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A complete history of Radio Shack product catalogs - online
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/ ^ | today | me

Posted on 01/01/2015 4:17:15 AM PST by mkleesma

Found this site online, thought I'd share it with anyone interested - it has full, viewable scans of just about every Radio Shack catalog since 1939. Enjoy!


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: catalogs; radio; shack
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To: mkleesma

I spent a lot of time in the mid 1970s looking through Radio Shack catalogs. Mostly stuff to build home stereo speakers, and CB radio gear.

I ended my catalog days just as the TRS-80 PCs started appearing.


21 posted on 01/01/2015 6:44:44 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
RS once sold a TV set “kit.”

You sure that wasn't Heathkit?

22 posted on 01/01/2015 6:47:49 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: mkleesma

Very cool...
In the 70’ I build a car alarm using 555 timers and a capacitive switch. All you had to do was touch the door handle and the thing would start it’s sequence.

Oh, and then there was the negative signwave sync supressed TV circuit.


23 posted on 01/01/2015 7:21:18 AM PST by super7man (Oh why did I post that, now I'll never be able to run for Congress.)
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To: Yo-Yo

Might have been from Heath...
A guy I knew in the radio biz bought one back in ‘69 or ‘70.


24 posted on 01/01/2015 7:24:25 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: mkleesma

Thanks!
I have always been a TRS fan.


25 posted on 01/01/2015 7:25:50 AM PST by kinsman redeemer (The real enemy seeks to devour what is good.)
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To: mkleesma
...Back in the mid-seventies I used to pour over these catalogs, dreaming of all of the stuff I would buy, someday...

Same here. Radio Shack catalogs and Estes model rocket catalogs. Thanks for the link. Brought back a lot of memories.

26 posted on 01/01/2015 8:00:43 AM PST by FReepaholic (Stupidity is not a crime, so you're free to go.)
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To: FReepaholic
Same here. Radio Shack catalogs and Estes model rocket catalogs. Thanks for the link. Brought back a lot of memories.

When I was in fifth and sixth grades, I used to carry the Fisher Scientific catalog around with me. It was hardcover, and as thick as a phone book.

I also had Estes, Centauri, and Allied Electronics catalogs. I loved them.

I remember that the last Allied catalog I had had listings for integrated circuits. RTL and DTL, no CMOS yet if I remember correctly. A dual J-K flip flop was something on the order of $190. I remember they had something called an "excess-three grey encoder," I never figured out what that was.

That would have been in 1969 or 1970.

I had Radio Shack catalogs too. I used to buy lots of parts from them. My dad bought me a Realistic reel-to-reel tape recorder when I was in sixth grade. $69, which was a lot of money back then. I was over the moon with delight. 7" reels, monophonic, ran on 110VAC. Was the size of a toaster oven. Seems like nothing is that size today. Nothing electronic, anyway.

27 posted on 01/01/2015 8:18:30 AM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: mkleesma

To open the link, do you need to provide your address and telephone number?


28 posted on 01/01/2015 8:21:54 AM PST by Labyrinthos
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

I see somebody else mentioned “Heathkit.” Then there were Allied and Lafayette too. Big catalogs.


29 posted on 01/01/2015 8:25:20 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Steely Tom

I was hooked on the Edmund Scientific catalogs, as a kid.


30 posted on 01/01/2015 8:26:40 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Labyrinthos

“To open the link, do you need to provide your address and telephone number?”

No - just click on the yellow box labelled “General Catalogs”.


31 posted on 01/01/2015 8:32:54 AM PST by mkleesma (`Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.')
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To: mkleesma

I still have a couple of police scanners from Radio Shack. All the local agencies have gone to digital systems, making those scanners pretty much useless. I don’t have $500 to spend on a digital scanner.


32 posted on 01/01/2015 8:48:06 AM PST by real saxophonist (Spam, Spam, Spam, Bacon, and Spam. Extra Bacon.)
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To: Cboldt
I was hooked on the Edmund Scientific catalogs, as a kid.

Oh yes! How could I have forgotten about them!

I remember their catalogs very clearly.

Telescope mirror grinding accessories. Erfle eyepieces. Diffraction gratings. Ronchi rulings. All kinds of lenses in "good," "better," and "best" quality catagories.

When I moved to Philadelphia in the early '80s, I used to drive over to their headquarters in Barrington NJ. They had (maybe still have) a big showroom there. I bought a spool of unclad optical fibers there, which I still have to this day, down in my basement.

33 posted on 01/01/2015 9:09:02 AM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: Cboldt
I see somebody else mentioned “Heathkit.” Then there were Allied and Lafayette too. Big catalogs.

I built a Heathkit SB-102 SSB transceiver when I was in high school. Worked too. Used it until I lost interest in ham radio, some time in college.

34 posted on 01/01/2015 9:12:05 AM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: mkleesma

I think you missed the humor — Up until about ten years ago, Radioshack demanded personal information like address, telephone number, and birth date, for even the most trivial of cash purchases.


35 posted on 01/01/2015 10:05:04 AM PST by Labyrinthos
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To: mkleesma

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2002/11/25/daily4.html


36 posted on 01/01/2015 10:06:14 AM PST by Labyrinthos
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To: mkleesma

bm


37 posted on 01/01/2015 10:19:32 AM PST by WhirlwindAttack (I lost my 80mm dual phased irridum plasma cannon in a tragic hover tank sinking)
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To: Steely Tom
Here you go: Estes catalogs online
38 posted on 01/01/2015 10:34:46 AM PST by FReepaholic (Stupidity is not a crime, so you're free to go.)
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To: super7man
Ha! the 555 timers. I LOVED RS in the '70's. The 555, 556 and all the cool things you could build. RS was the store for 'electronic' erector sets - building things.

What a real shame that kids these days don't know about or have the patience for doing that kind of stuff.
39 posted on 01/01/2015 11:13:22 AM PST by time4good
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To: Cboldt
I see somebody else mentioned “Heathkit.” Then there were Allied and Lafayette too. Big catalogs.

Man! I drooled over all four companies' catalogs - almost as much as Sears (woman's wear ( :) ) and Craftsman tools)
40 posted on 01/01/2015 11:16:07 AM PST by time4good
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