jshelton@ads.com (John L. Shelton) (02/04/91)
... (Allied Radio was Radio Shack's name thirty years ago for you young'uns reading this.)... Not true. Radio Shack was formed in 1920 (approx) in Boston, MA, and for years had the one store on Commonwealth Ave. They branched out into mail order over the years. In the 60's, Radio Shack was bought by the Tandy Corporation, which at the time was doing mostly leather and craft stuff. Eventually, RS became the large portion of Tandy, and I believe the craft business is almost completely gone. Allied Radio is as old as RS, and was based in Chicago, as PAT should well know. Allied Radio was a mail order house only, doing both commercial and residential electronics. They sold brand-name hifi out of the same catalog that listed GE transistors etc. Allied also eventually branched out to retail stores and had in the neighborhood of a hundred or so when ... in the late 60's or early 70s, Tandy bought Allied and tried to merge it with R/S. For a few years, all the stores were labelled "Allied Radio Shack". The Justice Department stepped in, deciding that this was a "Bad Idea", but by the time they did so, Tandy had closed all but about 30 or so of the original Allied stores. Tandy took Allied to wholesale only, and eventually sold off the Allied business, though for years Allied carried Radio Shack parts. =John= [Moderator's Note: You are wrong on the 'Allied was mail order only' statement. See the message before this. They did have a mail order division but their big warehouse store on the west side of Chicago was a beehive of activity for hams, CB'ers, and lots of other early radio freaks for thirty years or more, circa 1930 through the mid-60's. When they annouced that Tandy had bought them out (yes, Tandy was originally into handicraft type projects, a sort of Heathkit for people who liked basket weaving and knitting sweaters, etc) they had a big sale and got rid of all *non Tandy* merchandise. They cleared out all sorts of radio equipment from other companies and filled the place with Tandy stock. Allied lost most of its loyal customers as a result. Then came the Allied Radio Shacks, the final closure of the west side warehouse store in Chicago, and the birth of the dozens of much smaller (Tandy merchandise only!) Radio Shack stores across Anerica. Say! Speaking of Heathkit ... what are *they* doing these days? Are they still around? My first terminal was a Zenith Z-19 which I built from a Heathkit in 1980, meaning it was actually an H-19 instead. The last I heard, they closed the Benton Harbor facility. PAT]
paul@unhtel.unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) (02/06/91)
In article <16686@accuvax.nwu.edu> jshelton@ads.com (John L. Shelton) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 93, Message 3 of 10 > [Moderator's Note: (Allied Radio was Radio Shack's name thirty years > ago for you young'uns reading this.)... > Not true. > Radio Shack was formed in 1920 (approx) in Boston, MA, and for years > had the one store on Commonwealth Ave. They branched out into mail > order over the years. In the 60's, Radio Shack was bought by the > Tandy Corporation, which at the time was doing mostly leather and > craft stuff. Eventually, RS became the large portion of Tandy, and I > believe the craft business is almost completely gone. I seem to remember when the ONE store they had was downtown, on Washington Street, and had just about everything. I think Comm Ave was when they started to expand, become a serious commercial jobber, etc. Then Tandy made them into the McDonald's of electronics.... >[Moderator's Note: ... > Say! Speaking of Heathkit ... what are *they* doing these >days? Are they still around? My first terminal was a Zenith Z-19 >which I built from a Heathkit in 1980, meaning it was actually an H-19 >instead. The last I heard, they closed the Benton Harbor facility. PAT] I think I have you beat on this one, Pat, I built an H-9 (yes, NINE) around 1977. It was upper case only on transmit, and RECEIVED lower case as garbage, so I had to add a gate to shift that bit on only those characters ... I have an H-89 here in working condition, which is really an H-19 with a Z-80 computer and floppy disk in it. There were still two Heath stores in the Boston area as of a few years ago, but they had a lot more of a consumer electronics/computer store feel to them ... sigh.... Paul S. Sawyer {uunet,attmail}!unhtel!paul paul@unhtel.unh.edu UNH CIS - - Telecommunications and Network Services VOX: +1 603 862 3262 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 FAX: +1 603 862 2030 [Moderator's Note: The H-19 (Z-19) had a hollow space on the right side of the monitor where the disk drive would fit if you were converting it to a 89. Then inside the unit right in front of the logic board there was a place to install the board for the 89 if desired. The coversion was not real hard, but I did not bother. What I did do with the H-19 was install a 'Graphics Plus' board in there instead which improved the terminal's performance greatly and made it a very smart terminal. PAT]
