The AM Forum

Like many of us in the NE, we started buying radio equipment from Lafayette Radio. For me, I was in high school and would take the bus to Newark and walk Broad Street to Central Ave. Yesterday at lunch time I took a walk to see what was there. Sadly, just a parking lot, but most of the other buildings I remember are still there. Up the hill was Aaron Lippman Electronics which I'm sure is now gone also.

It was something good to say about Lafayette Radio....
My first exposure to a real stereo was on a truly nice Lafayette Stereo. "Sheila" Tommy Roe sounded marvelous on that system. Amp, Preamp, speakers,,,
Why they got coined "LAFF A LOT" is beyond me

LOL, I have the LP "12 in a Roe" by Tommy Roe.

When I was a kid in West Hartford, CT the other neighborhood kids and I would ride our bikes across town and check out whatever was on the bargain table at Lafayette. Back then they always seemed to have much more interesting stuff than what Radio Shack offered. After saving up my earnings from a paper route I got the mighty fine pair of components in the picture below. The amp sported a 12AX7A preamp and a single-ended 6BQ5 amplifier delivering around 5 watts for each channel. My parents gave me a pair of speakers and a turntable for my birthday and Christmas and I was good to go. I dragged that system to college and later when I got married it ended up in our first apartment. My wife never could figure out how to use it so I had to leave a 3 x 5 card next to it so she could turn the thing on and off.

Eventually, I raided the amplifier and transplanted the 12AX7A and 6BQ5 into my Viking One as a dubious upgrade to the audio chain. I tweaked the AM section of the tuner so that it would cover the 160 meter band and used it for listening to the numerous AM conversations that took place there. I'm still a sucker for Lafayette (and other brand) amps like that when I see them at flea markets.

Sorry to see that picture of the parking lot where the building used to be in Newark. The last time I looked a camera shop was residing in what used to be the Lafayette store near me.

Rob W1AEX

I lived on the South shore of Long Island and Lafayette Radio was near the North shore, in Syosset.  It was more than an hours worth of bike riding but well worth it.

My first purchase from Lafayette was their KT-390 90 watt CW, 75 watt AM transmitter kit.  It worked the first time I fired it up.  I liked it so much I even bought another one a few years ago just for fun.

Once I got my drivers license, it was a 15 minute drive up the SOB (South Oyster Bay) expressway, and lots more stuff came home with me.

Great place for a teenage ham!

Aaron Lippman went out of business about 25-30 years ago.  I bought a lot of antenna stuff from them.  A divorce of one of the owners put Lippman out of business.

Fred

I had a brief taste of Lafayette Elec. back in the mid to late 70's. Groton, CT had a Lafayette and when i first got my drivers license I'd pop in there to drool.  Then it was gone, taken over by Harry Leiser with a name change to Leiser Electronics. The business plan changed and eventually Leiser folded a few years later.

My first receiver was the Lafayette ExplorAir receiver.

Being a reGen it was kindatouchy but sensitive enough for my purposes.

Phil - AC0OB

Just finished a x country car trip and stopped by to see the last building WRL occupied as a store and factory

If you wanted real Lafayette fun, you had to work there. It was told to me back in the early 80's, I was their longest part-time employee. I started there my first year of college (needed beer money) at Plainfield, NJ. Today, it's parking lot. In 1972 the store move to Route 22 Watchung. NJ. Couldn't be there for the opening; I was on my honeymoon in Boston. For fun and giggles, wife and I stopped at the Lafayette store in Boston and called my manager at Watchung to wish them much success and that I was celebrating with them at the Boston store. Watchung store is now Honey Baked Ham.

Some fun trivia. The Plainfield store seem to be a revolving door for female cashiers. I think I dated most of them. Management was not amused. So then I dated the manager's daughter for a time; he was even less amused. But, he was a great guy and overall we got along fine. Sadly, he passed away several years ago.

I had no set hours for working. Although Watchung was my main store, if there was salesperson short fall in one of the other NJ stores, I would help out there as time required. For two years when I was going to school in NYC, I worked the Union Square store two nights a week . The Union Square store had the original group of sales people that came out of the 100 6th Ave store (one of Lafayette's first stores and where, on the upper floors, back in the real good old days, they did design and manufacturing). Most of these guys started there before I was even born. The Union Square store was, one of three union shops, only in the Lafayette chain. Besides being the only gentile at that time to ever work at Union Square, and since it was a union shop, I could not be a salesperson. My title was salesperson assistant. The time spent here was very educational in the art of sales techniques and how to close a sale.

Lots of fun and time spent at Lafayette and it was very enjoyable, rewarding, and interesting. Getting a chance to play with lots of new to market communications equipment and hi-fi equipment, and lots of other stuff is something I'll always remember.

