Older Radio Shack catalogs online

[WQ9E]

Came across this site while looking for some info:

 http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

Someone has put a number of the old RS catalogs online.  I particularly like the 1939 version.

Rodger WQ9E

[w8khk]

62 and 65 brought back lots of memories, of the things I wished for but could not afford!

Radio Shack was truly a great company back in the day.

All the name brand ham equipment, stereo hi-fi, and even mini-bikes and go-karts!  Thanks for sharing, Rodger.

[k4kyv]

I tried to print out a couple of the pages.  No matter what I do, it only prints the bottom half of the page.

[W8VG]

Ahhh! Those were the days.  Now, I just walk on by--don't need someone trying to sell me another cell phone.  There are still a few locations that seem to carry larger inventory but the mall stores aren't worth going into anymore. 

[WB2YGF]

When I ws a kid, the nearest Shack was quite a distance away.  It was like a trip to electronic Mecca when I could get someone to take me there.

[k4kyv]

A similar store and competitor to the old Radio Shack was LaFayette Radio.  I have a couple of their 1930's catalogues, very fragile but still in readable condition. They put too many of their eggs in the CB basket, and that appears to be their demise.

Established in the 1920s, Lafayette Radio Electronics (LRE) thriving mail-order catalog business in electronic components was a boon to the amateur radio operators and electronic hobbyist located in areas where such components were not available in local retail outlets.

Lafayette was quick to jump on industry trends, embracing first open reel tape recorders and later 8-track cartridge recorders and compact cassette recorders, along with an amazing array of gimmicks, supplies, and accessories. During the mid-1970s, the company was one of few places one could actually experience four channel ("quadraphonic") sound. However the lack of a single industry standard (Columbia SQ vs. JVC's CD-4 and Sansui's QS) dampened sales, and the experiment ended in 1976.

By the late 1970s, Lafayette expanded to major markets across the country, struggling to compete with Radio Shack, which had purchased rival Allied Electronics around 1970. Lafayette ran into major financial difficulty when the FCC authorized a new Citizens Band ("CB") spectrum with 40 channels. Lafayette's buyers had firm commitments to accept delivery of thousands of the older design units, and were not able to liquidate the inventory without taking a serious loss. Eventually, all of the old CB radios were sold for under $40.

With less than 100 stores, far fewer than the aggressively expanding Radio Shack's thousands of local outlets, Lafayette Radio remained more of a dedicated enthusiasts' store than a mass marketer. The company was also hurt by the advent of electronics retailers relying on aggressive marketing techniques and competitive pricing in the late 1970s. Many experienced managers departed. Formerly a national chain, the remaining Lafayette stores in the state of New York closed by the end of 1981.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Radio

[W9GT]

Yeah....where have all the neat stores and catalog outlets gone?  Remember Olson Radio?  Of course, the great Allied Radio and Lafayette Radio.  We had a local Lafayette Radio store that was actually a pretty good place.  They even carried some ham gear.  I remember how much fun I had with my little Lafayette HE45B 6 meter rig. 

Even our local outlets, like Graham Electronics (alias Fort Wayne Electronics), Pembleton Electronics, Brown Electronics, and good ol' Warren Radio are gone.  Warren had several stores throughout the midwest and also had ham gear.  Oh well....guess those were the good old days.  Radio Schlock is about the only place left and most of what they have now can also be found at Walmart.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[K3ZS]

Back in the early 60's, where I live now was a small town, no big stores.    You could not buy a stereo locally.    I mail ordered speakers, a receiver, turntable and reel-to-reel tape recorder from Lafayette.    All are still in use today along with my Lafayette 2M transceiver, HA-146.

[K3ZS]

I get a "403 Forbidden" notice when trying to access the old catalog site.

[W1AEX]

Looks like someone took exception to our browsing of the catalog postings, I'm getting a browser slap this morning:

"Forbidden: You don't have permission to access /catalog_directory.html on this server."

