Geez, now I feel pretty old! I remember always drooling over all those Radio Shack flyers along with the Heathkit catalogs I got on a regular basis. No stores nearby so everything was mail order....or snail mail as it is called today!
Radio Shack was my favorite store growing in my teen teen years. I had the same switch, I used it in several projects. Our family had the Weather Cube, I went every month to get my free battery. I had a Realistic 40 channel CB radio. This video brings back lots of memories.
thanks Larry for giving us a blast from the past, grew up in the Radio Shack, during the late seventies early eighties, gonna miss RadioShack.....73,KF4DFC....
Really enjoyed this vid. I was 10 in '69, and a couple years later I became a fan of RS, thanks to my dad. I had the 100-in-1 Project Kit, the follow-up to the 50 model shown in this tabloid. Also had some of the small, single-use kits with the clear base and the red plastic "breadboard" top. And, I was a card-carrying member of the Battery-A-Month Club! 🤓 Loved all of that stuff. Hey, are you hip to the online place whose name sounds like "RadioShack Catalogs dart calm" (wink, wink)? It displays entire catalogs that you can flip through.
I remember those flyers you kind of took me on a trip back in time. I had pickup a 4 band shortwave radio kit from Radio Shack. I remember I built it in 6 hr's knowing nothing about electronic's. Thats what got me into CB and then into Ham Radio. Thanks and 73's from KG2NC.
Great video Larry! I still have a broadcast band tuner in the original shrink wrap! My father had the "patrolman" radio with the aircraft band. I had a "battery club card as a young jn. Nice to see all the goodies you retained from childhood and beyond.
+Radio wild It is all radio fun! That is pretty cool with the shrink wrap! I also had the aircraft patrolman, don't know what I ever did with that, would be kind of neat to have that again.
Although a good few years later, probably mid eighties, my first venture into radio listening, albeit a scanner,was with a new Realistic Pro-2006, which was from "TANDY" the UK name for Radio Shack, which sadly no longer exists. The scanner cost a lot of money, even by today's standards, about £330 British Pounds - but it still works perfectly to this day. Ah, fond memories of window shopping seeing all the new Realistic scanners and shortwave radios......... Thanks Larry for another great video
That is a great scanner, I still have one in the shack running 24/7 for monitoring ham repeaters etc, the local police are all digital now so I use that for ham these days.
Very enjoyable Larry. For many years i avidly awaited Radio Shacks yearly catalogs and each one was read from cover to cover, page by page, many times over. For quite the while the catalogs were free, and then they started to charge a few peso's for them. That catalog charge, for me, was the first indicator that all was not well with RS. The rest is literally "history".
I couldn't wait every year for the new catalog to come out. I was always checking the store about the time I new they were about to arrive. One of the first ones to get one every year too I think. They were so much fun to look at and wonder what new items they would have every year.
Hi Larry, thanks for the trip to the past. I always enjoyed the stuff radio shack (Tandy here in Australia) had in the 60s and 70s. The CB radios, walkie talkies, dx receivers and kits looked great. We had a competitor here in Australia called Dick Smith Electronics. Which was a direct competitor. Both shops had great stuff.
I remember Dick Smith very well and have ordered some things from there way back in the day, I loved getting his newspaper style catalogue back at the time with a lot of cool items listed! I have also watched some videos on here about him, very interesting!
@@RadioHamGuy Yes I agree with you Larry about the catalogue. I enjoyed the big yearly catalogue that Dick Smith distributed each year. It also had a handy data section in the back of the catalogue which came in handy. They also had their funway into electronics kit series which got you started into electronics. I enjoyed building some of those kits. I wish I still had the books but thankfully I have the books in pdf format. Anyway like radio shack, dick Smith slowly declined in the 2000s first by getting rid of their yaesu gear as they were a authorised reseller and then slowly their kits diminished and other stuff too only to make way for TVs and home appliances etc. Sad to see it close in 2016.
Thanks Carl, yes, I remember using those cards for many years, up into the 80's I think. That was a great way to get people to come to the store, good marketing at the time I would have to say! I know it got me there.