That amp looks so familiar...Amazing how nice that stuff was back then...looks like really expensive goodies.

In the picture you show Rob, the tuner looks like the LT-250 FM Stereo tuner and the amp looks like the LA-224A which actually was rated at 15 watts RMS. Had a pair of 6BQ5's per channel and 5 12AX7's. Can't remember the rectifier tube but probably a 5AR4 or something similar. Roughly 1966 vintage.

So all this LRE reminiscing motivated me to assign the next project - to get my first real stereo system back up and running. I recall going to Lafayette in Newark and buying the LA-750 and LT-725. I still have the original boxes!  Last night I powered the amp up and aside from noisy pots and switches it sounds remarkably good. The tuner lights up, but has very low sensitivity on FM - AM works just fine. I'm hoping it's just some bad caps that have dried up. The LT-725 had a built in SCA decoder which I figured out how to activate. I remember listening to PRN (Physician's Radio Network) on the sub-carrier of a local NYC station. Gotta see if I can find a service manual for the tuner on line. By this time I deserves an alignment!

You are correct Pete. The amp that I had was the LA-214 which looked nearly identical but it was a notch below the one in the picture and sported a single-ended 6BQ5 for 5 watts per channel. The tuner that I had (LT-80?) looked nearly identical to the one in the picture but it did not have the tuning meter, covered both AM/FM bands and was not stereo FM. It had a jack on the back that provided connection to the LA-220 multiplex stereo converter kit. My dad and I built that little kit and it worked quite well for stereo FM reception.

Rob W1AEX

As a Texas boy, back in the 50's and 60's, it was such a thrill to get the Lafayette and the Allied catalogs in the mail. I wore the pages out. It was just like getting the Sears Christmas catalog. If only I had a time machine so I could order from those catalogs!  ;)

LOL My 1967 Lafayette and Allied catalogs are available as reading material in my porcelain palace, just as Sears catalogs were! For those who never had the pleasure ....
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Allied-Catalogs/Lafayette-1968-Spring.pdf

What you posted is just the quarterly supplement. We did one for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter and sometimes an even shorter "Holiday" version.

The full 1968 catalog was 512 pages.
The full catalogs were actually put together and printed a year before they were issued for a particular year so the supplements many times kept up with equipment changes, price changes, etc. They could be compiled, printed, and issued a lot faster.

Same here in Indiana.  In the late 60's I was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco courtesy of Uncle Sam.  Bought an HA-460 from one of the stores there; still have it.  When I got back home to SW Indiana, they had a store in Evansville.  Bought some audio equipment and their HA-750 6M mobile [which looks like a hastely converted CB rig].  Wish I knew what happened to the little self-contained stereo; don't even remember the model number.  Overall good equipment and mostly friendly people.

The common problem for low sensitivity for the LT-725 is a bad MPF-107 FET in the front end and an even more common problem is a bad ICF-1 IC in the IF chain. These were notorious for failing. When they fail, they tend to act as attenuators. To test, connect a .01 mfd cap on the input side of the IC and connect the other end of the cap to the output side of the IC. If the volume and signal strength come up, the IC is bad.
In the LT-725A, the SCA decoder was removed due to some legal issues.

From 1967 and on for a couple years, Lafayette used a Fairchild 703 IC in the IF strip of their FM tuners and stereo receivers.  That was the most common failure.  While I worked there, they had an ongoing rework program and "time-test" to weed out early failures.  

The 703 IC was not exclusive to Lafayette, however.  A few years later when working at Radio Shack, they had products from the late 60s with that same failure-prone IC.  I used the same 'cap across the IC' test to make a quick determination without test equipment to diagnose that 703's death.  

Fortunately, the 703 was widely available on RS's peg-board for cheap.  Nowadays it's a struggle to find it.

Good old Laughingyet in their pre-Japanese import daze sold a lot of re-branded Hallicrafters CB and ham transceivers, tanks for the mammary. I had an LA-225A stereo amp similar to its baby brother pictured, the difference was P-P 6BQ5s.

Hey Pete, it's been a long time since I've been to a hamfester so you probably don't remember me buying a few of your manuals, but I just discovered we go back farther than I thought. You worked at the Plainfield, NJ store I frequented, I'm sure we met there and didn't know each other then. I replaced the 12AX7s in my equipment with low hum and noise 7025s routinely pulled from the WERA console in the basement of the Park Hotel annex and had more goodies from the RCA BTA-1R and BTA-500R transmitters in South Plainfield where I spent many a Saturday thanks to my friend Bob Balfour CE. Small world, isn't it?

