Where are some of the long-timers?

TeamSpeed wrote in post #19178782
As a kid, radio shack was my “Candy shop”. Heck even before there was Microsoft, there was Tandy with their file based OS. I learned my trade on the TRS80s, and my first production software product went live when I was in 11th grade for those computers. Oh the memories...

I remember when I bought one of their little rectangular FM transmitters and had so much fun talking through my neighbor's radio once I found the station they were on. Not too much of a range, but still fun when sitting around the corner and talking over their speakers, lol. Now the only place I can get electronics parts, etc is 2 hours away at Frys.

I used to know where every Radio Shack in all the areas I frequented was. (ya know, before gps and google maps.)

Once I was driving home from Georgian Bay Ontario in my 1985 Saab 900 just crossing the border from Ontario into upstate New York, and my car started to really overheat. I pulled over there on Route 81, and found that the electric fan for the radiator was not being told to turn on by what must be a dead temp sensor. (this was the first car I'd owned with out a mechanical, always on attached to the belt drive radiator fan.)

Bad sensor. 8 more hours to get home,. early 20's, not exactly carrying a lot of cash for out of state road service, etc...

Then i recalled driving by that Radio Shack just a few miles down off the highway in downtown Watertown. Thank god I preferred the Rural RT12 as soon as I could get off 81,. otherwise I'd also have missed one of my all time favorite diners, Loyde's of Loweville.

So that hot August day in the parking lot of a Radio Shack in upstate Watertown NY, I took some speaker wire, a nice matching black rocker switch, and wire nuts and re-ran the fan wire bypassing the dead sensor and in it's place had the rocker switch in the panel to the left of the steering wheel. Now my radiator fan was a manual rocker switch. By the time I got home, i was so used to watching the temp gauge and flipping the switch manually, I never bothered to replace it. I just kept doing it manually for another 3 or four years.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #19178686
We converted all our speakers into BT using those small BT receivers that output to headline plugs came out, so we can listen to anything now, even mp3s we have on our home network!

took me a while to work out what you meant - to this old bloke, BT is a type of telephone socket!

For you Audiophiles,..

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Tom Reichner wrote in post #19178562
It is 1960s / 1970s classic rock. . Recorded in 1969, released in 1970.

https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/25_or_6_to_4

It is one of the most iconic, oft-played songs of that era. . I remember first hearing it as a very young child (I was born in 1968). . I am surprised that you aren't familiar with it, if you were still listening to current music in the early 1970s.

I don't believe I ever heard it. What was on YouTube didn't sound familiar. To narrow down my "listening history," my exposure to current music probably tapered off about 1968, when I first had an apartment without roommates. What was in style then was acid rock, folk and folk rock, Beatles, Dylan, Ravi Shankar, Ray Charles, protest songs. I'm leaving out a lot. Of course, jazz, country, and other genres had their radio stations and fans, too.

SkedAddled wrote in post #19178745
Haven't heard mention of Allison in quite some time, Jake.
I mostly know them for phono cartridges -- ?

I used to be into the old Radio Shack Realistic/Optimus full-size speakers
back in the '80s. T-120 three-way and Mach Two three-way,
both with ferrofluid-cooled tweeters and real walnut cabinets.
I drove them with an Onkyo amplifier at only 80 WPC,
but the speakers shook the house!

T-120:

Mach Two:

That took me back
I made up our speakers from similar and the kids still talk about them and how they shook the house
It was powerful, clear music coming from them.
They'd crank up the base and let them rip.
No idea what neighbours thought.

I still have those speakers and they still reverberate.
Daughters visiting cats thought they were scratching posts

There's a RadioShack in Tamworth. Heart of country music here.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19178562
.

.

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It is 1960s / 1970s classic rock. . Recorded in 1969, released in 1970.

https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/25_or_6_to_4

It is one of the most iconic, oft-played songs of that era. . I remember first hearing it as a very young child (I was born in 1968). . I am surprised that you aren't familiar with it, if you were still listening to current music in the early 1970s.

By the way, there is a lot if interesting info in the Wikipedia link that I posted above ..... everything from chord progressions being similar to those used by Led Zeppelin and Green Day, to the Korean government banning the song, to the meaning of the song's title, and more!

.

It's a great song that I was surprised to see I didn't have in my collection. ProStudioMasters will make some money from me tonight! LOL

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19178848
I used to know where every Radio Shack in all the areas I frequented was. (ya know, before gps and google maps.)

Not a day goes by that I don't lament the disappearance of Radio Shack. I do miss the convenience of instant small electronic components. Luckily there is a place 20 minutes away from me called "Arcade Electronics" that has many of the things you'd find in Radio Shack plus a lot of great tools.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #19178782
As a kid, radio shack was my “Candy shop”. Heck even before there was Microsoft, there was Tandy with their file based OS. I learned my trade on the TRS80s, and my first production software product went live when I was in 11th grade for those computers. Oh the memories...

I remember when I bought one of their little rectangular FM transmitters and had so much fun talking through my neighbor's radio once I found the station they were on. Not too much of a range, but still fun when sitting around the corner and talking over their speakers, lol. Now the only place I can get electronics parts, etc is 2 hours away at Frys.

lol, a few days ago I was cleaning out a shelf, and low and behold, I found that I still own that little FM transmitter. Too funny...

+Back in the day I had a Heathkit outlet closer to me than Radio Shack so I mostly frequented Heathkit. They had all their kits but also a pretty decent parts department as well.

gjl711 wrote in post #19189613
+Back in the day I had a Heathkit outlet closer to me than Radio Shack so I mostly frequented Heathkit. They had all their kits but also a pretty decent parts department as well.

Heathkit brings back good memories. In my youth I built a Heathkit VTVM and O-scope.

The last time I visited a Heathkit walk-in store was in 1986. But it was geared towards educational supplies for schools.
Electronic/computer books and breadboards. I was attending tech-school at the time and had to buy some Heathkit
books. I still have them.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19192075
Heathkit brings back good memories. In my youth I built a Heathkit VTVM and O-scope.

The last time I visited a Heathkit walk-in store was in 1986. But it was geared towards educational supplies for schools.
Electronic/computer books and breadboards. I was attending tech-school at the time and had to buy some Heathkit
books. I still have them.

There were quite a few kits I built. The o-scope was one of them but that was mainly my dad's. I also remember their volt meter. I believe this was the one but I remember it slightly differently.

My VTVM looked like this - photo copied from the net.

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