Real Radio Stores and ER's Shared Experiences

[W2VW]

Anyone remember Fort Orange Radio in Albany NY....it was owned by "Uncle" Dave Marks......cant remember his call. I used to go there as a kid and just drool. I think that was about 1955 or so.
Bill

W2APF

[K1MVP]

[...]  (first ham AMer I ever heard was "W1ZYZ" on 75m)  

Same here. I stumbled across Jack, W1ZYZ on a modified AM table radio, (I swapped out the coiled antenna on the back for a 100' wire!). I heard Jack and Ellie on the Green Mountain Net (3855 kc) every afternoon.

 

Yep, ol Jack, W1ZYZ was a "big gun" from St. Johnsbury Vt. es I have
many fond memories of Jack, as he often took net control of the
Green Mountain Net on 3855 AM back in the late 50`s and 60`s.
I had acquired back then(mid 60`s) a Globe King 500 which I used for
a short time and ended up selling it to ol Jack.--I went back to a DX-100
es little did I realize until years later, I should have kept the Globe King.
                                         
                                  73,s Rene, K1MVP

 P.S.--another "dumb" thing I did was back in the mid 70`s was give
         away a homebrew pair of 813`s rig complete with power
         supply and modulator to a local club.--nobody wanted AM
         at that time, es I just about had to "twist" the club`s arm
         to take it.--little did I know AM would make a "comeback".
         Sure wish I would have kept it now.

[WA1GFZ]

Hey 3855 was the AM window with modulation plus and minus 12 Kc.
This was the spot kids and lids hung out. (and space ...)

[km1r]

Down on the CT shoreline, we had "Electronic Purchasers" run by old Joe. the dumpy little store was basically a mini flea market of tons and tons of surplus radio stuph as well as ANY part you could imagine.  He even had FT-243's in any frequency you wanted as long as they were for the 80m novice band. And for the (then) high price of 35 cents each. Like JJ's experience, Joe would not sell you anything that would potentially let you break the R & R.  If you wanted something like a BC-610, he could get it. an ARC-5? no problem, new or used? As long as your license allowed it. You could build anything with the parts he had sitting there.

He had a Globe King 90a that I drooled over (for an unobtainable $35). so I took the easy way out... begged him to let me copy the schematic, and I built a clone... with his parts... and for about $20.00

The place even smelled like real radio, none of that "JA glyptol" or whatever they used!

Mike in Guilford
KM1R

[wa2zdy]

We hams in northern and central NJ had a used radio source in Linden.  W2FNT had a few of "everything" on metal shelves and on the floor of his basement.  My first few rigs came from John's basement as did those of most new Novices back in the day.

Saturday mornings and a few evenings a week would find the basement door open at John's house.  I remember many times the neighbours complaining about the parking as he lived on a short dead-end street.

John even published a monthly list of his wares.  And it was pages and pages long!

Some guys complained about John, but I can't say I ever felt ripped off.  He kept me in ham gear for a number of years, trading up, down, sideways, etc.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

We hams in northern and central NJ had a used radio source in Linden.  W2FNT had a few of "everything" on metal shelves and on the floor of his basement.  My first few rigs came from John's basement as did those of most new Novices back in the day.

Saturday mornings and a few evenings a week would find the basement door open at John's house.  I remember many times the neighbours complaining about the parking as he lived on a short dead-end street.

John even published a monthly list of his wares.  And it was pages and pages long!

Some guys complained about John, but I can't say I ever felt ripped off.  He kept me in ham gear for a number of years, trading up, down, sideways, etc.

John still shows up at various hamfests. You might even catch him at Timonium in the outdoor flea market area. I think he's around 87.


Web site: http://members.aol.com/w2fnt/list.html