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Author Topic: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?  (Read 13494 times)

Offline thechoat

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #30 on: January 14, 2014, 0041 UTC »
Im with yall on this except for the fact that i can run to the shack to pick up a few resistors i need right now,instead of ordering them or driving 40miles to my local electrical supply store.They look at me like im a thief when they ask me if i need help and i say nope i got it and walk past them,hahaha.
Oklahoma
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Afedri SDR or Icom 746, home made OCF dipole

Offline BoomboxDX

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #31 on: January 14, 2014, 0202 UTC »
I used to go into Radio Shack all the time back in the 1980's. Then they stopped sending out the catalogs, and then stopped sending the flyers, and then they stopped carrying so many radios, and then they stopped carrying as much home audio stuff, and then they got rid of their CB and Ham stuff.... and became a glorified cell phone store. 

Which I suppose is o.k., except they have a lot more competition now as a cell phone store than they did as a radio / stereo / computer / electronics hobby store.

Sometime in the late 1990's I just quit going there, except to stop in now and then to get some small parts.

The last major purchase I made at a Radio Shack was last year. I got the Radio Shack "PLL Synthesized World Receiver", which is a Sangean ATS-505 in Radio Shack clothing. 

I had read about this radio on the 'net, and even though I didn't really need another radio, the price was cheap enough (about $80), so I decided to buy one and try it out. It works well -- compares well to most of my other digital portables.

My other reason for buying it was more sentimental than the price, I suppose. I had this feeling that it would be the last Radio Shack branded SW radio, ever.

Hopefully, that doesn't turn out to be true, but who knows?
An AM radio Boombox DXer.
+ GE SRIII, PR-D5 & TRF on MW.
The usual Realistic culprits on SW (and a Panasonic).

Offline BDM

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #32 on: January 14, 2014, 0450 UTC »
Thanks BDM for the link to the old catalogs of Radio Shock! Bring back some interesting memories. Why, there was my old 23 channel CB base station, the Realistic Navaho---gaad, what memories!

Yes it sure does. I remember dreaming of purchasing a TRC-101B 23 channel hand-held back in the day. That thing (seemed like a super radio in my early teens) was on my wish list for an easy 3 or 4 years, but being over $100 beans, it stayed just a dream. Then the 40 channel sets came out. By that time I purchased a used 40 channel mobile, power supply and 1/2 Rat Shack GP antenna. Some used coax and I was in business :)
Radios -- Perseus SDR // SDRPlay RSPdx // Icom IC-7300 // Tecsun PL-660 // Panasonic RF-5000A --Antennas-- Pixel Pro 1B loop - 82' fan-dipole at 40' - tuned MW/BCB 40" loop and 100' receive only dipole
-Brian--North of Detroit--MI-
1710/KHz the MW Pirate Clear Channel (not so much anymore "sigh")

Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #33 on: January 14, 2014, 1151 UTC »
I started SW listening with a small portable radio we had in the house when I was a kid, but my first real radio was a Radio Shack DX-160. Followed by a DX-300. Wow! Digital Readout!
Chris Smolinski
Westminster, MD
eQSLs appreciated! csmolinski@blackcatsystems.com
netSDR / AFE822x / AirSpy HF+ / KiwiSDR / 900 ft Horz skyloop / 500 ft NE beverage / 250 ft V Beam / 58 ft T2FD / 120 ft T2FD / 400 ft south beverage / 43m, 20m, 10m  dipoles / Crossed Parallel Loop / Discone in a tree

Offline BoomboxDX

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #34 on: January 14, 2014, 1711 UTC »
Yeah, the good ol' DX-160.

How many of us SWL's cut our teeth on that gem (or any other Radio Shack SW radio, for that matter!).

Pop Comm's predecessor Communications World used to have pics of readers with their rigs, and it seemed half of them had a DX-160.

It was my dream radio for years, then I got one Christmas maybe 1977. It was a mainstay for years. Even after I got higher quality radios (FRG-7, DX-440) I still used it on MW and the ham bands (where its selectivity seemed to have an edge, even if it did drift a bit).  Got my only LW DX on it, too, using a loop.

I still use it now and then, on MW.
An AM radio Boombox DXer.
+ GE SRIII, PR-D5 & TRF on MW.
The usual Realistic culprits on SW (and a Panasonic).

Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #35 on: January 14, 2014, 2306 UTC »
My DX-160 was a Christmas gift as well. 1978 I believe. I was asking for one of the Radio Shack Archer SW radio kits, and was incredibly surprised to find a DX-160 under the tree. I had a lot of fun that morning, listening to stuff. The DX-160 was a trade in on the DX-300. I later sold the DX-300 to get a Kenwood R-1000, then sold that when I got the Icom R71A. I never tended to collect radios as you can tell, but traded them in. I kept the R71A when I got the NRD-545, though. The R71A is in the basement workshop, so I have something to listen to down there.

Chris Smolinski
Westminster, MD
eQSLs appreciated! csmolinski@blackcatsystems.com
netSDR / AFE822x / AirSpy HF+ / KiwiSDR / 900 ft Horz skyloop / 500 ft NE beverage / 250 ft V Beam / 58 ft T2FD / 120 ft T2FD / 400 ft south beverage / 43m, 20m, 10m  dipoles / Crossed Parallel Loop / Discone in a tree

Nella F.

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #36 on: January 15, 2014, 0014 UTC »
Guess I better chime in. Bought my dx-398 half off shortly after "9-11". It's still runnin' good except the speaker is SHOT & I mean SHOT! Real tinny sounding so now use a cannibalized speaker, don't remember where I got it. Personally I'm surprised Albertsons & Kmart locally haven't closed shop...especially Kmart. Every time I use their bathroom on a walk-about-town the place is like a ghost town. And ALL that cheap third-world labor stuff just hanging there collecting dust & sh*t. Thank you NAFTA/Clinton!
Bought a Pro-2004 way back & it succumbed to faulty solder work. The weird readouts were kinda interesting, though.

Offline Chanter

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #37 on: January 15, 2014, 0100 UTC »
Chipping in here too.  I got my DX-398 as an eighteenth birthday gift in September of 2002.  Yes, you now know my age.  :)  I still have it, and it still works perfectly well almost twelve years later.  The last segment or so of the antenna is broken off and the battery compartment door went missing at a NASWA get-together the summer before last due to me dropping it someplace when changing batteries, but neither of those is a real issue at all.  The sensitivity on MW and LW really is excellent with that little radio; if I'm doing any serious MW or LW DX, chances are I'll fish it out. 
Madison, WI, U.S.A. 
Tecsun PL-660, Yaesu FT60R handheld, and Realistic DX-398 (back up and running!) 
QSL's appreciated 

There's a geeklady turning that dial!
SWLer, MWLer, LW and HF beaconeer, technician class ham, DXer of all bands and program listener. 
RNW forever.

Offline Rizla

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #38 on: January 25, 2014, 0140 UTC »
Once upon a time, Radio Shack sold a damned fine Moog-style synthesizer, the MG-1. Well-built compared to stuff today, very useable.
QTH: Sonoran Desert, AZ. Kenwood TS-820S, FT-891, Tecsun 880, neophyte in a forest of antenna wire.

rdla4

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #39 on: January 25, 2014, 2101 UTC »
The Radio Shack DX-160. I got mine in 1976 or 1977, and carried it around with me for many years, and many moves. I tapped a frequency counter into it, and subtracted or added what ever the IF was to come up with what frequency I was on. I could never quite get the hang of the bandspread, You had to set the main dial perfectly to get the bandspread to be accurate. I remember that I had a big help from a Heathkit marker generator, that put out a signal (harmonic) every 100 khz or so. That helped find my way around 31, 25 and 19 meters back in the day.

The DX160 was excellent for domestic MW DX.

Offline atrainradio

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Re: Is this the end of the wire for RadioShack?
« Reply #40 on: January 26, 2014, 1748 UTC »
I still own radio shack radio- its an analog AM/FM/WX radio. I like the WX band a lot. The radio that started my love for radio was my dads Realistic DX-372. The telescopic whip broke off but i still loved that radio. But, the problem is no one sees the point or purpose of shortwave. The kids in my school have absolutley no idea what shortwave is, and some don't even know what AM radio is!!!!! I mean, what the hell is there not to love about dx'ing and picking up R.F Whatever late at night? That's what I live for, and hence that's why I run the radio club in my high school.

I had an idea that if people from radio shack wanted to make more money- they could go around to the local schools and give a basic assembly on radio in general. You know, touch on shortwave, dx'ing (if the people at radio shack even know about that). Either that, or Apple makes the iPhone 6SW, an iPhone with a basic shortwave reciever built -in so you can tune the bands on the iPhone. Maybe then SW would become popular again, but that would probably A. Never, ever, happen and B. A telescopic antenna on the iPhone? Thats QRM rampent!
QTH, New Jersey, America's landfill
Tecsun PL-990 W/ Extendable Whip Antenna

 

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