Barton.Bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) (02/06/91)
In article <16686@accuvax.nwu.edu>, jshelton@ads.com (John L. Shelton) writes: > Radio Shack was formed in 1920 (approx) in Boston, MA, and for years > had the one store on Commonwealth Ave. They branched out into mail They moved out to Commonwealth Ave. right near the BU bridge actually quite late in their history, and well into their downward slide (IMHO) that they still continue today. They WERE on Washington St. right between what is now Government Center, and what has long been Haymarket Square. Back when I was a kid, and the subway was a nickel, they had bins of all sorts of WWII surplus electronics stuff along with the new stuff. The quality and atmosphere has never been quite the same. Back then the sales folk generally knew what they were talking about. When they finally moved to Comm. Ave. they got a bit fancier, and they were heading down hill. Now they are mostly blisterpacked gadgets on the 800% markup racks. [Moderator's Note: Sad to say, there is *no way* a radio/electronics gear store of the 1950-60 era could operate today, given the economics involved. The old Allied Radio store had *barrels* of capacitors and other components sitting around everywhere -- sort through them and take what you want. If you did not know what you wanted, the salesman would consult directories, indexes and tables to find the proper part number from other companies, etc. The salesman would spend thirty minutes with you if needed to help you find the gizmo you were looking for to use in modifying your radio, etc ... all for a two dollar sale. Olson was the same way. How they made a profit I'll never know. I guess in fact they did not make a profit since they, like Allied, are out of business. Blisterpacked gadgets and salespeople who know from nothing are where the profit is now-a-days. In the old days, the sales help in those stores were almost always hobbyists themselves, with hobbyist mentalities, stringing components together to make things work like they wanted. It was easy for them to empathize with the customer and spend time discussing your project and helping you dig through barrels of poorly marked capactitors, vacuum tubes, switches and plugs finding what was needed. Imagine most RS clerks doing that today or even knowing/caring what your home-brew project is about. PAT]
hsilbiger@attmail.att.com (Herman R Silbiger) (02/07/91)
In article <16708@accuvax.nwu.edu>, Barton.Bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) writes: > [Moderator's Note: Sad to say, there is *no way* a radio/electronics > gear store of the 1950-60 era could operate today, given the economics > involved. The old Allied Radio store had *barrels* of capacitors and > other components sitting around everywhere -- sort through them and > Olson was the same way. How they made a profit I'll never know. I > guess in fact they did not make a profit since they, like Allied, are > out of business. Blisterpacked gadgets and salespeople who know from > nothing are where the profit is now-a-days. In the old days, the sales > help in those stores were almost always hobbyists themselves, with > hobbyist mentalities, stringing components together to make things > work like they wanted. It was easy for them to empathize with the > customer and spend time discussing your project and helping you dig > through barrels of poorly marked capactitors, vacuum tubes, switches > and plugs finding what was needed. Imagine most RS clerks doing that > today or even knowing/caring what your home-brew project is about. PAT] Actually, Olson only handled their "own brand" of stuff, while Allied handled many brands. I assembled my first hifi system from Allied, and bought most of it out of the Chicago store. The Allied catalog was required reading to find out what was new in electronics. Allied's principal competitor was Lafayette Radio, in New York City. Lafayette was located on Lafayette Street in NYC, near Hudson and Varick Streets. This area was known as Radio Row, and had many radio and electronics parts and surplus strores. The area disappeared when the World Trade Center was built. One store from that area still exists uptown, Harvey Radio (now Harvey Electronics), and is an upscale sound system dealer. I bought one rarity from Lafayette, an black dial phone ("for hobbyist use only" in those days :-) ), which turned out to have been manufactured by HEEMAF in the Netherlands, a company mainly known for its AC motors. Herman Silbiger [Moderator's Note: Ah yes, Lafayette! There was a nice Lafayette store in Chicago on Wabash Avenue until about 1968 or so ... I bought a few things from them, but mostly for my stereo: a pre-amp, cartridges, a couple of speakers, a reverb unit, etc. PAT]
