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Author Topic: I miss Radio Shack  (Read 1440 times)

SWMAN

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I miss Radio Shack
« on: August 16, 2022, 06:03:17 PM »

 I miss Radio Shack …… That’s all for now.
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W6SWO

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2022, 06:16:35 PM »

I do too man!  When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's, I rarely went by a RS without stopping in.  Looked forward to each catalog and drooled over the stereo gear and radio gear, which at the time was pretty good stuff.  I bought so much stuff from them to build projects, speaker enclosures, terminals, tools, and ham gear.  My first radio was an HTX-202 that I still have.
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KE8UVC

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2022, 06:29:29 PM »

I miss having a place you could walk in and pick up random components. Those days are pretty much gone.  I still have a handful of the old 'radio kits' for kids from Radio Shack.  Remember the ones with the 'spring' connectors?  Good times.  My first key was a Radio Shack kit with a plastic/sheet-metal straight-key.  I still have boxes of old Radio Shack components , RS-276 diodes, triacs, rectifiers, etc. I should find a use for them, or give them to a museum.
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KM0U

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2022, 06:51:57 PM »

The only ham store in this area closed about two years ago, Radio Shack evaporated as well, now for something as simple as a PL-259, some RG-8x, or various small parts or connectors the only way to get these items is via the web or driving 300 miles to the nearest store.  You folks that have local ham stores, do your best to support them. . . when they're gone, you'll miss them.
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K4GTE

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2022, 06:58:58 PM »

Radio Shack is back, on line and some stores. But it's not the Radio Shack of the 60's and 70's..........
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SWMAN

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2022, 07:00:12 PM »

0U,
 You are right, I miss my neighbor Texas Towers that were right down the road. But now we have a HRO just down the street where Texas Towers was. I wonder if HRO had anything to do with TT going out of business when they moved in ?
« Last Edit: August 16, 2022, 07:15:45 PM by SWMAN »
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G8FXC

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #6 on: August 17, 2022, 01:20:04 AM »

Fully agree - it was good to be able to go to a local shop to buy components. When I was a teenager in London, we had several independent shops within a few miles selling components. Tandy, as Radio Shack was known round here, came in and put all those independents out of business. Then, some years later, a home-grown competitor, Maplin, sprang up and put Tandy out of business - still selling a wide range of components over the counter. Eventually, the internet won out and Maplin followed Tandy into bankruptcy.

I don't know if it was the same on the west side of the big pond, but Tandy were an infuriating company for stock policy here. They always jumped very early onto new, emerging technologies, but overpriced them terribly, sold nothing and eventually abandoned them. I remember early on in the microcomputer era, my local Tandy bringing in Intel 8080 CPUs and all the associated components - all bubble wrapped on cards hanging on the display racks. I desparately wanted a computer and spent hours gazing longingly at those packages and reading everything I could about how to use them from Intel. But they were horribly expensive and way out of my range. Evidently most others thought the same, because they hung on the racks for years, the packaging getting more and more faded, until they were offered for virtually nothing in the spring sale - but, by then, the world had moved on to Pentiums!

Martin (G8FXC)
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VE3WGO

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #7 on: August 17, 2022, 05:36:30 AM »

I miss RS too.  In my hometown, as a teenager it was a bike ride away.  I built my first code practice oscillator from the 1970 Handbook circuit, and got the parts (transistors, perf board) and a free battery from the battery-a-month club.

RS had the "nerd nook" at the back of the store with racks and panels holding hundreds (thousands?) of experimenter parts.  They also had the "lifetime guaranteed" vacuum tubes for all your older radios or TVs...  I guess the tubes outlived the company.

I still have a couple of the old RS bookshelf speakers, and they actually sound pretty good as external speakers on my transceiver.

73, Ed
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W6JAK

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2022, 06:28:00 AM »

I miss Radio Shack, Heathkit, Lafayette, and all of the small electronics and science kit suppliers found locally or advertised in the back of Popular Science or Popular Mechanics.  They died by way of microelectronics, microcomputers, gutting of high school shop classes, etc.  However, electronics DIY is still alive but in the next-level form of software programming, robotics, and other forms of computer control using SBCs such as Raspberry Pi.  My grandkids give me hope that scientific and technical curiosity isn't going away.
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AI5BC

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2022, 06:41:34 AM »

RS failed to keep up and technology left RS behind. Like Kmart and Sears, no one of relevance misses them. 
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VK6IS

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Re: we still miss Radio Shack et all . .
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2022, 06:42:18 AM »

we still miss Dick Smith Electronics,
- which eventually incorporated the Tandy group,
as Radio Shack was known round here,
and which was eventually acquired  by Anchorage Capital Partners,
which then wound up in an long running law suit.

back in the day, it was widely liked by electronic enthusiasts.
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KA4ETV

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2022, 07:43:56 AM »

Yep, those were the days!
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KC6RWI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #12 on: August 17, 2022, 08:03:03 AM »

 If you have a an electronics store in your town you are lucky, but I don't think you have on. In the huge city of Los Angeles, there is one left that fits the bill of parts and surplus, All Electronics. To make it worse they are only open on week days. I remember going thru surplus stores as a younger person and seeing tube amp tuners for consoles, transformers of every shape, all sorts of overuns from the days of prosperity I assume.
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K3UIM

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #13 on: August 17, 2022, 08:04:46 AM »

"Like Kmart and Sears, no one of relevance misses them."
Evidently you've never had to use the outhouse!! :o
Nor read the best seller, "Dash To The Outhouse", by Willy Maket!
Charlie
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Charlie. K3UIM
Where you are: I was!
Where I am: You will be!
So be nice to us old fogies!!

N0ETR

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #14 on: August 17, 2022, 08:10:45 AM »

I live in Ottawa Kansas and there is actually a Radio Shack 30 miles to the west in Osage City. Haven't been in it, but have driven by several times. I miss being able to stop in after work, in Kansas City, to pick up electronic components. I hate ordering online because the shipping costs more than the parts.
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