Dropped my Wife off at Wallgreens-local Radio Shack nextdoor, thought I'd drop in to refresh my dissapointment in their lack of radio goodies. I thought...hey-they might still have shortwave antennas so I ask "where are your shortwave antennas?" He responds "Back there with the cable connectors-it's for your T.V. right?"

:Yes you are so right frank. I remember going into radio shack in the 70's and being able to test tubes!!! They had walls of electronic parts. Now they cant even get you the part your looking for even if its in stock. I called the local one the other day and asked for a 1 megohm pot, and they said they didnt have it. I had to read them the catalouge number, then suprize, they had it. I used to work for radio shack in 1989. I was told by the manager not to spend too much time helping the people that came in from college with projects. Go figure, if the store wasnt busy what the heck. Guess he wanted me to sell the high dollar stuff, lmao. Anyone ever hear of a rich college student?
:Dropped my Wife off at Wallgreens-local Radio Shack nextdoor, thought I'd drop in to refresh my dissapointment in their lack of radio goodies. I thought...hey-they might still have shortwave antennas so I ask "where are your shortwave antennas?" He responds "Back there with the cable connectors-it's for your T.V. right?"

I needed a capacitor today for a project, and I looked up on the Radio Shirk web page for the part. Yes, there it was, a 1000 uFd. cap @ 35 Volts. Available at all three Radio Shirks near to my house. I went to the first, looked in the capacitor drawers, the contents were in such a mess that I didn't bother too look. The two little teenybopper sales people were not about to be bothered to stop their chitchat and come around to ask for help. I went to the second Shirk, and the manager said they were out of stock on that cap. I asked why my computer at home said that he had the part, he said he didn't control the home computer The third, where I can occasionally leave without a case of the jaws, had he part, and helped me find it. Here in the Atlanta area, the people usually haven't a clue as to what most of their stock is.
What was their slogan? "You've got questions, we've got answers"? In a pig's eye they have.
Feeling better now that I've vented,
Lewis

:Yes you are so right frank. I remember going into radio shack in the 70's and being able to test tubes!!! They had walls of electronic parts. Now they cant even get you the part your looking for even if its in stock. I called the local one the other day and asked for a 1 megohm pot, and they said they didnt have it. I had to read them the catalouge number, then suprize, they had it. I used to work for radio shack in 1989. I was told by the manager not to spend too much time helping the people that came in from college with projects. Go figure, if the store wasnt busy what the heck. Guess he wanted me to sell the high dollar stuff, lmao. Anyone ever hear of a rich college student?
::Dropped my Wife off at Wallgreens-local Radio Shack nextdoor, thought I'd drop in to refresh my dissapointment in their lack of radio goodies. I thought...hey-they might still have shortwave antennas so I ask "where are your shortwave antennas?" He responds "Back there with the cable connectors-it's for your T.V. right?"

:Yes I usually get the salesman that hunts me down to ask me if he can help me find anything....like Im blind or something. So I love to ask them if they know what the total capacitance of 2 caps in parallel is. If they are still hanging around me then I ask more questions. Its like can I stand there and watch you pull open drawers and repeatedly ask you "still finding everything" Believe it or not Ive actually have run into a few that knew electronics. but thats rare. Heck Im supposed to know electronics but forgot most of it. And as far as the computer goes, I always checked to see if the store had it before I told the customer "yes we have it". I think thats just due to poor inventory. It was common for the store computer to say it had 10 of an item and in reality there were none to be found. What I hated was asking people for the last 4 digits of their phone number just to ring them up, I really hated doing that because some people would get irate.
:I needed a capacitor today for a project, and I looked up on the Radio Shirk web page for the part. Yes, there it was, a 1000 uFd. cap @ 35 Volts. Available at all three Radio Shirks near to my house. I went to the first, looked in the capacitor drawers, the contents were in such a mess that I didn't bother too look. The two little teenybopper sales people were not about to be bothered to stop their chitchat and come around to ask for help. I went to the second Shirk, and the manager said they were out of stock on that cap. I asked why my computer at home said that he had the part, he said he didn't control the home computer The third, where I can occasionally leave without a case of the jaws, had he part, and helped me find it. Here in the Atlanta area, the people usually haven't a clue as to what most of their stock is.
:What was their slogan? "You've got questions, we've got answers"? In a pig's eye they have.
:Feeling better now that I've vented,
:Lewis
:
:
:
:
::Yes you are so right frank. I remember going into radio shack in the 70's and being able to test tubes!!! They had walls of electronic parts. Now they cant even get you the part your looking for even if its in stock. I called the local one the other day and asked for a 1 megohm pot, and they said they didnt have it. I had to read them the catalouge number, then suprize, they had it. I used to work for radio shack in 1989. I was told by the manager not to spend too much time helping the people that came in from college with projects. Go figure, if the store wasnt busy what the heck. Guess he wanted me to sell the high dollar stuff, lmao. Anyone ever hear of a rich college student?
:::Dropped my Wife off at Wallgreens-local Radio Shack nextdoor, thought I'd drop in to refresh my dissapointment in their lack of radio goodies. I thought...hey-they might still have shortwave antennas so I ask "where are your shortwave antennas?" He responds "Back there with the cable connectors-it's for your T.V. right?"

