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Radio Shack
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Feb 18, 2019 08:46:35   #
Gort55 Loc: Northern Colorado
 
I was a regular Radio Shack customer for many years as an electronics tinkerer. My first computer was a “Trash-80” and I remember staying up all night playing a text based flight simulator when I first got it. What fun that was.

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Feb 18, 2019 08:46:38   #
Vienna74 Loc: Bountiful, Utah now Panama
 
A few years ago, I dealt with RS on behalf of a client (company) that manufactured various flash memory items. My client was looking at RS as a distributor. I had been through this process with many other distributors and most of them were easy to work with and contracts could be finalized quickly. RS was almost impossible to reach an agreement with. Every proposed contract change, no matter how minor, had to be reviewed by every VP and took several weeks to come back. It was the most effective anti-business-growth management team I ever worked with. We began the process in about June, figuring on stocking for the Christmas season. The contract was signed in early December and the first shipments were made in January. No other distributor I dealt with took more than 6 weeks to sign, and most took only a couple of weeks. I knew then RS was suffering from a fatal disease.

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Feb 18, 2019 08:48:08   #
Brokenland
 
The closet thing to a Radio Shack in our area is Micro Center. Picked up a set of flush cutters to repair some damaged wires on my air compressor. Had to drive across town, to get them. I guess if you're looking to get really specific about the products you're looking for site like Technitool or even Graingers could have a few things.

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Feb 18, 2019 08:51:05   #
Guyserman Loc: Benton, AR
 
I bought one share of Radio Shack so I could get the stockholder's discount on a TRS-80. Learned BASIC and a new career was launched. Mid-life crisis was avoided. Thank you Radio Shack.

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Feb 18, 2019 08:55:36   #
nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ
 
Still have the 1000TX I purchased just before retiring from the Air Force in June 1988. I added a VGA video card, very early Sound Blaster sound card, and originally a 20MEG hard card. It now has an 85 meg hard card running DOS 6.22.

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Feb 18, 2019 08:57:36   #
Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida
 
I still have thousands of electronic components from Radio Shack dating back to the 1980's......anybody who soldered circuit boards back in the day used them or Allied Radio and I still have an account with them that is active ,though I rarely purchase anything and the LAB is shut down now.....It's a Museum Now....(go figure) .... like the rest of my home , I am suddenly aware of on a frequent basis.)

Nobody wants this stuff anymore......very sad actually .Should have sold it all 20 years ago. I had been following the EEV BLOG.COM site with David Jones in Sydney AUS. and he is the Bees'Knees of the techies currently with over 2 million followers on You Tube. Anyone interested in circuit design should look this guy up o line..He is one of a kind and a rare bird indeed.

Jimbo

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Feb 18, 2019 09:00:09   #
G. Crook Loc: Linden, TX
 
richandtd wrote:
First computer Tandy 1000A 128k single 5 1/4” floppy with a DMP 105 9 pin printer and a color monitor. That was a long time ago haha.


My first computer and dot-matrix printer were Tandy’s. My local dealer gave me full return credit the two times I upgraded my equipment. Couldn’t go wrong. And the store was just a couple of blocks from my house.

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Feb 18, 2019 09:01:19   #
ncribble Loc: Albuquerque, NM
 
A walk down memory lane - Radio Shack sold me my first computer, and I've been hooked ever since.
"HOW DOES THAT DO THAT"?.
It was then that I appreciated my Mother making we kids take typing in High School.
Thanks for the Ride Radio Shack.

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Feb 18, 2019 09:06:37   #
Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States
 
Largobob wrote:
I took engineering courses as electives in college ('67-'72), including several 'Computer' courses. Programming languages included binary/hex/machine code, assembler, BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, etc. Later, as a Secondary Science Teacher, I got a job at a local Science Center that had a Honeywell Mainframe that it transitioned for "timesharing" applications. It was great fun. Our students re-wrote the entire operating system, to make it "bullet-proof" to the outside users. At the time, I believe it had 8K (no, that is not a typo) of RAM....the magnetic core memory was very expensive then.