This was great to see. I got one of those Radio Shack 50 in 1 project kits in this catalog for Christmas. I always wondered when I got it. Must have been 1969. I still have it. I was 10 that Christmas. That kit got me started in my life long passion of tinkering with electronics. At that age everything electric that I knew of only had 2 leads on it. Then I got this transistor thing in the kit. It had 3 leads. Well, I spent the next few years learning and satisfying my curiosity on what that darn third lead was for. Thanx
Hey Larry - I remember as a kid back in '69 watching NASA make the moon landing, a generation in history that I would never forget. Awesome video! 73's, Jeff KE7OUR
Thanks Jeff, yes, I was 5 yrs old but remember it perfectly, I was really into it watching the astronauts on TV live coverage. I can remember it very clearly to this day. It was really a big deal so I guess it really stuck in my head and after that I was interested in anything to do with space exploration for many years and still am I guess.
RadioHamGuy Yeah, same here. I was hooked too.... It was a milestone, too. But now with ham radio we can reach to the skies and QSO the ISS and beyond using ham radio! I was about 4 at the time when Armstrong settle his footprints in the moondust!
Wow radio shack had everything into the 1990's I got all of my ham radio study guides from Gordon west WB6NOA and his mobile 2 way radio communcations book from 1991 from their I ever suggested to him that he make a new one he is everybody's elmer, as is VK3 YE Peter Parker great UA-cam channel as well and several other Hans UA-cam channels like k7 age and yours is awesome miss radio shack from the 1990's great videos my friend keep them coming
1:30 That $399 stereo "system" (if you want to call it that) is equivalent to $2,623 in 2017 using a U.S. Dollar inflation calculator. Some people didn't even make $399 a month in 1969. Basically $1 in 1969 is equal to $6.58 in 2017.
Radio shack still has franchise stores but no company owned stores..stopped at one in New Mexico a few weeks back. 69 i was a 19 y/o guy in Nam...sad to find that they bought Allied Radio...makes of Knight Kit.
Excellent! Back when radioshack sold cool stuff. It seems to me they really started going down hill when they decided to become cell phone shack. They might be able to rise up again if they went back to being radio shack. Ham Radio, CB, Scanners, Over the air TV, and Electronic components. They have tried to tap into the maker market. But that didn't seem to help much.
RadioHamGuy I wish I knew how much I've spent at RS over the years. I still have a 4 inch diameter key ring with all the data sheet cards from packaging from all the components I purchased over the last 40 years. RS started going down hill when the computer craze started. So did all the electronics magazines.
That was interesting. I had several battery of the month cards. It's a shame that Radio Shack drifted away from selling radio stuff and now they are fading out of sight. I am enjoying some of the clearance sales, however.
RadioHamGuy I went to one where everything was marked down 90-95%! Needless to say, by the time I got here it was pretty well picked over. It did get some parts, connectors and even a couple scanner antennas.
Larry, where do you keep all ur stuff? Enjoyed the vid. I worked for RS in 1970 for about a year. Did well there cause I know something about electronic stuff!!! Fun for a while! Thanks, Mike WB8CXO
I also worked for a local store for a few years on and off in high school and out of high school. I knew a lot about all their products even at that age since I was really into it and did very well, had a lot of fun there like you. Thanks.
The annual fall Radio Shack catalogs where always an event. I'd page thru them for hours. Bought my first shortwave at RS back in 1970. Does anyone remember Lafayette Radio Electronics? Here in the east, they where a major competitor to RS. Here's a link to all Radio Shack catalogs thru the years. www.radioshackcatalog.com
Geez, now I feel pretty old! I remember always drooling over all those Radio Shack flyers along with the Heathkit catalogs I got on a regular basis. No stores nearby so everything was mail order....or snail mail as it is called today!
Radio Shack was my favorite store growing in my teen teen years. I had the same switch, I used it in several projects. Our family had the Weather Cube, I went every month to get my free battery. I had a Realistic 40 channel CB radio. This video brings back lots of memories.
Brought back a lot of memories. Thanks for sharing.
thanks Larry for giving us a blast from the past, grew up in the Radio Shack, during the late seventies early eighties, gonna miss RadioShack.....73,KF4DFC....
+BAKEMEAT420 I did the same, I know what you mean! 73
you brought me back to good memories, thank you, so so much for this nice video..i really enjoyed it..
I thoroughly enjoyed that trip to the past! Thank You for posting!
Always love your retro trips through your magazines and flyers. Thanks for sharing, great video.