A wrote this back in April 2012: "The infamous IC, ua703, also known in Lafayette products as the ICF-1 and IC-C555A, (Part No. 1014-25) suffered from lots of failures. It was also used in many of Lafayette Hi-Fi IF strips. I still have some of those parts."

The IC was first touted on the cover of the 1968 catalog:

(http://www.cbradiomemories.com/images/lafayette1968.jpg)

What rebranded Hallicrafters  rigs are you talking about? If you're referring to the military-gray color U. S. made stuff, none of it was made by Hallicrafters.

The LA-225 (there was no suffix "A") was an AM FM Multiplex stereo receiver. It was one of several receivers whose prefix didn't start with an "LR".  The LA-224A was a stereo amplifier and had a pair of 6BQ5's in each channel.

Thanks so much for these tips!

With two exceptions, all US-made tube type CB transceivers, and their 6m and 10m transceivers, 1964 and prior, were produced by USL.  The two exceptions were the HB-333 (Polytronics) and HB-266 (Hammarlund).  

There was never a Lafayette brand multi-band HF transceiver.  

The first Japanese-produced tube-type CB in 1964 was the HB-400.

 

Ah, good times, back in the early 60s when, at the tender young age of 12 I received my first electronic kit from my father - a KT-135 "Explor-Air" three tube regen kit, through which I discovered AM on 75 meters in the late afternoon and evenings; what a hoot!  Got me interested in ham stuff.  Then, in 1964, my father gave me a "Starflite" transmitter kit (a clone of the Heathkit DX-60, if I'm not mistaken; still have it...), a KT-390.  I could write a ton of stuff about that "dangerous" kit, but it worked.; with an Eico plate modulator, it made for a decent AM rig.

But the highlight of my relationship with Lafayette was in the summer of 1968, right before college, when I saw a want-ad for employment at the main headquarters store in Syosset, NY, on route 25A.  I applied and was granted a position (to my later chagrin, however, I found I was being hired as a strike breaker).  I was in the returns department and it was a fairly dismal job -- but they discovered I had some knowledge about parts (they didn't know what they sold except for the big ticket items), so I was eventually transferred to the sales desk and given the task of taking care of the little sales that no one else wanted to deal with.  That was actually fun.  (Fun fact: the single most desired item -- a channel knob for a TV -- was one with which I could offer no help, we just didn't carry them.)

But the best part was when they brought over some techs from Japan to fix a defect that had made is through the assembly of one of their $300 high-end stereo receivers/amps (lord knows I cannot remember which one).  The guys worked long hours taking brand-new amps apart, changing some parts, and then wrapping them up like new.  And the guys in the front once sent me out to pick up dinner for these Japanese guys -- from the local Chinese restaurant(!).  I really did my part in the repair job (NOT).

I must have lasted two months before I quit -- and they soon settled the strike anyway.  Lafayette was a cheap bastard, but then again, so was everyone else.

Might have been the LR-1200T receiver. I think they designed the amplifier portion of this receiver with one eye closed. In the 1968 catalog, the LR-1200T was dropped and the LR-1500T took its place. Every time I had to repair a LR-1200T, it was a pain in the butt.

A couple of factual corrections, if I may;  Lafayette was on Rt 25 (Jericho Turnpike), not 25A (Northern Boulevard).  And the strike was in June 1969, not 1968. 

I worked in the QC department and we had moved from the middle of the Syosset warehouse in September 1968 into a brand new building in Hauppauge at 150 Engineers Road. 

The Japanese techs were from a couple different contract companies at the time while I worked there.  There wasn't enough space for them in the service department so the guys from Nakamichi (they made Lafayette's tape decks at the time) worked at benches in the QC department doing repairs there.  They were always very polite and friendly and had basic English language skills.  They were all good guys.

Eric

The LR-1500T was current when I started working there in January 1968.  The next model lower in price at that time was the LR-1000T.  Strangely, although the LR-1200T had been discontinued in 1967 before I started there, in mid 1968 a rather large shipment of brand new LR-1200Ts arrived from Japan for us to QC.  I never knew the reason for this, only assumed that the manufacturer (Fujitsu) had a stockpile of LR-1200Ts built, prior to the discontinuance of the model, that were unsold to Lafayette.  Maybe they were cleaning house at Fujitsu.

The LR-500T, LR-1000T, and the LR-1500T were initially made by Fujitsu for Lafayette.  During my tenure at Lafayette, the manufacturer of those models changed to a company called Planet Research, presumably because Fujitsu had evolved and were no longer going to produce that type of product.  Everything about those Planet Research units was still identical to the Fujitsu units so there was no clue that a different company was producing them for Lafayette.  