At the same time, I remember Atari, NEC, Apple, and a few others. I went with Apple, with two 5-1/4" floppy drives. Because I was a programmer and 'application' software was not available, I had fun with this machine....it even had compilers for Fortran and advance basic. ( I'm guessing my machine was made in 'Ol' Waz's garage.) Except for my working life, I have personally stuck with Apple. Just a preference.....
I took engineering courses as electives in college... (show quote)


Cool history!
My degree is in Electronics Technology ('72), went to work for Univac in R&D for disk and tapes.
Then went to Stromberg-Carlson as a component test engineer, writing programs to test ICs and semiconductors, including ram & micro controllers and processors, for Incoming Inspection.
Built a lot of stuff. Even built an interface and program to read the RS cartridges and make backup copies.

While most has leaked out over the years, I've used Fortran, BASIC, QB-45, Assembly (8080, 6809, 6502), Lorlin Discrete tester, Macrodata IC tester, Datatron IC tester, Eagle LSI-IV IC tester, HTML and some Java Script, and a little CSS.
You get real fast entering bootstraps on a HEX maintenance panel, eh? Two test systems were DEC controlled, so they were in Octal.
I still work with HTML and a little CSS & JS.
It was SO MUCH FUN being a Geek/Nerd!

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Feb 18, 2019 09:06:49   #
DebAnn Loc: Toronto
 
In Canada, Radio Shack became The Source (I think changed ownership a couple of times.) But it's still around and a good place to get small techie stuff.
Pixelmaster wrote:
The other day I was looking at some of my old photo equipment and came across these two
batteries. Radio Shack became bankrupt and it was sold to a company that filed two years
later for bankruptcy as well. In 2017 Radio Shack's stores closed down. The company did
sell off the use of its name to places in Mexico and a few other countries where it was
totally independent of the parent company in the US. I would guess that those who dabbled
in building and repairing of electronic equipment have found other sources to replace what
Radio Shack use to sell. Either that or you go to Mexico. All this is hard to believe since
the company has been around since its start of its first store in Boston in 1921.
The other day I was looking at some of my old phot... (show quote)

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Feb 18, 2019 09:09:46   #
hja
 
Blair Shaw Jr wrote:
I still have thousands of electronic components from Radio Shack dating back to the 1980's......anybody who soldered circuit boards back in the day used them or Allied Radio and I still have an account with them that is active ,though I rarely purchase anything and the LAB is shut down now.....It's a Museum Now....(go figure) .... like the rest of my home , I am suddenly aware of on a frequent basis.)

Nobody wants this stuff anymore......very sad actually .Should have sold it all 20 years ago. I had been following the EEV BLOG.COM site with David Jones in Sydney AUS. and he is the Bees'Knees of the techies currently with over 2 million followers on You Tube. Anyone interested in circuit design should look this guy up o line..He is one of a kind and a rare bird indeed.

Jimbo
I still have thousands of electronic components fr... (show quote)


I too have many of the same memories of RS. I do believe they are still doing business mostly on the internet.

There are a couple other sites similar to EEV: w2aew and allamericanfiveradio.

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Feb 18, 2019 09:25:45   #
linvilleDave Loc: Linville, N. C.
 
We hAve a Radio Shack here in Newland, N.C. well stocked, and very knowledgeable workers.

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Feb 18, 2019 10:06:28   #
agillot
 
radio shack became grossly over priced on electronic parts .in san diego , willy s electronic store would sell same item at 1/3 of the price .plus the sale team was clue less about electronics .

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Feb 18, 2019 10:13:16   #
TomFama
 
Check out You Do It Electronics, http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/. Reasonable prices and very complete inventory.

Tom Fama
BosStrap Camera Straps

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Feb 18, 2019 10:32:11   #
korat Loc: Eastern Shore Virginia
 
[quote=dpullum]

Let us take a moment of silence and remember the loved Trash 80 ... "The TRS-80 Micro Computer System is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80

The first computer my husband and I owned was the venerable Trash 80 with a whole 48KB of ram. Typed his first novel on it and learned the hard way to remember to save my file before closing.

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