REMEMBER WHEN ?

[W9WLS]

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

Old "Radio Shaft" catalog's online.

I must be an "Old Fart", I can remember when "Radio Shaft" actually sold "RADIO'S" !

Now-a-day's you can't hardly find a connector in some stores, and don't even ask for a 1N34 diode (you get the "DEER-IN-THE-HEADLIGHT'S" look).

And "NO I DON'T WANT A CELL PHONE" with that !

I also remember "Burnstine Applebee" (SP?) and Lafayette Radio stores as well.
And a Saturday morning trip to the south side of Indianapolis to "ESSE Radio" (big surplus dealer) was almost a must do thing !

[WØTKX]

In Minneapolis, we had Acme Electronics. Used to ride the bus to get there, and drool on the surplus test gear.

They are still around, just a lot bigger... http://www.aeielectroniccenter.com/institution.html

[PA5COR]

I still might have one or 2 of their transistor guide and ic building book, and some projects books....
Ah, those were fun times...

[ki4itv]

Back in the day, Radio Shack was one two places that my dad could mention and have me immediately drop my skateboard and run to the car.
Marshall Space Flight Center was the other.

I've noticed an uptick in parts and hobby oriented kits at our local stores. It seems this hobbyist robot thing has caught on and we may benefit from it a little.

[WØTKX]

I was an employee for a few years, store manglement.

Too bad Ft. Worthless ignores what the customers want.

[kb2vxa]

Before Rat Shack came to town there were Route, Federated, Disco, Greenbrook and a few others along Rte. 22 that Jean didn't point out in Shepherd's Pie or Jean Shepherd's America. Then over in Plainfield (as opposed to Fancyfield) there was Laughingyet, here and there a few wholesale parts distributors, don't forget the infamous Cortland Street NYC immortalized by our beloved Dash! For mail order stuff there were Allied, B. A. which BTW doesn't stand for boat anchor and a few others I seem to have forgotten. One thing I'll never forget though is the used tube and parts gold mine downtown, the back of the local TV shop with piles of stuff waiting for the junk man. That's where I got my first SW radio, a chassis pulled from a '60s TV, radio and record player console. Do I have to tell you there's nothing like free?

"It seems this hobbyist robot thing has caught on and we may benefit from it a little."
Not likely, they tend to evolve into Cybermen and give Doctor Who fits and conniptions.

[KG4CGC]

Our local RS decided that the kits were not moving fast enough and said phoquekit. I understand that in the larger cities they have a campaign called something like, "Build America" or Learn America" or some such slogan to help pedal the kits as learning tools that are fun but I guess here, corporate decided to run the campaign, "Phoquekit You're Dumb. Buy A Cellphone!"

[XE1/N5AL]

Anybody remember the Olson Electronics chain? I used to go there al the time when I was about 11, or 12 years old. They had a better selection of electronic components than Radio Shack. The only thing I didn't like about our local store is that the salesman would follow me around to keep an eye on me. Maybe he thought that I was going to steal something.

As a kid, growing up in Dallas, I used to spend all of my money in four places: Radio Shack, Olson Electronics, Heathkit and Electonics Center. The Heathkit store was fairly close to Electronics Center, but both were a fair distance from my house. I was a lucky day when I could convince my folks to drive me there. Electronics Center was THE place to go for new and used ham radio gear.

[n2ize]

Round here we had Gem Electronics and Lafayette Radio Electronics and lots of small radio, electronics and parts stores on and around Canal street in NYC. We had a Lafayette Electronics about a couple miles from my home and I remember one day when i was home sick from school, suffering from bronchitis and the doctor came over and had to give me a shot of adrenaline to counter an asthma attack I was having. Not more than 20 minutes later and as soon as my folks left for work I was feverishly pedaling my bike over to Lafayette to get some parts for a project. Had my folks known what I was doing they would have shot me. :) When I finally got there I found Lafayette was out of stock on at least half the parts I needed. Lafayette stores was infamous for always being out of stock on almost everything. I wound up getting the rest of what I needed down on Canal Street a few weeks later.

Also, in NYC in the area where the World Trade Center was built, and once stood, that area was once known as "radio row". In the 1920's through the 1960's it was loaded with radio and electronics stores.

[n2ize]

WOW!! They have my Hallicrafters HT-44 Transmitter in the 1964 Catalog. It was $399 back then, That was a lot of money for those days.

[KG4NEL]

It's a different experience than shopping in person, but with Digi-Key, Mouser, Parts Express, etc - I'm not bemoaning the loss of RS as a place for components.