Great memories.......Thanks for your time and effort for posting. 👍👌
remember it well. looked forward to getting the Radio Shack flyer
Really enjoyed this vid. I was 10 in '69, and a couple years later I became a fan of RS, thanks to my dad. I had the 100-in-1 Project Kit, the follow-up to the 50 model shown in this tabloid. Also had some of the small, single-use kits with the clear base and the red plastic "breadboard" top. And, I was a card-carrying member of the Battery-A-Month Club! 🤓 Loved all of that stuff. Hey, are you hip to the online place whose name sounds like "RadioShack Catalogs dart calm" (wink, wink)? It displays entire catalogs that you can flip through.
I remember those flyers you kind of took me on a trip back in time. I had pickup a 4 band shortwave radio kit from Radio Shack. I remember I built it in 6 hr's knowing nothing about electronic's. Thats what got me into CB and then into Ham Radio. Thanks and 73's from KG2NC.
Thanks Ruben, it was a great time in history I would say for all of us. It was kind of the same way for me.
Great video Larry! I still have a broadcast band tuner in the original shrink wrap! My father had the "patrolman" radio with the aircraft band. I had a "battery club card as a young jn. Nice to see all the goodies you retained from childhood and beyond.
+Radio wild It is all radio fun! That is pretty cool with the shrink wrap! I also had the aircraft patrolman, don't know what I ever did with that, would be kind of neat to have that again.
Although a good few years later, probably mid eighties, my first venture into radio listening, albeit a scanner,was with a new Realistic Pro-2006, which was from "TANDY" the UK name for Radio Shack, which sadly no longer exists. The scanner cost a lot of money, even by today's standards, about £330 British Pounds - but it still works perfectly to this day. Ah, fond memories of window shopping seeing all the new Realistic scanners and shortwave radios......... Thanks Larry for another great video
That is a great scanner, I still have one in the shack running 24/7 for monitoring ham repeaters etc, the local police are all digital now so I use that for ham these days.
Very enjoyable Larry. For many years i avidly awaited Radio Shacks yearly catalogs and each one was read from cover to cover, page by page, many times over. For quite the while the catalogs were free, and then they started to charge a few peso's for them. That catalog charge, for me, was the first indicator that all was not well with RS. The rest is literally "history".
I couldn't wait every year for the new catalog to come out. I was always checking the store about the time I new they were about to arrive. One of the first ones to get one every year too I think. They were so much fun to look at and wonder what new items they would have every year.
Hi Larry, thanks for the trip to the past. I always enjoyed the stuff radio shack (Tandy here in Australia) had in the 60s and 70s. The CB radios, walkie talkies, dx receivers and kits looked great. We had a competitor here in Australia called Dick Smith Electronics. Which was a direct competitor. Both shops had great stuff.
I remember Dick Smith very well and have ordered some things from there way back in the day, I loved getting his newspaper style catalogue back at the time with a lot of cool items listed! I have also watched some videos on here about him, very interesting!
@@RadioHamGuy Yes I agree with you Larry about the catalogue. I enjoyed the big yearly catalogue that Dick Smith distributed each year. It also had a handy data section in the back of the catalogue which came in handy. They also had their funway into electronics kit series which got you started into electronics. I enjoyed building some of those kits. I wish I still had the books but thankfully I have the books in pdf format. Anyway like radio shack, dick Smith slowly declined in the 2000s first by getting rid of their yaesu gear as they were a authorised reseller and then slowly their kits diminished and other stuff too only to make way for TVs and home appliances etc. Sad to see it close in 2016.
That was great Larry, thanks. I do remember the " Battery of the month " club.
73
Carl
Thanks Carl, yes, I remember using those cards for many years, up into the 80's I think. That was a great way to get people to come to the store, good marketing at the time I would have to say! I know it got me there.
This was great to see. I got one of those Radio Shack 50 in 1 project kits in this catalog for Christmas. I always wondered when I got it. Must have been 1969. I still have it. I was 10 that Christmas. That kit got me started in my life long passion of tinkering with electronics. At that age everything electric that I knew of only had 2 leads on it. Then I got this transistor thing in the kit. It had 3 leads. Well, I spent the next few years learning and satisfying my curiosity on what that darn third lead was for.
Thanx
+jp040759 I remember those kits, I had also played around with them and they were just amazing to me at the time!