Ah well. When I was a kid I was lucky enough to live within bicycle riding distance of a Radio Shack and a Lafayette store. The Lafayette store was far more interesting as they had quite a pile of cool shortwave receivers and ham stuff. They even had a used ham equipment section, which was usually brimming over with stuff from the local hams. The local Radio Shack made a lame attempt to compete with the shortwave and ham stuff, but I got the feeling from the slim pickings there that the local hams weren't impressed with that store. My dad did buy me my first shortwave receiver from that Radio Shack though. It was a used "Utica 4 Band Receptor" which looked pretty much identical to one of the low-end Heathkit receivers. I ended up selling it at a flea market for 15 bucks, then at the same flea market, I used 5 bucks of that money to buy an old Navy RBC receiver. I ended up trading that receiver to Steve QIX for a fine old SP-600 JX-14. (Thanks Dad! Oh, and ummm... thanks Steve!)

As I recall, Lafayette went way out on a limb with their attempt to push the "Quadrature Stereo" stuff onto people. The concept of stereo, with two speakers in your listening room was a big step forward for most people, but finding room for 4 speakers was asking a lot for the typical consumer back then. I still have a lot of my old Lafayette stereo equipment, and it still all works. Their branded stuff was pretty well built.

Rob W1AEX

[W3RSW]

Yeah, quadrature...
and then there was the phantom rear channel craze, started with hooking up the speaker terminal hots leads from your two channel stereo amp to a rear speaker or two.  When OTL transistors came along, one had to heed the warning not to tie the 'hots' together unless there was capacitive / AC blocking on the outputs.  Wonder how may amps bit the dust on not understanding that one.

   The claim was that not so secret encoding on the LP grooves could be recovered for a rear channel.  Some even claimed it was sonically pure theater, music hall echoes, etc.  Some merit to that of course, just like about any audio phasing claim. -Always some information to be gained even if it was out of phase and partially cancelled the stereo 'front.'

[K3ZS]

Seems like Dolby ProLogic works the same way.    Maybe that's where Dolby got the idea from.    Even if it a recording is not really encoded, the Dolby Pro picks out the difference between channels for the ambience in the rear channel.
It really goes nuts with some Internet stations that are out-of-phase in the 2 stereo channels.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Having been one of Lafayette's longest part-time employee's (was there from 62 through the early 80's), it was a fun place to work as a salesperson. I also did the servicing for a number of the NJ stores from the 70's through to the end.  I also had the pleasure, in the 60's, of working at the Union Square store in NYC (this was originally the 100 6th Ave store from the early days). This was one of the very few unionized stores in the Lafayette chain. I was going to school in NYC and they needed help during Thursday and Friday nights and wanted someone who they didn't have to train. Since it was a union shop, I couldn't complete the "final sale" which had to be done by the union salesperson. So, in effect, I was a salesperson sales helper (i.e. he got the commission but I still got my hourly wage). Most of the salesmen there started back in the 40's and 50's, and what a great bunch of guys to work with, plus I was the only young squirt gentile in the crowd.

Approximately 60 stores (non-associate stores) were closed initially. Approximately 63 stores more went a few months later. Five stores remained and were eventually bought by Wards (parent of Circuit City).

Also, was involved with the tear-down of one NJ Lafayette store after the first set of store closures was announced when they went under Chapter 11 court protection. We had 48 hours to gather every valid product (one that had a current stock number), counted and boxed for shipment back to the warehouse in Syosset. Items without a current stock number, or any stock number, including all service parts, bone piles, etc. were slated for the dumpster. All the service parts and bone piles from this NJ store were retained by me because I was still servicing their equipment. I probably still have one of the largest collections of tape heads for Lafayette equipment that's still around.

Lafayette also had a one day warehouse and "under the tent" sale at their Syosset location as they finally closed their doors. What a fun day that was. In hindsight, I wish a had brought a truck. There were a number of reasons why they finally closed their doors. Some have been mentioned sort of but there's always more to the story.