[XE1/N5AL]

dooh! duplicate post!

[This Space for Rent]

[XE1/N5AL]

RS was convenient for parts, but those parts were sometimes overpriced and of inferior quality. I remember back in the late 70's when RS sold ICs under the nebulous claim of "100% electrically functional". They charged three times the price of places like DigiKey, whose parts met the full manufacturer's specifications (function, speed, delays, power dissipation, operational temperature range, etc.). I still loved the place, though.

[W3WN]

I bought my first receiver at a Lafayette store. Don't remember the town, but it was down from us on State Route 10 in NNJ.

Starfire VI. My dad insisted that this would be 'good enough' for me to use... and it was, for a beginning SWL. No BFO, no selectivity, so it was worthless on the ham bands.

I wanted something a little better, but he wouldn't let me spend the money (well, I was 12 at the time). Figured it would be a waste, that I wouldn't stay with the hobby, or that I wouldn't keep the receiver.

I still have it. And it still works.

[kf0rt]

In the Denver area, Radio Shack was around in the very early 70's, and they weren't all bad. Sold tubes, had tube checkers and if you needed a resistor, they were just a little expensive (but available). I had a Jr. High music teacher who moonlighted at RS; had to be '70 or '71.

Also had a couple of Burstein Applebee stores -- one was at the Buckingham Square Mall in Aurora (that mall was just torn down recently after many years of financial neglect). That was a stereo store for the most part. No parts and not ham related at all. They had another store downtown (Denver) for awhile that sold blister pack component parts as I recall (memory hazy). I don't think they were ever into ham stuff much.

The big (and only?) ham place in Denver for many years was CW Electronics. "John Capone" used to run machine gun ads in the ham press. Saw my first Apple II computer at CW when they were still at their LoDo location in 1978. Alan Applegate (KØBG) was a long-time employee. CW moved to a location on the south end of downtown and was never quite the same as they tried to get more into the computer craze. I actually work with a guy from the "Capone" family who is probably very familiar with the story. (Mental note: sit with HIM at the next picnic.) CW Electronics is long gone.

Sometime during my long hiatus from it all, HRO took over and we now have that.

Olson? Remember it, but they never had stores here. As I recall, they did catalog mail order and were never a huge player. Pre-1970, most of what I remember involves Allied and Lafayette catalogs. Heathkit, too. KnightKit was part of Allied and Allied is still around as a huge component distributor (like Newark and Mouser).

It strikes me just now that nobody back then was buying new Hallicrafters or National, or.... They must have been out of biz by then. My first real intro to ham radio (CQWWDX, 1971) was all Drake and Heathkit (and those 6' tall 4-1000 homebrew amps). Some guys had S-Lines, but that was pretty rare because they were so expensive. Even Drake stuff was pretty rich -- Heathkits were much more popular. A kilobuck was a lot of moolah back then, but it'd buy you an R4-B/T4-XB in factory sealed boxes.

I probably see the inside of a RS store about once a year these days, and half the time it's because of a work emergency. 99.9% of the time I'm in no hurry and can order online.

[n2ize]

The 1939 RS catalog looks like an AM'ers paradise. Tubes, UTC mod xfmrs, HV Mica condensers, variable transmitting caps, etc. I guess back in 1939 RS lived up to its name.

[KA9MOT]

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

Old "Radio Shaft" catalog's online.

I must be an "Old Fart", I can remember when "Radio Shaft" actually sold "RADIO'S" !

Now-a-day's you can't hardly find a connector in some stores, and don't even ask for a 1N34 diode (you get the "DEER-IN-THE-HEADLIGHT'S" look).

And "NO I DON'T WANT A CELL PHONE" with that !

I also remember "Burnstine Applebee" (SP?) and Lafayette Radio stores as well.
And a Saturday morning trip to the south side of Indianapolis to "ESSE Radio" (big surplus dealer) was almost a must do thing !

I like your call which brings me to my "Remember When" WLS actually played rock music on 890KHz

[N8YX]

Anybody remember the Olson Electronics chain?

Yep - had one in Akron, and I frequented it back in the mid 80's - shortly before it closed.

We still have Philcap (NTE dealer) but their prices are stratospheric.

[W5GA]

In Minneapolis, we had Acme Electronics. Used to ride the bus to get there, and drool on the surplus test gear.

They are still around, just a lot bigger... http://www.aeielectroniccenter.com/institution.html
My oldest brother used to work there in the late 50's/early 60's.