The other possibility is that Fujitsu "spun off" the contract manufacturing division forming a new company called Planet Research and it was just a paper (and name) change.  These are questions I'll probably never have an answer for.

Eric

Wow.   History here.

I grew to LOATHE anything Fujitsu (ten) when I worked car audio,  mid 80s to mid 90s.  Even their eclipse line (with a thousand dollar deck in 90/91) was a pain in the posterior.

Nakamichi on the other hand.   Their engineers came up with some really interesting ideas.   Too bad the compact disc came along.

The Nak Dragon is an amazing deck.

--Shane
KD6VXI

The LR-500T, 1000T, and 1500T weren't bad receivers although the 500T had a habit of blowing the power transformer. I still I still have a few transformers here (NOS). With these three receivers, if you blew the audio output transistors, you normally blew the driver transistors as well. The LR500TA, 1000TA, and 1500TA versions seem to have better reliability. I can't remember if it was the LR-1500T or 1500TA that won consumer's best receiver award two years in a row. Under the Lafayette name, there were a number of very good receivers, tuners, and amplifiers. In the mid 70's, the LR-2020, 3030, 5555, and 9090 receiver series were tops in performance. My first Lafayette tuner was the LT-450T, which was also used as the front-end tuner section in the LR-1500T, was fantastic for pulling out weak AM and FM signals.

For the readers, if you ever hear Eric and I in a QSO, it typically will roll into a Lafayette conversation, which if it wasn't for time constraints, would probably go on for hours.  :D

I know I've said this in other threads but working for Lafayette made a lasting impression on me. It was fun, enjoyable, educational, and helped develop a set of skills that I continue to use to this day. Even today, I can picture walking through the front door of both main stores I worked at and I can tell you the exact customer floor layout and the back room layout of each store.

Pete, I do know that the LR-1500T was a Consumer Reports best buy but I don't recall if the 1500TA got the same accolades or not.  For the money they were great at the time.  However, the power output figures were wildly inflated in the ads at that time so you have to make a conversion back to the RMS value into an 8 ohm load at less than a specified THD (both channels driven) as the FTC later mandated (in the 1970s) for all marketers to level the playing field.  

Are you sure you didn't mean the LT-425T instead of the LT-450T?  The LT-425T ran concurrently with the series you mentioned and I agree that it was a top notch FM tuner.  I had one but later sold it.  More recently I picked up another one with matching LA-85T (or is it an LA-125T, forgetting here) that will probably never get used but it's nice to have as a memento.  Lafayette replaced the LT-425T with the LT-725(T?) as I recall.  I liked the LT-425T better, for no particular reason.

And my time working for Lafayette made an impression on me also.  I didn't make a lot of money there but I really liked the place.  Not only that, but prior to working there, I was a self-described Lafayette groupie.  Lafayette did a lot to cultivate my interest in electronics and led me to a lifelong career and hobby in radio and electronics. 

Eric

You right Eric, it was the LR-1500T that made the receiver listing in consumer reports best buy. I remember now we had to put up a special display in the sound room highlighting that achievement. I'm not sure if Consumer's ever reviewed the LR-1500TA.

Don't know where I came up with LT-450T tuner although we did have a LR-450T receiver. It was the LT-425T. I sold the LT-425T at BARA years ago after I picked up a Lafayette LT-D10 tuner at Dayton. Still have that. Always like the LT-125T amplifier series. Good design and output. Used a pair of 2SD-91's per channel. Great workhorse output transistor.

My start at Lafayette was rather simple. I was at college, needed some spending money; saw a classified ad in the local paper where the Plainfield store was looking for part-time help working in the CB department and some electronic experience.

Pete
Do you happen to remember what the p/n is for that IC (ICF-1) Used your troubleshooting technique and it shouts bad IC, My device has no number in it.

Lafayette is actually a very OLD American radio name going back to at least the 1930's.
the John Rider  "perpetual trouble shooter's manuals" are full of the Lafayette Antique radio schematics.
the old radios are quite collectable.
It's a real SHAME they eventually became known as cheap japan junk and went bankrupt.
what a shame, for an old American Co.
73's

I have the schematic, but the IC is not called out by the actual p/n. Looked last night and on the cover of a late 60's catalog they call out that "Integrated Circuits" are now being used. The photo was that of a ua703 which looks very similar to the device I have. Pin out also seems to match, so it may be a ua703.

I'm sentimental about all the good old Amercan Companies, names we grew up with, when American Made,
meant something. If your a Lafayette collector, you should get a cool 1930's set to polish up and set in the
living room. First Radio's, First jobs, good memories, the stuff that makes collecting FUN!
73's

Pete hasn't been around for quite awhile.  You may want to try his website / business.

--Shane
KD6VXI