I'm glad that I'm not the only one to notice Radio Shack is not what they used to be. Here on Long Island we have one in each town, a minimum of 5 near me. When I was younger I used to go hunting for parts that were discontinued, usually in September. I still remember getting p-box kits for a dollar, leftover IC's and even the occasional radio controlled car for maybe $5.00. That hasn't happened in at least 10 years, and I will admit it is easier to go to my computer and order from any number of suppliers who cater to the person who needs parts. The parts drawers have been an unholy mess here for years, and I think it was 3 years ago since they advertised parts in any of their flyers. We aren't the typical customer they look for, that is one who is looking for a cell phone, or a digital camera. Either way they won't know how to use it. The last time I went to Radio Shack was the day after Thanksgiving and I got a deal on a GPS. If they ever decide to look at supplying parts again, I'll be waiting.

:Oh yea the clearance stuff is great, right now there is a huge 4x4 on clearance, but I dont know if its still there. yea I got a weather alert radio for a dollar......one cold solder joint later the thing worked. The funny thing is I never knew what weather radios did. Well I found out one day when the dam thing went off with that god aweful alert noise, made me think my house was being attacked. Yes those were the days when one whole wall was nothing but resistors, one whole section for LEDS, one whole section for ICs, another for light bulbs. In case you didnt know, they onlyk have a couple of digitial meters anymore
And Im guessing those wont be there much longer.
::I'm glad that I'm not the only one to notice Radio Shack is not what they used to be. Here on Long Island we have one in each town, a minimum of 5 near me. When I was younger I used to go hunting for parts that were discontinued, usually in September. I still remember getting p-box kits for a dollar, leftover IC's and even the occasional radio controlled car for maybe $5.00. That hasn't happened in at least 10 years, and I will admit it is easier to go to my computer and order from any number of suppliers who cater to the person who needs parts. The parts drawers have been an unholy mess here for years, and I think it was 3 years ago since they advertised parts in any of their flyers. We aren't the typical customer they look for, that is one who is looking for a cell phone, or a digital camera. Either way they won't know how to use it. The last time I went to Radio Shack was the day after Thanksgiving and I got a deal on a GPS. If they ever decide to look at supplying parts again, I'll be waiting.

They do NOT make much $ on 5 resistors for $.95. I am sure they would rather sell TV and DVD which are more high dollar and profit. Don't pick on them so hard.

Hi Del! I see your point. There's that business end to consider. You gotta wonder though-why do they still call themselves "Radio Shack"? Just my own opinion, but I think the common thread that runs through all their metamorphoses thru the years was that you could go to them for the "peripheral junk" you needed and at the same time they could sell their T.V's and stereos. From my view to eliminate ALL radio technology from their inventory right down to the measly shortwave antenna and still call it "Radio Shack" puzzles me. Hense the subject title...I'm gettin' old!

I had some friends that worked there until about six months ago (they got better offers to sell cell phones on comission) and at least then, their current goal was to eliminate the parts drawers and dmms, which have vanished from two of our local locations, and to basically offer no assistance to those in search of said parts. Interestingly enough, my buddies had to sign some kind of agreement that any item created by them and patented during their employ would be owned by Tandy, due to their having access to all of that 'insider info' at the 'shack-go figure!
It's really a shame, too-as I remember buying record needles and batteries with the soldering tabs there when I was in high school (only six years ago) and that really was the beginning of my interest in things electronic. I remember how excited I was buying my first soldering iron from them.

:Hi Del! I see your point. There's that business end to consider. You gotta wonder though-why do they still call themselves "Radio Shack"? Just my own opinion, but I think the common thread that runs through all their metamorphoses thru the years was that you could go to them for the "peripheral junk" you needed and at the same time they could sell their T.V's and stereos. From my view to eliminate ALL radio technology from their inventory right down to the measly shortwave antenna and still call it "Radio Shack" puzzles me. Hense the subject title...I'm gettin' old!

Here in Canada all of the Radio Shack stores have changed their name to "Circuit City". There is no more "Radio Shack". I love going over to the Radio Shack stores in Michigan.

Andy

Why do they call it "RADIO" shack? Let McDonalds change their name to "greasy fat high calorie burgers that will kill you" and business goes down. The internet with its sites like Nostalgia Air has become primary for just that reason. Its now a hobby to repair rdios and televisions. What we need is to come up with brick and mortar chain of stores that emphasize the "hobby" end of the business. Anybody got any suggestions?