[Carl WA1KPD]

Too bad they won't let their fans in...
I saw it yesterday and it was a lot of fun.
Amazing the variety of inventory for each major item they carried.

[w8khk]

Don't forget Burstein Applebee on McGee Street in Kansas City....

http://www.daveswebshop.com/bursteinapplebee.shtml

Could not find any catalogs online, but this link shows some of the catalog front covers.

Bought lots of stuff from BA back in the '60s.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Here's the owner's Whois:
http://whois.domaintools.com/radioshackcatalogs.com
Maybe he doesn't know there's a site problem or maybe much to many hits.

[Opcom]

as a consolation till RS is back online, the 1970 fall catalog of lafayette:

http://www.bunkerofdoom.com/lit/la713/Lafayette_713.html

I love my HA-250. Used to run it on the CB band in the olden days when a 10 watt carier and 40-50W peak power on CB was something. The keying relay took its power straight off the transmitter's RF through a diode. It will do 15 through 6 meters well, one has but to decide how many turns to short on the tank coil. The HV supply ran at about 800-1200Hz, highly advanced using a toroidal power transformer.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

as a consolation till RS is back online, the 1970 fall catalog of lafayette:

http://www.bunkerofdoom.com/lit/la713/Lafayette_713.html

I love my HA-250. Used to run it on the CB band in the olden days when a 10 watt carier and 40-50W peak power on CB was something. The keying relay took its power straight off the transmitter's RF through a diode. It will do 15 through 6 meters well, one has but to decide how many turns to short on the tank coil. The HV supply ran at about 800-1200Hz, highly advanced using a toroidal power transformer.

Actually it's the Spring catalog. We did these types of catalogs at least 4 times a year. Short form, lots of sale items, things we were trying to get rid of, new additions, corrections to stuff in the current catalog, etc..  The big yearly catalog was actually put together almost a year before its distribution so, by the time it came out, things that were in there, may not have appeared in the stores to sell or appeared different from the yearly catalog descriptions. The short form catalogs were the glue that helped bridge us through each year.

"highly advanced using a toroidal power transformer" was a common sight in many mobile type rigs, amplifiers, and the "in vogue" capacitive discharge systems of the late 60's and early 70's.

[W1AEX]

as a consolation till RS is back online, the 1970 fall catalog of lafayette:
http://www.bunkerofdoom.com/lit/la713/Lafayette_713.html

Thanks for the link Pat. It almost makes me miss the days when shredded pieces of my favorite 8-track cartridge tapes were spewing out from the front door of my car player. Yup, those were great days!

Those old catalogs make for great study material during those quiet reading sessions here...

[W1RKW]

The link appears to be working now.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

[W2RBA]

Ah, the good ol' days!  When I was 17 I worked for a summer at the Lafayette main store in Syosset -- as a scab, as it turned out (I didn't know, honest!).  They started me behind the counter and quickly had me take over the returns desk until the work stoppage was settled.  I was then moved over to the counter again where I quickly became known as the "parts guy" by the other salesmen behind the counter -- when someone showed up bearing a non-working part ("they're called tubes, Fred") they referred them to me.  On commission I didn't make much, but I had all the business I could handle.

The one thing I do remember was the time that summer that the bosses "hosted" some 3 or 4 Japanese technicians (from which company I cannot say) who opened each box of some very expensive audio equipment -- AM/FM receiver/amplifier or some such thing -- and made some changes to the wiring.  The only part I played in this was one evening when the store boss sent me out with 20 bucks to pick up some Chinese food to feed those guys.  I guess the boss thought he was doing good...

Oh, and the discounts!  On some items, it was practically 90%  Too bad I didn't need those resistors....

[w3jn]

I went right to the '79 Radio Shack catalog... the cover brought back lots of memories.