[kf0rt]

The 1939 RS catalog looks like an AM'ers paradise. Tubes, UTC mod xfmrs, HV Mica condensers, variable transmitting caps, etc. I guess back in 1939 RS lived up to its name.

No joke. I somehow expected a lot of the prices to be lower, though.

[WØTKX]

Yea, he was the guy that scowled at me 'cause I never bought much. :stickpoke:

In Denver, we still have Fistells. Place is a mess, but they have weird stuff. (http://www.fistells.com/)

http://www.fistells.com/ (http://www.fistells.com/)

Last purchase for me there was about two years ago... some 4 pin XLR connectors... they had 'em!

[kf0rt]

Yea, he was the guy that scowled at me 'cause I never bought much. :stickpoke:

In Denver, we still have Fistells. Place is a mess, but they have weird stuff.
(http://www.fistells.com/)http://www.fistells.com/

Last purchase for me there was about two years ago... some 4 pin XLR connectors... they had 'em!


Haven't been to Fistell's in eons -- really surprised they're still in biz. They have dust in that place that hasn't moved since 1965. :lol:

[W9WLS]

I used to get the Olsen catalog's also.
Catalog's back then were "The Poor Mans" Dayton, you couldn't wait for the next catalog issue or the next QST or 73 or CQ mag to come out just to see what new "TOY'S" were on the market (or going to be).

[NQ6U]

The 1939 RS catalog looks like an AM'ers paradise. Tubes, UTC mod xfmrs, HV Mica condensers, variable transmitting caps, etc. I guess back in 1939 RS lived up to its name.

Modulation transformers: "Varimatch Transformers never become obsolete." I wish that were true. Try to find one of those these days and you'll pay an absurd price.

[X-Rated]

Some followup on Burstein Applebees. What I heard was that the company was put together by 2 guys. I can't remember their names, but one day they got really old and decided to pass the company along to their heirs. The Applebee's thought it would be good to keep the company going, but the Burstein's wanted to just cash out. I guess the Applebee's did not have enough capital to keep the electronics business going so they put together a restaurant chain and headquartered it there in the Kansas City area where Burstein Applebee's was located.

The Burstein's did not think that a restaurant called "Burstein's" would be very popular, so I don't know what they did.

Dammit. What was the name of that restaurant chain?

[XE1/N5AL]

In Minneapolis, we had Acme Electronics. Used to ride the bus to get there, and drool on the surplus test gear.
My oldest brother used to work there in the late 50's/early 60's.Did he ever complain about having to wipe drool from the surplus test gear? :)

[N7YA]

Some followup on Burstein Applebees. What I heard was that the company was put together by 2 guys. I can't remember their names, but one day they got really old and decided to pass the company along to their heirs. The Applebee's thought it would be good to keep the company going, but the Burstein's wanted to just cash out. I guess the Applebee's did not have enough capital to keep the electronics business going so they put together a restaurant chain and headquartered it there in the Kansas City area where Burstein Applebee's was located.

The Burstein's did not think that a restaurant called "Burstein's" would be very popular, so I don't know what they did.

Dammit. What was the name of that restaurant chain?


I think they called it "Slightly Better Dennys".


Wait, thats what I call it.

[kb2vxa]

The comments about Rat Shack's funky parts reminded me of some Rat Fink Funnies. (Sorry Ed.) Remember the cheap grab bag specials? A friend owned a stereo shop (sales and service) and I often helped him out on the bench mostly testing and sorting transistors that apparently came straight unbranded and unmarked from a manufacturer bypassing the sorting shop. Primitive solid state audio didn't care beyond pnp or npn and if it got hot a heat sink cut from a beer can (Remember steel?) fixed that. The profit margin on sales is always marginal but repairs made up for it big time. Remember AudioVox under dash 8 Tracks? (;->)

Then there were those gold pin guaranteed for life tubes, heh heh heh. I was using a sweep tube in a home brew transmitter before I knew that unless it's a 4-400A the plate isn't supposed to glow and the transmitter ate them like candy. At this point maybe I should mention I was using a water cooled TV vertical output transformer for modulation... simmering away in a pan of water that is. About every two weeks the tube went south and I got a new one, this went on for months until the manager Eddie Crisco (yeah, Crisco) decided I wasn't using it for horizontal output...

At Radio Shack you have questions, we have blank stares and managers that pass for shortening in a can. (;->)

[w2amr]

I bought my first receiver at a Lafayette store. Don't remember the town, but it was down from us on State Route 10 in NNJ.

