Finding my childhood bee!

[HappySnacks]

Hey all,

My name is Brendyn, I got my first bee at the age of 2 from my Aunty. The bee shaped me as a person through and through,

I wouldn't be in my situation today; in this work industry without my Aunty introducing me to the bee!
So i thought it would be good to share and give back some to the community that unknowingly helped me already

Recently i have been helping her clean up her old teaching documents and items that was in storage under the house from when she was a school teacher.

My Aunty was one of the first group of teachers that used bee's for educational use.

I've found many documents that were schooling lessons etc used for mainly the bee 85,  that i am happy to share and upload to the database for everyone to use!

I assume i would have some very rare original documents and teaching lessons that are not currently in circulation.
I have 3 original plastic bee bags, a shirt button pin and a voucher book to be used purchasing software etc.. so there is some random things she saved!

This is what i have uncovered so far; It even includes the original 85 i had as a child!


https://imgur.com/a/4lcuLQ5


I am wondering, what mono tape recorders were used in this period?

In a NSW teachers bee journal from 84' it has reference to a national rq-8100 was this a standardized player back then?

The reason i ask is this is the only device i cannot find so far and i would prefer a period correct and functioning unit to go along with all of these!

So any help re; standard models of tape recorder used in Australia only back in this Time-frame would be a epic help!

If anyone has one for sale please let me know!

hopefully these pictures upload correctly; please let me know if they do not! I inserted the imgur link too just incase.

p.s Many thanks Ewan for your help so far! If anyone is going to the event this weekend i will hopefully see you there also!

Thanks
HappySnacks

[CheshireNoir]

What an awesome find! Hopefully you can preserve any of the stuff there not yet in the repository.
While I am not sure what a period correct solution would be, I've been using an old Android phone to load software into my 'bees. Not as authentic, but very convenient :-)

Cheers!

Chesh

[HappySnacks]

What an awesome find! Hopefully you can preserve any of the stuff there not yet in the repository.
While I am not sure what a period correct solution would be, I've been using an old Android phone to load software into my 'bees. Not as authentic, but very convenient :-)

Cheers!

Chesh

I was thinking of doing similar for now re the phone to get me up and running and test these units, but i want the machines on display in my office. I would love the period correct tape cassette machine to go with it all!


Cheers
HappySnacks

[ChickenMan]

Hi HappySnacks and welcome to the forum

Wow what a find, lots of goodies there.

If your coming to the ACMS event on Saturday, can you bring all your Floppies as I will have my Imaging unit there.  Also your tapes as well   A scanner will there also, we have all the Microbee published manuals but that 10% Discount book I've not seen before and of course any of your Aunties note/manuals etc including any NSW Teachers Bee journals.  I also just photographed 2 different Microbee plastic bags but havent released them to the Repository yet, but yours looks different.  I suspect each of the different States stores organized their own bags so would differ store to store.

As for period cassette players, Microbee supplied 2 different models but basically any Panasonic/Sony/Teac/etc period cassette player will not be out of place and will work with the Microbee.

   

   

The second one was the most sold, but both are going to be difficult to find.  Your PC85 has lots of ROM sockets that you can copy some games to so no need to load a tape. I will have my PC85 on show on the weekend so you can check it out there   You can read about my unit here also - Upgrading a Microbee PC85 to a PC85b and adding extra Game ROMs. (microbeetechnology.com.au)

Look forward to catching up

Cheers, Alan

[someone]

Welcome aboard!

I was there in those days and remember the National brand tape recorders. They worked well but required some adjustments to the volume and tone controls to be reliable.
The most important thing about cassette recorders is their maintenance.
One would need to often clean the heads, capstan and pinch rollers with isopropyl alcohol.
Occasionally some tape recorders required some minute head position adjustments that was done with a jewellers' screwdriver.

Cheers

Someone.