983. Originally, it had a couple of minor age-related issues; one of which was the tape decks wouldn't play, fast forward or rewind.

After opening it up over the ANZAC Day weekend, I discovered the idler gears for the take-up in both decks were seized. A thorough clean and lubrication fixed everything. Belts are good. The other issue was a horrible groaning noise accompanied by a mechanical vibration in TAPE 1. I replaced the capstan flywheel (with one from an identical junked mechanism), and both pinch rollers, which fixed the problem. This is the second boombox tape deck I've replaced a capstan in.

Seller I bought it from claimed the clock didn't work (all it needed was a AA battery). Time showing on it (albeit fuzzy) was correct when I took these pics. I quickly tested the decks with a Maxell UR 60. FM and all electronics work perfectly. The speaker grill foam is still intact as well. No other repairs needed.

Finally I re-adjusted the tape speed (both decks ran below correct position) using a professionally recorded 1 kHz calibration tape.

I now own 7 of these in my collection - fully working.

ABBA

ABBA were a Swedish pop music group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are among the most renowned and commercially successful musical groups in history, with numerous #1 singles and top-selling albums. In Australia between 1975 & 1977, the group had no less than 6 #1's on the charts.

The #1 singles:

• I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do (3 weeks)
• Mamma Mia (10 weeks)
• SOS (1 week)
• Fernando (14 weeks)
• Dancing Queen (8 weeks)
• Money, Money, Money (6 weeks)

Top 10 singles:

• Waterloo (#4) 1974
• Rock Me (#4) 1976
• The Name of the Game (#6) 1978

Studio albums:

• Ring Ring (1973)
• Waterloo (1974)
• ABBA (1975)
• Arrival (1976)
• ABBA: The Album (1977)
• Voulez-Vous (1979)
• Super Trouper (1980)
• The Visitors (1981)
• Voyage (2021)*

During their peak, ABBA comprised two married couples: Fältskog and Ulvaeus, and Lyngstad and Andersson. As their fame grew, their personal lives suffered, leading to the dissolution of both marriages.

After ABBA disbanded in December 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus continued their success writing music for stage, musicals, and films, while Fältskog and Lyngstad pursued solo careers.

*They reunited for the ninth and final studio album 40 years after the release of The Visitors, before parting ways as a group forever.

John Paul Young famously missed out on a #1 hit in Australia because of the overwhelming chart domination of ABBA in 1976. His single "I Hate The Music" peaked at #2 that year. It was stuck behind ABBA’s massive hit "Fernando," which held the top spot for 14 consecutive weeks and spent 40 weeks on the charts.

Many artists and bands could not reach #1 due to "Fernando" in 1976. That is, until Daryl Braithwaite and Sherbet finally booted it off the top spot with their hit "Howzat" which spent 4 weeks at #1, before Kenny Young and Noosha Fox kicked them out with "S-S-S Single Bed". This was followed soon after by Elton John and Kiki Dee with "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", before ABBA bounced back with "Dancing Queen".

Many people, including TV interviewers, journalists, and radio DJs over the years have struggled with pronouncing Agnetha's and Björn's names correctly.

Here's a music video mash-up of ABBA vs. Van Halen ("Super Jumper" by MadMixMustang).

1976 is remembered by many older generation Aussies as "ABBA Year".

Wikipedia article

List of #1 Singles in Australia (during the 1970s)

Parking fail with miraculously no serious injuries or fatalities.

(image/article source)

This may be pure speculation, but I doubt the driver of this "luxury" vehicle has a disability and/or permit to park there.

(source)