This is all I have of a piece of audio history for me anyway. I can't begin to describe all it's clumsy silver case and easy to break tape door and handle. It was settle for it audio equipment. I don't even remember the model. It was a MacDonald Instruments audio tape recorder with AC/DC operation, a tape counter and a neat little dual use meter.

There was little to no info on the web about MacDonald Instruments. From what I could tell, they were a big CB maker, but seemed more like a cheap company that put their name on cheap equipment for sale at K-Mart. I guess it was as an alternate to the KMC label which was the house K-Mart label that did same. At least one place I looked said that a boombox from them was the same as some other name from the UK. So what got me to buy this?

It was my birthday and my mother said I could get a new tape recorder. My old GE was on it's last legs with broken buttons and I had to use a marker to jam into the control to get it to record. It also did not have a microphone built in, so I was using a seperate mic that was taped up and did not work all that well. (EDIT 11/29/16... My memory wasn't so clear on this. By the time I got the MacDonald POS I had moved to a different city and bought essentially the same tape recorder, only it HAD a built in microphone. It still worked, but I wanted something you could plug in and had a radio as part of it as well. We now return you to the past Junk Blog entry.)

I was big on recording myself since I'd gotten the tape recorder when I was 5. I'd seen an ad for K-Mart and they had a MACDonald Industries AM/FM Cassette tape portable on sale for $30 which was dirt cheap back then. Even Sanyos were $50 or more.

So, we went to the K-Mart which in the early 80's was the BIG DOG of stores near me. We had a Fishers Big Wheel, but otherwise, we'd have to travel some distance to go to Zayre or Gold Circle or electronics chains like Tokyo Shapiro and Northeast and Home Center. Even the electronics department at home improvement chain Forest City would require a 30 minute drive. No, we went to K-Mart.

When we got there, they were out of it and giving rainchecks. I was crushed. I was a kid and I demanded satisfaction! I wanted my chocolate milk river NOW! I wanted the blueberry candy NOW!  GOOD DAY SIR! I SAID GOOD DAY!

So, I took home another MACDonald instruments piece of dung because it had THIS METER! It looked SO COOL. The meter would bounce when recording. YOU SEE THAT? I'M SUCH A PRO! I really should have waited for the AM/FM because I still didn't have a radio but eventually got a GE Portable AM/FM with the crystal earphone. NO! The METER BOUNCES! Hey, I could now LOG all my tapes to the DIGIT!  Oh yeah, and NO MORE BATTERIES! YAYYY! (I had gotten a set of rechargeables a year before.) LOOK AT THAT METER! It even had a built in microphone. Mmmmm condenser badness. WhhhhhhOOOOOOSHHHH *HAMMER DOWN WHEN SPEAKING* 

After a few months and once it was out of warranty, I started noticing that it was making a odd static/clicking on every recording. It wasn't magnetized heads or dirty heads, it was something of a cheap junky failure. However, I still used it and recorded on it way more than I should have. I was a kid. I didn't have the cake to replace it and LOOK AT THAT METER!  I'm guessing that the locking mechanism for all the functions (play and record) failed because it was CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP.  I do remember fixing it once in a very weak way and then having it taped together. It eventually got tossed but not until I GOT ME THE METER THAT LOOKED REAL NEAT.  Lesson learned. Don't get happy.

ARF! -Ric