Sixty Years of Lafayette Radio

[w2amr]

http://www.ohio.edu/people/postr/bapix/LafArt_60_3.htm

[NQ6U]

Cool, thanks for the link.

I remember the Lafayette catalog from back in the Sixties, when I first got interested in ham radio.

[KG4CGC]

I actually stepped in a Lafayette store while they were still around in 1977 or so while in Ft. Lauderdale FL. Cool place but my memory of everything inside has faded.

[XE1/N5AL]

Thanks for the interesting read. Growing up in Dallas, during the 60's and 70's, I never lived close enough to a Lafayette store location to actually visit one. But, I always had their latest catalog for orderng parts by mail.

[w2amr]

We had a store about 20 minutes from here. Great fun.

[N2NH]

In 1964, we used to take the subway and walk over to the one on W. 45th St, between 6th and 5th Aves. Got our first CB set there and our first ground plane which was designed wrong but worked pretty decently. We actually took the antenna home on the M104 Bus (people grabbed it as if it were a pole).

The first Amateur radio I ever saw was a 10M AM/SSB (the radio in the lower left of the pic on that site looks a lot like it) and a 2 Meter SSB radio Lafayette built (before repeaters and FM). Got me interested in getting on the air.

[kb2vxa]

That's because they were made by Hallicrafters re-badged Lafayette. Came the '70s and Japan changed everything, Toshiba using American designs manufactured for Lafayette so no "Jap junk", quality remained while Japanese manufactured toys earned the title. Lafayette Radio & Electronics became the CBe's, ham's and experimenter's paradise with a wide selection of radios and parts, along with several others the hallmark of an era passed and will be fondly remembered.

"We actually took the antenna home on the M104 Bus (people grabbed it as if it were a pole)."
I wish I were on that bus watching the chagrined looks!

[K7SGJ]

Great article. Caused me a flashback to when I was a kid and used to go to the Lafayette store in Phoenix. Not only was it fun to look at all the stuff they carried, but also fun to look over the huge consignment area.

[N2NH]

"We actually took the antenna home on the M104 Bus (people grabbed it as if it were a pole)."
I wish I were on that bus watching the chagrined looks!

It was strange as the wrapping was striped in red and white like a barber pole. Being the mid 1960s, people were a bit more patient than today and when the "pole" moved, they looked startled as if awakened from a daydream, excused themselves and grabbed a real pole.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2321/2138730441_8490108da4_z.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/31/nyregion/01busblog.jpg

We also transported two heavy-duty 10' sections of antenna mast in the subway laying them under the seat in the 70s. ;)

[kb2vxa]

Yup, I remember the NYCTA buses in the '60s, I used to take the 107 on Staten Island from the ferry in St. George to Mariners Harbor (Manniz Haabuh according to the locals) via Forest Ave. You'd have to put 10' sections of mast under subway seats, there's no place else to put them. Dad drove me to Laffingyet at first reluctantly, that is until he too started to drool on equipment on display. Speaking of which, employees of Harvey Radio in the old Radio Row as we called a part of lower Manhattan had to get out buckets and mops whenever I looked over the used Collins gear on consignment. They knew the drill, heavy breathing is a dead giveaway of what's coming. Collins, the Orgasmatron of radio.

"...they looked startled as if awakened from a daydream..."

What a day for a daydream
Custom made for a daydreaming boy
And I'm lost in a daydream
Dreaming 'bout my bundle of joy