prg@mgweed.uucp (Gunsul) (02/07/91)
Just one more Pat and I'll stop living in the past! I can remember my junior high and high school days, back in the early and mid '60's, waiting by the mailbox for the Lafayette catalog to arrive. I also remember the great smell of the Allied and Lafayette catalog -- gosh I loved getting those in the mail... Oh well, like I said ... guess I've gotten off the intent of the news group, but thanks for the trip back in time Pat, I enjoyed it!!! Phil [Moderator's Note: Those 'trips back in time' are fun, and really I think they are essential to a complete understanding of modern day technology and telephony. There are a lot of politics and history involved in why things are as they are today. Things don't just happen. We cannot dwell in the past but we must learn from it. PAT]
rees@pisa.ifs.umich.edu (Jim Rees) (02/08/91)
In article <16727@accuvax.nwu.edu>, hsilbiger@attmail.att.com (Herman R Silbiger) writes: > Lafayette was located on Lafayette Street in NYC, near Hudson and > Varick Streets. This area was known as Radio Row, and had many radio > and electronics parts and surplus strores. The area disappeared when > the World Trade Center was built. One store from that area still > exists uptown, Harvey Radio (now Harvey Electronics), and is an > upscale sound system dealer. This area seems to have moved over to Canal Street, which is also a great place to buy the latest toys from Taiwan and $25 Rolex watches. I mention it here because it's also a good place to shop for cheap surplus telecom gear. These areas also survive in various third-world cities, where time is still cheaper than parts. Manila has a big surplus telecom district, Bangkok has all kinds of electronics shops near Wat Phra Keo selling new, used and surplus equipment, and Mexico City used to have a huge electronics district (I haven't been there in years, though). Getting the stuff back into your home country may be a bit tricky.
thurston@uk.ac.cam.mrc-apu.fastnet (Peter Thurston) (02/08/91)
Radio Shack/Tandy ... Yes ... the only store where you can get free TTL with each blister pack you buy. Actually, of course, R.S. *REALLY* stands for Radio Spares. Peter Thurston
luce@uunet.uu.net (J. Luce) (02/10/91)
TELECOM Moderator Noted: >[Moderator's Note: Those 'trips back in time' are fun, and really I >think they are essential to a complete understanding of modern day >technology and telephony. There are a lot of politics and history >involved in why things are as they are today. Things don't just >happen. We cannot dwell in the past but we must learn from it. PAT] To stay off course for one more message ... this brings up a pet 'concern' of mine. We used to hack at all these electronic things. We then probably (I know I did) hacked at our VERY OWN CP/M computers (of course meaning figuring out ports, barnacling semi-misdesigned S-100 boards, and rewriting BIOSs every time we added a device like a parallel <ooooooh> port) and we took that with us and aided our way into this brave new world of technology. The kids today just don't have the same environment to hack in. I think we are leaving a LOT of creativity in the lurch due to this. The 'finished product' approach of all we buy now may come back and nip us in our rears later on after us old hackers retire. I know as a S/W Engineer, my intro to electronics made my life as a device driver person a help and helped h/w people in making life easier for s/w people. ::sigh:: off soapbox. John Luce Alcatel Network Systems Raleigh, NC Standard Disclaimer Applies 919-850-6787 Mail? Here? Try aurs01!aurw46!luce@mcnc.org or ...!mcnc!aurgate!luce or John.Luce@f130.n151.z1.fidonet.org
jeh@dcs.simpact.com (Jamie Hanrahan) (02/10/91)