Steve,
The "Brick and Mortar" is a great idea, but you'd still have to sell cell phones to pay the rent. PTOP is the closest to our needs, but unfortunately its in Ohio, and with Gary's inventory/prices, don't know how he pays the rent. Rad Shak could retrace it steps with a separate entity and the industrial strength of Tandy, to offer real radio components, but the Mom and Pop retailers would be up in arms about the unfair competetion (read WalMart). Regular "Swap Meets" could work, but unfortunately attendance would wane over a short period because of demand, and so few of us still tinkering/loving old technology. I order on line and watch the local garage sales that mention antiques.

marv

:Why do they call it "RADIO" shack? Let McDonalds change their name to "greasy fat high calorie burgers that will kill you" and business goes down. The internet with its sites like Nostalgia Air has become primary for just that reason. Its now a hobby to repair rdios and televisions. What we need is to come up with brick and mortar chain of stores that emphasize the "hobby" end of the business. Anybody got any suggestions?

Marv,
You're probably right. You know, I also enjoy plastic modeling and I discovered a whole new world that I never knew existed when I got back into modeling back in 2001. Baby boomers are returning to their roots (I'm 46)and now we've got cash that we didn't have then as teens or twentysomethings. We trained on vacuum tubes saw the IC revolution just shut down the tube as a viable option. Thus, Radio Shack, well need I say more. If theres one thing I've learned from hobby stores, both internet and "brick and mortar". We baby boomers still like to put our hands on things, just ask my wife. But I digress, now it's a hobby and just like the old railroad sets or metal toys that crawled along the floor when I was a kid, so it goes with old radios and TVs. They're antiques, just look at those Crosleys. That was my thinking, hmmm!!!
Thoughts?
Regards
Steve

Steve,
Well the Rad Shak gods are lookin out for me. After my gentle sermon this AM, needed some low V electrolytics for a Delco auto radio. Buried under the heatsink were 1uf/35V (real short case) green caps. Hmmm, remember reading on some web site 'bout Delco audio power amps having bad green caps. Re-visited the web site, and the poster said they all may not be bad, but change them. Removed a total of 6 and 2 were bad. Found Tantalum dips at Rad Shak that were short enough to stand up under the heat sink, and a couple other needed items. So for today I'm batting 1000 at Rad Shak. Now I'll go try the amp to see if that fixed the crackin, popping, crunching in the speakers, before blowin the Rad Shak horn any louder.

marv

:Marv,
:You're probably right. You know, I also enjoy plastic modeling and I discovered a whole new world that I never knew existed when I got back into modeling back in 2001. Baby boomers are returning to their roots (I'm 46)and now we've got cash that we didn't have then as teens or twentysomethings. We trained on vacuum tubes saw the IC revolution just shut down the tube as a viable option. Thus, Radio Shack, well need I say more. If theres one thing I've learned from hobby stores, both internet and "brick and mortar". We baby boomers still like to put our hands on things, just ask my wife. But I digress, now it's a hobby and just like the old railroad sets or metal toys that crawled along the floor when I was a kid, so it goes with old radios and TVs. They're antiques, just look at those Crosleys. That was my thinking, hmmm!!!
:Thoughts?
:Regards
:Steve
:

:Steve,
:Well the Rad Shak gods are lookin out for me. After my gentle sermon this AM, needed some low V electrolytics for a Delco auto radio. Buried under the heatsink were 1uf/35V (real short case) green caps. Hmmm, remember reading on some web site 'bout Delco audio power amps having bad green caps. Re-visited the web site, and the poster said they all may not be bad, but change them. Removed a total of 6 and 2 were bad. Found Tantalum dips at Rad Shak that were short enough to stand up under the heat sink, and a couple other needed items. So for today I'm batting 1000 at Rad Shak. Now I'll go try the amp to see if that fixed the crackin, popping, crunching in the speakers, before blowin the Rad Shak horn any louder.
:
:marv
:
::Marv,
::You're probably right. You know, I also enjoy plastic modeling and I discovered a whole new world that I never knew existed when I got back into modeling back in 2001. Baby boomers are returning to their roots (I'm 46)and now we've got cash that we didn't have then as teens or twentysomethings. We trained on vacuum tubes saw the IC revolution just shut down the tube as a viable option. Thus, Radio Shack, well need I say more. If theres one thing I've learned from hobby stores, both internet and "brick and mortar". We baby boomers still like to put our hands on things, just ask my wife. But I digress, now it's a hobby and just like the old railroad sets or metal toys that crawled along the floor when I was a kid, so it goes with old radios and TVs. They're antiques, just look at those Crosleys. That was my thinking, hmmm!!!
::Thoughts?
::Regards
::Steve

