Posted on 02/17/2006 12:06:55 PM PST by iPod Shuffle
Thanks for the link to Radio Daze. I promise not to tell my wife that you were the one to steer me to yet another place to buy goodies. ;-)
Please Freepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
There are still some fantastic kit manufacturers out there, though most specialize in ham radio gear rather than general electronics. Give these a try:
Elecraft
My K2 was an absolute blast to build. My dfaughter enjoys it as well. ;-)
dahdahdididit didididahdah
A PS to my last post - I love your radio bench. It's easy to tell that you have a lot of fun with your rigs. My kinda shack!
But Radio Shack always went one step beyond awfulness. Last time I was in there was about 10 years ago when I had to buy a phone cord or something like that. For like a $4 cash sale, it took me about five minutes to complete the purchase because the kid at the counter had to write the entire sale out on an order pad, listing item number, price, and all kinds of other irrelevant information. To top it all off, he insisted on putting my name, address and phone number on the form. Finally I just gave him a bunch of bogus information just so I could get the damn phone cord and get the hell out of there.
I hope so.
I just realized the picture shows my Realistic boom box purchased in 1983.
BTW, the "mouse" is a cw key.
Neat idea! Left click for dots, right for dashes?
Why would one not be?
It started out as a pretty good deal when they only asked for name and address. Quite a while back Radio Shack used to mail out their annual store catalog which was full of goodies even down to tubes and phono needles etc. It saved you a trip to the store to see if they even carried an item. They also mailed out seasonal smaller catalogs. Now they use it mainly for tracking purchases. It's been a long time since I've gotten even a flyer of substance from them though.
Times have changed though. We were at the mall the other day and JC Penny's was selling their store catalog for $5 I think. Heck Sears and Roebuck used to mail them out free and would give them away.
The moderate sized town where I grew up was home to three decent parts sources - Lafayette Electronics, Radio Shack, and a hometown place called Port Electronics. Rat Shack is still there (though maybe not for long), but the other two are dead and buried.
I've been fortunate to live where there are still some decent "old school" sources for parts. During my Central Florida days I almost had a designated parking space at Skycraft Parts and Surplus. In Denver, it's Fistell's and Gateway. The best part of visiting all of those places is that on any given trip it's never certain what weird and wonderful things will be waiting there to be discovered.
I quite agree with you on a name change. They should take the "Radio" out of the name since they now sell almost no radios other than cheapo Chinese made junk. Their AM radios can barely pick up a 50,000 watt station at night. They no longer sell any amateur radio radios and their parts inventory has dwindled to nothing. This is too bad since they were the only place around to get certain parts.
Yep. Used to be people who actually like to build things. Now... Well, RS no longer carries much of anything. Mouser electronics or Ebay is the "local" store now. Electronics magazines are nearly extinct except for those from England. Sad state of affairs.
The beauty of the K2's keyer is it allows the two to be swapped it will.
I always give an address I once had in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, Scotland. Drives them nuts!
Peace is our Profession. War is just a hobby. And I've been at this hobby for many, many, years.
Aim High! I'm driving a fuel truck!
Me in 1990.
I'd be spending nearly all of my Saturdays there plus many weeknights up to about 4 AM. (it always seems to me that the good stuff happens really late)
Here in hurricane country we very much appreciate the countless hours that ham radio community puts forth. If you think about all the people at TV stations, police departments, National Guard, paramedics, firemen etc. that are hard at work, remember that out of all that, the hams are among the very few who are not getting paid. No tax dollars, just good citizens who devote a lot of time and money (ham gear ain't cheap) to public service.
The government (FCC) rewards them by chopping up the ham bands in ever smaller pieces. In spite of all this the ham operators continue to be the most courteous radio operators out there.
I have a neighbor who has a set of beams up on his roof. A couple Saturdays ago I walked by while he was working outside on some connections. Aloft there must have been at least a half-dozen pigeons perched on the beam elements, so I asked him if the 'bird count' affected the SWR. Although I was joking, he said they really did affect it and for a while he couldn't figure out what was changing the tuning characteristics of the antenna system when nothing else had been changed.
This might work as it helps on commerical buildings. Tell him to go to Home Depot and by an artifical owl. That should keep them away.
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