Yet another nit or three, and more nostalgia: The Moderator writes... > [Moderator's Note: You are wrong on the 'Allied was mail order only' > statement. See the message before this. They did have a mail order > division but their big warehouse store on the west side of Chicago was > a beehive of activity for hams, CB'ers, and lots of other early radio > freaks for thirty years or more, circa 1930 through the mid-60's. They were also a nationwide electronics distributor, with warehouse facilities in several major cities. Still are, actually. The Chicago store, though, may have been the only non-mail-order way for retail customers to reach them. > When they annouced that Tandy had bought them out [...] > Then came the Allied Radio Shacks, the final closure of the > west side warehouse store in Chicago, and the birth of the dozens > of much smaller (Tandy merchandise only!) Radio Shack stores across > Anerica. Actually there were Radio Shlock (RS merchandise only) stores across America well before both RS's acquisition by Tandy and before Tandy's acquisition of Allied. I don't remember which of those acquisitions came first (but I think it was in the aforementioned order). All of this discussion brings back fond memories of a purely local (San Diego) chain, Telrad Electronics. Now, doesn't that just sound like a name out of the fifties? Like something from a Carl and Jerry story, or from a Rick Brant book? Anyway, I think their "bread and butter" was the tv/radio repair parts business, but they also sold parts (and not just radio and tv stuff) to hobbyists, and they did repair work, AND they had both ham radio and hi-fi departments (this was in the golden age of Marantz, Fisher, et al). And, yes, the counter clerks knew enough to answer questions like what style of capacitor to use for a bypass cap, or do you think I really need to shield this tube... Most of the new parts for my early electronics projects came from Telrad. I remember buying my very first microphone there (a one-inch or so dia. ceramic -- brand named "Calrad" (no connection) -- in a clip-on lapel style, $1.99). It was a point of pride among all experimenters that Radio Schlock was NOT patronized except in dire emergency. A toggle switch from Telrad looked and felt just like one from a piece of army surplus electronics gear (only newer), while RS's seemed to be (and were) Japanese imitations. And who wanted to use Radio Schlock solder on a project, when Telrad would sell you genuine Kester??? At Telrad there was an ambiance of "real electronics is done here!" that was, and still is, completely missing from the glitzy Radio Shlock stores. RS's acquisition of Allied Radio sent a horrible shock through the ranks of experimenters everywhere. We expected the worst, and got worse than that. The 6x9xthick catalog with everybody's brand names in it (alongside, to be sure, Allied's house brands for tubes, hi-fi, and the like) became an 8-1/2x11x-very- thin thing. There was a lot of merchandise other than RS's, but listed without brand names!!! Allied's good (sometimes excellent) hi-fi, ham, and test equipment kits (Knight-Kits) were phased out in favor of RS's "Realistic", "Micronta", and similar phony-named lines. Truly the end of an era. Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA Internet: jeh@dcs.simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com Uucp: ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!jeh
stoll@ux5.lbl.gov (Cliff Stoll) (02/10/91)
Oh! Lafayette, Allied, and Olson's! Sweet memories of pawing through inch thick catalogs of capacitors, diodes, and switches. The Sears & Roebuck catalog for technofolks. Now -- check out the Chicago surplus outfit ... uh, what's its name ... the one with the wonderful ad copy and cheap paper... Cliff Stoll [Moderator's Note: How odd ... I don't know which company you mean. Answers, anyone? PAT]
covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert) (02/12/91)
From: Dale Neiburg Subject: Re: Allied Radio / Radio Shack Organization: National Public Radio Date: 11 Feb 91 10:03 EST In TELECOM Digest, vol. 11, issue 106, the following exchange occurs between Cliff Stoll and the Moderator: >Now -- check out the Chicago surplus outfit ... uh, what's its name > ... the one with the wonderful ad copy and cheap paper... >[Moderator's Note: How odd ... I don't know which company you mean. >Answers, anyone? PAT] I think Cliff is probably talking about the Jerryco catlogue. It's full of all sorts of *STRANGE* stuff, electronic, optical, arts & crafts, unclassifiable -- you name it. The copy is often delightful: one example that comes to mind is, "The purchasing department thought this was a teriffic idea. The editorial department doesn't." Unfortunately, I don't have their address and only remember that they're located in Evanston: I'll try to find it.