Starfire VI. My dad insisted that this would be 'good enough' for me to use... and it was, for a beginning SWL. No BFO, no selectivity, so it was worthless on the ham bands.

I wanted something a little better, but he wouldn't let me spend the money (well, I was 12 at the time). Figured it would be a waste, that I wouldn't stay with the hobby, or that I wouldn't keep the receiver.

I still have it. And it still works.
We had a Lafayette store about 20 min from here, I loved that place. Couldn't wait for the next catalog.

[KG4CGC]

When I was 12, on a trip to Florida I could read the whole RS catalog. On the way back I'd read the whole Lafayette catalog as well as flyers from Olson. At least I think there was still an Olson in South FLA in 1975. Then there was the Service Merchandise catalog.

[W1GUH]

When you go into RS for an emergency part, go straight to the parts bin to look. But more and more lately when I've asked about something, the floor staff was informed and could answer my questions. Depends on the store, I guess.

RS, Lafayette, Olsen, BA -- all great memories, not to mention WRL and Walter Ashe. Every time I got something at any one fhem I wished I could have afforded the same part from Allied. But the others usually had that "4 for a buck" package schpiel & with my budget back then, that dictated RS or one of the others. And, yes, both RS and Lafayette on Comm. Ave. in Boston were FAMOUS for "No, but we can order it." Yea, right. The first, and last, time I ordered anything I got a completely wrong order & had to wait even longer.

In Pontiac, MI, we had Electronics Supply. It was primarily a wholesale distributor for TV repairmen, but the owner liked hams, even tho' he wasn't licensed, and if you had a ham license you could shop there. With a Novice or Tech license, you could buy stuff that was directly involved in transmitting and receiving. As a general or above you could by anytihg...like Police receivers...UHF TV Converters...FM tuners for the car, etc. He was a great guy. His main hobby was Stereo Realist photography and was famous for his 3D Slide shows. They were great!

[kb2vxa]

Hey, I almost forgot the lulz!

"Some followup on Burstein Applebees. What I heard was that the company was put together by 2 guys. I can't remember their names..."
Like, Bernstein and Applebee?

"I guess the Applebee's did not have enough capital to keep the electronics business going so they put together a restaurant chain..."
Oh, so THAT'S where Applebees came from!

"The Burstein's did not think that a restaurant called "Burstein's" would be very popular, so I don't know what they did."
Kansas City Bernstein, he runs a kosher deli
Kansas City Bernstein, his dill pickles are smelly...
(My apologies to John Sebastian and Nashville Katz.)

"Dammit. What was the name of that restaurant chain?"
If it were a snake it would bite you!

Oh I'm pulling your leg as usual so before you sic Snopes on me, the Applebee's chain was started by Bill and T. J. Palmer who opened their first restaurant, T.J. Applebee’s Rx for Edibles & Elixirs, in Decatur, Georgia, on November 19, 1980.

[WØTKX]

^^^ Nice Snipe hunt, man. :rofl:

[X-Rated]

Hey, I almost forgot the lulz!

"Some followup on Burstein Applebees. What I heard was that the company was put together by 2 guys. I can't remember their names..."
Like, Bernstein and Applebee?

"I guess the Applebee's did not have enough capital to keep the electronics business going so they put together a restaurant chain..."
Oh, so THAT'S where Applebees came from!

"The Burstein's did not think that a restaurant called "Burstein's" would be very popular, so I don't know what they did."
Kansas City Bernstein, he runs a kosher deli
Kansas City Bernstein, his dill pickles are smelly...
(My apologies to John Sebastian and Nashville Katz.)

"Dammit. What was the name of that restaurant chain?"
If it were a snake it would bite you!

Oh I'm pulling your leg as usual so before you sic Snopes on me, the Applebee's chain was started by Bill and T. J. Palmer who opened their first restaurant, T.J. Applebee’s Rx for Edibles & Elixirs, in Decatur, Georgia, on November 19, 1980.

Very lulzy. I doubt all that which I had heard was correct (That the descendents invested in the restaurant chain to get it started). It was just ham lore from Kansas City.

[W1GUH]

'vxa:


What I heard was that the company was put together by 2 guys.

Were they from Harrison?

[kb2vxa]

"What I heard was that the company was put together by 2 guys.
Were they from Harrison?"
Yeah, Sid and Herb with their cheap ill fitting clothes.

"Nice Snipe hunt, man."
Yeah, found one too.