Steve (Et Al.) I was having a conversation with some friends a few days ago, and someone pointed out that we were the last generation that didn't have television for a baby sitter. I was in my early teens when Augusta got TV, and we had spent our childhood doing all sorts of things that today's kids never thought of, such as building crystal sets, making telephones out of WW II surplus earphones and microphones, I found some model T spark coils in the trash, we made cannons that would shoot a tennis ball halfway to the moon, ergo forts and cannon wars on Saturday morning. The only thing that was sacred was "Watch Mr. Wizard" on Saturday morning, then we went back outside to play until our parents dragged us in for supper, bath and bed. We rode bicycles for miles away from home, we thumbed downtown to see the Saturday double feature with cartoon and serial, we fished in Rae's creed, maybe you golfers might have heard of it, we camped out in the backyard (and later in the woods). Like I said, we didn't have television or video games to keep us inside. We explored the woods, I fell through a rotten roof, got a splinter in my butt that the doc had to remove about 30 yrs later when it started trying to grow out. My folks had and old Silvertone that had one of those "television" input jacks, we put a surplus earphone in it and produced our own "radio" shows, taking turns being the performers and the audince. We had no Little League, no parents fighting over a ref's call, we made our rules on the spot. I was probably the only kid on planet earth that had a tree house with a telephone.

Well, I guess today's kids would be bored as hell with what we had to amuse ourselves with, but we learned more, I am sure playing in the great outdoors than with a video game.
Lewis

Well, there is still minor cracking, popping and crunching, but not as bad as before. But wait, there are 4 more 100uf caps under the heat sink. Do you think maybe???

marv

:Steve,
:Well the Rad Shak gods are lookin out for me. After my gentle sermon this AM, needed some low V electrolytics for a Delco auto radio. Buried under the heatsink were 1uf/35V (real short case) green caps. Hmmm, remember reading on some web site 'bout Delco audio power amps having bad green caps. Re-visited the web site, and the poster said they all may not be bad, but change them. Removed a total of 6 and 2 were bad. Found Tantalum dips at Rad Shak that were short enough to stand up under the heat sink, and a couple other needed items. So for today I'm batting 1000 at Rad Shak. Now I'll go try the amp to see if that fixed the crackin, popping, crunching in the speakers, before blowin the Rad Shak horn any louder.
:
:marv
:
::Marv,
::You're probably right. You know, I also enjoy plastic modeling and I discovered a whole new world that I never knew existed when I got back into modeling back in 2001. Baby boomers are returning to their roots (I'm 46)and now we've got cash that we didn't have then as teens or twentysomethings. We trained on vacuum tubes saw the IC revolution just shut down the tube as a viable option. Thus, Radio Shack, well need I say more. If theres one thing I've learned from hobby stores, both internet and "brick and mortar". We baby boomers still like to put our hands on things, just ask my wife. But I digress, now it's a hobby and just like the old railroad sets or metal toys that crawled along the floor when I was a kid, so it goes with old radios and TVs. They're antiques, just look at those Crosleys. That was my thinking, hmmm!!!
::Thoughts?
::Regards
::Steve
::

:Hello, and yes he doesnt pay the rent anymore. He closed his shop in cleveland. I only live an hour from his shop!!!!...or used to. Now his radio stuff is at his house I think, and thats closer but I dont know if I could stil look at his inventory in person or not. I loved going to h is store just to buy a few things.....and then brouwwwsssseeeee the whole store.
:Steve,
:The "Brick and Mortar" is a great idea, but you'd still have to sell cell phones to pay the rent. PTOP is the closest to our needs, but unfortunately its in Ohio, and with Gary's inventory/prices, don't know how he pays the rent. Rad Shak could retrace it steps with a separate entity and the industrial strength of Tandy, to offer real radio components, but the Mom and Pop retailers would be up in arms about the unfair competetion (read WalMart). Regular "Swap Meets" could work, but unfortunately attendance would wane over a short period because of demand, and so few of us still tinkering/loving old technology. I order on line and watch the local garage sales that mention antiques.
:
:marv
:
::Why do they call it "RADIO" shack? Let McDonalds change their name to "greasy fat high calorie burgers that will kill you" and business goes down. The internet with its sites like Nostalgia Air has become primary for just that reason. Its now a hobby to repair rdios and televisions. What we need is to come up with brick and mortar chain of stores that emphasize the "hobby" end of the business. Anybody got any suggestions?

:Dropped my Wife off at Wallgreens-local Radio Shack nextdoor, thought I'd drop in to refresh my dissapointment in their lack of radio goodies. I thought...hey-they might still have shortwave antennas so I ask "where are your shortwave antennas?" He responds "Back there with the cable connectors-it's for your T.V. right?" Hence the saying ' Radio Shack Youve got questions. Weve got blank stares