omh@cs.brown.edu (Owen M. Hartnett) (02/12/91)
Looking for more modern day electronic catalog stimulation? Here's a couple I've run into: (all the catalogs are free, most have 800 numbers, just call and ask for a catalog) Digi-Key - heavy metal, caps, resistors, diodes, transistors 701 Brooks Avenue South P O Box 677 Thief River Falls, MN 56701-0677 (800) 344-4539 MCM Electronics - flybacks, tools, test equipment 650 East Congress Park Drive Centerville, OH 45459-4072 (800) 543-4330 JDR Microdevices - misc test equipment & parts 2233 Branham Lane San Jose, CA 95124 (408) 559-1200 I've ordered from Digi-key and MCM, very professional, good for the hard to find parts that the local electronic hardware shop hasn't got. Owen Hartnett omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET Brown University Computer Science omh@cs.brown.edu uunet!brunix!omh
jeffj@uunet.uu.net (Jeff Jonas) (02/12/91)
In article <74329@bu.edu.bu.edu> rees@citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) writes: >> Lafayette was located on Lafayette Street in NYC, near Hudson and >> Varick Streets. This area was known as Radio Row, and had many radio >> and electronics parts and surplus strores. The area disappeared when >This area seems to have moved over to Canal Street, which is also a >great place to buy the latest toys from Taiwan and $25 Rolex watches. >I mention it here because it's also a good place to shop for cheap >surplus telecom gear. I've been a long time surplus electronics buyer (mostly switches, LED/neon displays, indicators, and digital electronics parts, even a few Z80, 68000 computer systems). Since I'm moving soon, I will have to thin out my inventory. If you need an unusual part (like an indicator bulb), please check with me. I recently lost a basement full of old equipment due to a misunderstanding, but I still have a tremendous inventory. Back to the topic at hand ... Have you been to Canal street recently? I was an EE student at The Cooper Union from 1978-82, so I spent a lot of time on Canal Street. The electronics surplus area was on Canal Street between Broadway and West Broadway. [Go too far West and you'll find the Hudson River. Go East of Broadway and you're in Chinatown] Until recently there were a few good stores, but I can recall only one remaining. Ramco is still there with the mess of parts all over the back. They organized the wire spool so they could help you with that, but their bread and butter nowadays is PCs. They always had walls of speakers and speaker parts. I mostly loved their selection of illuminated switches. Trans Am electronics on Canal St and West Broadway (formerly Omnibus) seems to have changed ownership. They have virtually NO surplus stuff anymore and sell mostly chips and stuff that I can buy much cheaper by mail order. All my classmates went there since it was still better than Radio-Sh***. "American Excess" was a fun place, but the owner moved to Florida. I think the real name for the place was "American Relay". They had a catalogue of really expensive servo motors. I recall buying many "bargains" there such as army surplus switches, many new surplus switches and rechargeable batteries. The fellow changed stores every few years, so but some stuff never really moved. There was a wall full of obsolete overpriced oscilloscopes and test equipment that never sold. The store was usually clean, bright and full of useful parts. I miss that store most of all. Traveling further downtown was Courtlandt Electronics on West Broadway. I think it's now a repair shop only (no more surplus). I went there once for a friend to get wire wrap IC sockets and I was overcharged .30, so that prompted me to buy a $30 credit card sized calculator so I could check all further purchases. (I usually used the calculator in restaurants to figure tips). I'm disappointed at the collapse of the surplus market. I used to get many surplus electronics catalogues, and now there are too few. I typed in my list of catalogues a few years ago, but the list is out of date before I can ever post it. Marlin P Jones (Florida) seems to still exist, and I've gotten useful items from them. I found that John Meshna (Mass) has been extremely unsatisfactory due to low quality merchandise and inconderate customer relations. I have experiences problems with all my recent orders with them, so I no longer deal with them. Please E-MAIL any replies of your experiences. Jeffrey Jonas jeffj@synsys.uucp synsys!jeffj@uunet.uu.net