[Coco] History of Tandy/Radio Shack Cassette Recorders

[Perry M Dueck]

I seem to recall coming across some info on a Tandy CCR-83 Cassette
Recorder, although I've never actually seen one. What's the difference
between the CCR-83 and it's predecessors, the CCR-82 and CCR-81 ?

I do own the Tandy labeled CCR-81, and I remember my cousion owning the
earlier Radio Shack TRS-80 labeled CCR-81, and one of my high school
classmates owned a Radio Shack TRS-80 labeled CCR-82 (much smaller and
somewhat different than the CCR-81).  I vaguely seem to recall that the
CCR-81 appeared to be a bit more reliable for storeing and retrieving data
than the smaller CCR-82, but perhaps that classmate's CCR-82 just needed a
head cleaning or something.

I've also come across a few different  pictures on the web that show a
"battleship grey" CCR-81, to match the original CoCo 1....how common were
those and were those ever sold here in North America or just overseas?

I also recall a black Radio Shack CTR-80 cassette recorder which my junior
high school used with it's TRS-80 Model III systems for a while until they
installed 5.25" floppy drives.

best regards, Perry