Thanks :Larry for the trip! Sad to see Americana disappearing. 73,
Joe KC3BXZ
Yes, it is very sad, times sure do change I guess.
Hey Larry - I remember as a kid back in '69 watching NASA make the moon landing, a generation in history that I would never forget. Awesome video! 73's, Jeff KE7OUR
Thanks Jeff, yes, I was 5 yrs old but remember it perfectly, I was really into it watching the astronauts on TV live coverage. I can remember it very clearly to this day. It was really a big deal so I guess it really stuck in my head and after that I was interested in anything to do with space exploration for many years and still am I guess.
RadioHamGuy Yeah, same here. I was hooked too.... It was a milestone, too. But now with ham radio we can reach to the skies and QSO the ISS and beyond using ham radio! I was about 4 at the time when Armstrong settle his footprints in the moondust!
I still liked using Radio Shack as a parts source. Now, I have Digi-key, Mouser, and DX Engineering.
Awesome Video...Thanks From Rick!!!!
321reh Thank you Rick, glad you enjoyed!
Wow radio shack had everything into the 1990's I got all of my ham radio study guides from Gordon west WB6NOA and his mobile 2 way radio communcations book from 1991 from their I ever suggested to him that he make a new one he is everybody's elmer, as is VK3 YE Peter Parker great UA-cam channel as well and several other Hans UA-cam channels like k7 age and yours is awesome miss radio shack from the 1990's great videos my friend keep them coming
Thanks Andrew! Yes, I sure miss RS as they used to be. I used to go there at least once a week for something.
How somethings make their way back. We went from TV antennas to cable, then dish, fiber optice, light speed, and back to antennas.
I am back with the antenna here too!
1:30 That $399 stereo "system" (if you want to call it that) is equivalent to $2,623 in 2017 using a U.S. Dollar inflation calculator.
Some people didn't even make $399 a month in 1969.
Basically $1 in 1969 is equal to $6.58 in 2017.
Radio shack still has franchise stores but no company owned stores..stopped at one in New Mexico a few weeks back.
69 i was a 19 y/o guy in Nam...sad to find that they bought Allied Radio...makes of Knight Kit.
I still have the same walkie talkie.
Excellent! Back when radioshack sold cool stuff. It seems to me they really started going down hill when they decided to become cell phone shack. They might be able to rise up again if they went back to being radio shack. Ham Radio, CB, Scanners, Over the air TV, and Electronic components. They have tried to tap into the maker market. But that didn't seem to help much.
They sure did have all the cool stuff back then, couldn't wait to get the new catalog every year!
RadioHamGuy I wish I knew how much I've spent at RS over the years. I still have a 4 inch diameter key ring with all the data sheet cards from packaging from all the components I purchased over the last 40 years. RS started going down hill when the computer craze started. So did all the electronics magazines.
Internet killed the Radio Shack store...
and bad management!
I think that is pretty much what happened.
That;s groovy far out man
73 K3JCP
funny you say that... a few months ago i had to dial a rotary phone. i screwed up the first time and had to hang up
That was interesting. I had several battery of the month cards. It's a shame that Radio Shack drifted away from selling radio stuff and now they are fading out of sight. I am enjoying some of the clearance sales, however.
I hear they have had some good clearance sales. Nothing real close to me but wondering what will happen in the end here now.
RadioHamGuy I went to one where everything was marked down 90-95%! Needless to say, by the time I got here it was pretty well picked over. It did get some parts, connectors and even a couple scanner antennas.
Larry, where do you keep all ur stuff? Enjoyed the vid. I worked for RS in 1970 for about a year. Did well there cause I know something about electronic stuff!!! Fun for a while! Thanks, Mike WB8CXO
I also worked for a local store for a few years on and off in high school and out of high school. I knew a lot about all their products even at that age since I was really into it and did very well, had a lot of fun there like you. Thanks.
They are selling allot of fun vellman kits,right now for like 5$ apace
The annual fall Radio Shack catalogs where always an event. I'd page thru them for hours. Bought my first shortwave at RS back in 1970. Does anyone remember Lafayette Radio Electronics? Here in the east, they where a major competitor to RS. Here's a link to all Radio Shack catalogs thru the years.
www.radioshackcatalog.com
+Frank Palmer I love looking at those online, thanks for the link here for everyone!
the dollar calculator says $169 bux in 1969 is $1117.00 in today's dollars. is that possible?