[Coco] Getting close to an end of an era -CCR-81

[George Ramsower]

 Back in the eighties I just had to have a cassette machine for my first 
Coco.
 The Tandy CCR-81 was a bit pricey for me so I bought a different deck, 
cheap.
 It rarely would work. Then, I bought another one with no improvement. 
Finally, I bought a CCR-81 and it worked reliably. So I hung an O-scope on 
the audio playback on all three and discover the two that didn't work well 
had a crossover issue at the apex of the sine wave. Both had a glitch right 
there. The CCR-81 was perfect.
 So then I knew why they didn't work.
 I never knew how to find out this until I had to buy one and take it home 
to try it. No store clerk knew anything about this stuff.
 I'm sure a high quality cassette deck with an expensive price tag would 
work but, the CCR-81 was cheaper than that!
 I just now looked on Google and discovered cassette decks today aren't easy 
to find. Everyone seems to have gone digital, it seems. The CCR-81 isn't 
there.
 So, if you just have to have one, Mark's the way to go. Otherwise, use your 
PC or get one of the newer, digital models that have a remote pause/play 
option but, I have no clue about that one or even if they are available. 
Didn't look as I don't really want one.
 George