Stats...
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| 4/ 1992 |
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155 mm
78 mm
28 mm
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| ?
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| 3 x D-0.125D buttons, held vertically in calculator!! |
| S/N | 239022 |
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Elektronika MK-66/A
"I have bought 2 calculators for you (MK-57A and MK-66). They looks
not great (on my unprofessional opinion) but I would like to accompany
them by a story which definitely is great!
Both were bought not in the shop but at a street market. The old man who
sold them told me that generally he sells some electrical things (switches,
wires, etc.) which are received from some factory in Uljanovsk1.
To get these electrical wares our old man contacts with a person who
works at the sell-department at the factory. The last time they contacted
that guy asked our old man to take several calculators to sell (these
ones WERE produced at their factory 6 years ago!!!). The point is that
staff of the factory get their salary not by money but by these calculators
. Can you believe? I can because it is not typical, but not
rare, event in modern Russia when salary is given by factory's product.
The staff has to sell it to get money. Otherwise they would not get money
at all (I know the people who have not been getting the salary for 15
monthes!). But our case is the worst because it is impossible to sell
many Russian calculators2. It is a reason that I bought
both items (with battaries, power boxes, accummulators and device to
recharged them) for 35,000 Russian rubles (~6 USD) only! It is extremely
cheap even on Russian price scale. One weeks ago I bought 2 battaries
for some Marina's toy for 10,000 RR. In principle I could buy the worse
battaries and paid only 4,000 RR but I could buy also better ones for
20,000.3
Both calculators, as I said were produced in 1992 (one in February,
second in April) and could not be sold untill two crazy guys (Igor from
Moscow and Andrew from Sidney) buy them. Because SU was broken on
December 7 (or so), 1991 they represent the first Russian calculators (or
maybe the last Soviet ones, it depends on point of view...).
MK-66 is accompanied by power box, three accumulators and recharge device
(I suspect that accumulators and recharger do not work due to large age
but I did not check it). Calculator itself was checked and worked okey
but I will not be surprized if it will stop to work very soon - sorry.
The power box is okey also.
Batteries in original bubble-wrap.
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MK-57A is accompanied by power box (exactly the same type as MK-66's
one) and 3 battaries (AA type). Calculator works (for the present).
It was impossible to check power box at the street market. I did it at
home. It does not work. Today I visited the seller again to exchange bad
power box for working one. There was a long discussion between us. At
first he refused. His motivation was: "These all are such cheep that have
right to be non-working". But I insisted and got the new power box. I did
not check it and leave this for you - at any rate I will not be able to
performe the second exchange. Sorry in advance. BUT the power box for
this calculator is the same as for MK-66 (which works, anyway for the
present) and for other Russian calculators. Sure you have got such kind
of power boxes." - Igor Sokalski
The manual for this calculator, like all the manuals I have seen to date, is printed on very cheap paper. It mentions both the MK-66 and MK-66A, though the A variant has not been seen. The MK-66 performs calculations in degrees, whereas the MK-66A has a degrees/radians switch for calculation in either mode.
Typical of many manuals, the entire is printed on a single sheet of paper which is roughly folded. This would be unacceptable in the west, but seems quite standard in Soviet calculators. Interestingly, some of the instructions for this one are inside the box. I mean inside the box! You'd have to rip the box to pieces to be able to read them; which was evidently the intent. How weird.
Notes:
- Uljanovsk is a town in the eastern part of European Russia. It's
old name is Simbirsk, but in 1924 (when Lenin died) it was renamed to
Uljanovsk because Lenin's original family name was Uljanov (Lenin is just
a pseudonym)
- It was a first time for several years when I saw the Russian
calculator to be sold in Russia. Typically you can buy foreign
calculators only. I think that calculators do not produced in Russia
because nobody buys them. Everybody use foreign ones (typically from
Japan) because their price is not so large but they are much better then
Soviet/Russian calculators.
- To check the equivalent values in your own currency, you may visit Unique Photo Cards CURRENCY CONVERTER.
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