[sdiy] Radfio Shack

[phillip m gallo]

Back in the days when there was still Layfeyette, Olsen, (and others) Radio
Shack was a place you only went to when you needed a part of Sunday when
everyone else was closed. You guessed that the parts where off spec by the
way they performed.

I don't know what it's like now but back then Radio Shack had "levels" of
franchise and i remember being in Vermont ~1978 and the local RS was a
single rack of blister packs in what otherwise was a "notions" store.

Somewhere at the end of the 70's and early '80's they started to stock 1st
run parts and every SAD i bought worked just fine and cost only ~$6.00 US.
As was noted, they had kit's designed to use there parts stock (LED VU meter
is the one i bought), and then the MG-1 and those funny black box
"reverbs"/"parametric eq's", and a lot of stuff to prototype boards to slam
in a PC-XT.  In the mid-90's you had a healthy selection of HC/HCT.

Notably, and still true today, you don't window shop at RS. If you see it,
you get it and you get all you can as it may never be stocked there again.
They are a constant source of "retro-synth" knobs, and as long as there's a
RS around i can replace the laptop power cord i left plugged in the outlet
at the airport as i look up to notice final boarding is underway.

regards,
p



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl]On Behalf Of Ken Stone
Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 9:48 PM
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Radfio Shack


I made the mistake of buying a SAD1024 from RS $25 dollars back when that
was a whole day's wage - and the bloody thing was DOA. Of course their
waranty won't cover semi's.  And their 25 NPNs in a pack - 6 NPN, 8 PNP and
the rest were goodness knows what (dead, shorted, open, unijunction???)

Ken

>Now for icing on the cake...
>
>I ran into some buyers for Radio Shack a few years back at a trade show in
>Singapore. After striking up a conversation, I mentioned that it seemed
>strange that when I built a project using RS parts, I always had a hell of
a
>time getting it to work. They weren't surprised at all--they told me most
RS
>electronic components are FACTORY REJECTS! Yes, that 741 you paid way too
>much for in the first place doesn't even meet factory QC specs! I haven't
>been back since.
>
>Peff
_______________________________________________________________________
Ken Stone   sasami at hotkey.net.au or sasami at cgs.synth.net
Modular Synth PCBs for sale <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/>
Australian Miniature Horses & Ponies <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/>

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