I was a part timer there from '79 to about 1984.  I learned a lot working there:  profit was on the small stuff - cables, parts, etc.  I learned to really dislike most hams - they always seemed to come in with a big dose of bragadoccio about their supposed "knowledge" because they passed a test, coupled with bitter complaints about the quality, the price, etc: "I could get that transistor at Electronics Center downtown for 79 cents and you guys have the balls to charge a dollar nineteen??"  I also learned it was great to have such a resource for parts, etc., in the neighborhood.  Finally, I learned what it was like to have a gun pointed at me when I was held up while working at the East Lake St store in SE Minneapolis (a rather tough neighborhood).

They didn't treat their employees too well though.  The manager of the highest selling store in the region for 2 years was fired after 2 months of falling sales.  I earned minimum wage or 6.5% commission, whichever was greater.  But the cheap bastards lowered the commission rate to 4% during xmas.  I finally quit when I had bought plane tickets for a vacation, arranged leave 2 months beforehand, and the day before my trip they said I couldn't go.  Needless to say they really couldn't stop me.

Nevertheless I still buy stuff at Radio SHack, even if somewhere else is cheaper.  I still appreciate the fact that they carry some parts, and I think the fact that they alone do this should earn the support - not the bitter griping - from electronics hobbyists.

[WA1LGQ]

     For guys in the Hartford, CT area, if you need parts and such try the Cables and Connectors store in Newington. Its not like the old days of Lafayette and McShack, but they have lots of parts and even a line of kits, of which some are ham related.
http://cablesandconnectors.com/

..........Larry

[WQ9E]

from: w3jn on Yesterday at 09:04:06 PM
I went right to the '79 Radio Shack catalog... the cover brought back lots of memories.

I was a part timer there from '79 to about 1984.

JN,

I spent a couple of months with the Shack in '82; I worked for probably one of the last of the franchise owners but it was getting ready to be converted to a company owned store.  As you said, the profit was in the small parts and we had several of the smaller companies that supported the space facility and ammunition plant on the MS Gulf coast calling in fairly large orders of small parts that would generally total around $1,000 per order so it was a very high margin location thus Tandy's desire to convert it from franchise to company owned.  I left during this process.

I moved to and spent about a year with ComputerLand during the early days of the PC boom while getting an MBA.  This was an interesting time to work with PC's as so many things didn't work quite right or were not quite as IBM PC compatible as advertised.  It was fairly stressful trying to keep a few large customers happy (like a architecture firm that purchased 150 AT&T 6300+ PC's to run Autocad).  The PC's were delivered in 3 groups of 50 over a 3 month period and each group was slightly different than the others.  After Cland, going into a Ph.D. program at a high pressure research universtiy was actually less stressful; something a number of my fellow Ph.D. candidates had trouble understanding.

I recently bought a lot of old Popular Electronics covering most of the era from the start to when it converted to Computers and Electronics.  Looking at the '82-'83 era also brought back a lot of memories; not all of them so great!  But moving from RS and Cland to a university in W. Texas was mostly a step up (my apologies to anyone who is a W. Texas native).

Rodger WQ9E

[W1AEX]

Another fan of "Cables and Connectors" here. As Larry said, the store has quite an extensive line of interesting stuff hanging on the hooks, including the NTE line of solid state devices. Their online catalog is a bit primitive, but the search function works pretty well.

I was browsing the 1974 Radio Shack catalog and noticed that my ham radio "nemesis" was prominently displayed on page 85. That crappy little plastic-encased, mast-mounted 13 dB broadband TV/FM amplifier made my life interesting for a couple of years. Being sort of in a rural area, they began to show up all over my neighborhood to assist with "fringe area" TV reception. Some jerk in the area was charging 50 bucks (30 bucks for the preamp, 20 bucks for the labor) to install them everywhere. Totally unshielded and unfiltered and fed with long lengths of crappy Archer quality twin-lead. Whenever I fired up my Clegg 99'er or Viking One on 6m and 10m I was "Whirl-Wide!" all over the neighborhood, with reception reports from half a mile away. Fortunately, the cable company rolled through the neighborhood a couple years later and that was the end of that...

Rob W1AEX