Interesting to hear all these comments about a company the US government has
provided valuable assistance from. While stationed overseas in Belgium, I
worked as a radio operator. One of the radio's we used was a Collins KWM2-A
transciever and it blew a tube and resistor on a vital communications link.
Within 15 minutes, a new one was acquired at a local Tandy store and up and
running. Our maintenance chief owes his Air Force Commendation Medal and a
great deal of thanks to them.

--
Chaplain (1LT) Lonnie J. Potter
Aide-de-Camp
Kentucky Brigade, Third Division
United States Corps of Chaplains

With all due respect Sir, I happy your boss got a gold plated "attaboy", but
I can't believe that your incident has happened in the last 5 years. If you
walk into a RS store in these parts(south Mississippi) and ask for a tube,
they will look at you like you are nuts.... then ask "A tube of what??".
Their employees are clueless if its not in the latest sale flier or the
catalog. Just in the last couple of weeks, I was looking for simple, basic
porcelin or glass "dog bone" insulators to build a counterpoise for a
verticle HF antenna. I walked in there with a picture of a couple of
different styles of insulators and they were totally baffled.... never heard
of them before, and never seen such. I got the same response from 4
(count'em FOUR) RS stores.

-n6ojn

USCG MK1 (ret)

wrote in message
. ..
Interesting to hear all these comments about a company the US government
has provided valuable assistance from. While stationed overseas in
Belgium, I worked as a radio operator. One of the radio's we used was a
Collins KWM2-A transciever and it blew a tube and resistor on a vital
communications link. Within 15 minutes, a new one was acquired at a local
Tandy store and up and running. Our maintenance chief owes his Air Force
Commendation Medal and a great deal of thanks to them.

--
Chaplain (1LT) Lonnie J. Potter
Aide-de-Camp
Kentucky Brigade, Third Division
United States Corps of Chaplains

"Noon-Air" wrote ...
With all due respect Sir, I happy your boss got a gold plated
"attaboy", but I can't believe that your incident has happened in the
last 5 years. If you walk into a RS store in these parts(south
Mississippi) and ask for a tube, they will look at you like you are
nuts.... then ask "A tube of what??". Their employees are clueless if
its not in the latest sale flier or the catalog. Just in the last
couple of weeks, I was looking for simple, basic porcelin or glass
"dog bone" insulators to build a counterpoise for a verticle HF
antenna. I walked in there with a picture of a couple of different
styles of insulators and they were totally baffled.... never heard of
them before, and never seen such. I got the same response from 4
(count'em FOUR) RS stores.

Its hard to get good help these days.
Maybe they thing there is more of a future in the
leather business.

Guess I'm aging myself. This was back in 1983-1986. LOL

--
Chaplain (1LT) Lonnie J. Potter
Aide-de-Camp
Kentucky Brigade, Third Division
United States Corps of Chaplains
"Richard Crowley" wrote in message
...
"Noon-Air" wrote ...
With all due respect Sir, I happy your boss got a gold plated "attaboy",
but I can't believe that your incident has happened in the last 5 years.
If you walk into a RS store in these parts(south Mississippi) and ask for
a tube, they will look at you like you are nuts.... then ask "A tube of
what??". Their employees are clueless if its not in the latest sale flier
or the catalog. Just in the last couple of weeks, I was looking for
simple, basic porcelin or glass "dog bone" insulators to build a
counterpoise for a verticle HF antenna. I walked in there with a picture
of a couple of different styles of insulators and they were totally
baffled.... never heard of them before, and never seen such. I got the
same response from 4 (count'em FOUR) RS stores.

Its hard to get good help these days.
Maybe they thing there is more of a future in the
leather business.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

wrote:

One of the radio's we used was a Collins KWM2-A transciever and it
blew a tube and resistor on a vital communications link. Within 15
minutes, a new one was acquired at a local Tandy store and up and
running. Our maintenance chief owes his Air Force Commendation Medal
and a great deal of thanks to them.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your maintenance chief did not have a spare tube and resistor on hand
for a "vital communications link"? Had I been his superior, he would
have gotten something far different than a Commendation Medal!

Mr Bill

Bill Turner wrote:

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

wrote:

One of the radio's we used was a Collins KWM2-A transciever and it
blew a tube and resistor on a vital communications link. Within 15
minutes, a new one was acquired at a local Tandy store and up and
running. Our maintenance chief owes his Air Force Commendation Medal
and a great deal of thanks to them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your maintenance chief did not have a spare tube and resistor on hand
for a "vital communications link"? Had I been his superior, he would
have gotten something far different than a Commendation Medal!

Mr Bill

I agree. I was a broadcast engineer for AFRTS in the early '70s.
Even though everything was considered "Depot level only", I kept our AM
radio and VHF TV stations on the air with what parts I could get through
the supply channels, and what I could scrounge from junk TVs and other
available electronics. I don't think there was a Radio Shack within a
day's drive, and the parts house in Fairbanks carried TV repair parts.
I even made a replacement tuner for our off air "Demod" used to monitor
over the air video and audio from parts of a junked Motorola portable TV
set. I got a promotion and a letter of commendation for my efforts.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

I will miss them if they go away altogether.
I remember when I was 13 living in Columbus Ohio. If I could get a
ride downtown it would only be on Saturday morning. Some of the
Radio-Electronics Stores were not interested in selling a kid
anything.

IBM was five years behind Radio Shack with the PC. Some of the RS
folks are technical, some are not. I have always found them willing to
work with me. I hope for a restructure that keeps the parts available.

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 11:52:08 -0500, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/17/news...reut/index.htm

A pity, *perhaps*: they still did carry one or two items of use to radio
amateurs, and without requiring a long drive or paying more for shipping
than for the item.

"Perce"
(aka Alan NV8A)
John Ferrell W8CCW

"John Ferrell" wrote in message
...
I will miss them if they go away altogether.
I remember when I was 13 living in Columbus Ohio. If I could get a
ride downtown it would only be on Saturday morning. Some of the
Radio-Electronics Stores were not interested in selling a kid
anything.

IBM was five years behind Radio Shack with the PC. Some of the RS
folks are technical, some are not. I have always found them willing to
work with me. I hope for a restructure that keeps the parts available.

Parts??? Your RS has parts?? The RS stores around here are doing good to
carry a switch or knob.

-n6ojn

A switch or knob? Phooey! The last time I was in a RS a couple months
ago...
I wanted a rubber foot for a power supply (not the stick on ones... a set
of feet with 4 screws) they said I should ask at a Lowe's or Home Depot.
RS used to have construction boxes and the works. Now all you see are
TV's Satellite and cell phone and tunes contracts.
Last year they fell short of having cleaner for switch contacts...
I guess that went with the tubes and the old mechanical TV tuners.
Sorry dating myself a bit LOL RIP RS
They also recently failed on a simple 4 prong spade lugs power connector.
If they go down the toilet,,, it isn't because Hams have let them down.
We all still go to RS and wish I think.
This last months QST had a project that built a portable mast into
a bucket of cement... all parts from Home Depot... Suppose RS has
give up masts too in favor of Sat' contracts.

K4TWO

"Noon-Air" wrote in message
...

"John Ferrell" wrote in message
...
I will miss them if they go away altogether.
I remember when I was 13 living in Columbus Ohio. If I could get a
ride downtown it would only be on Saturday morning. Some of the
Radio-Electronics Stores were not interested in selling a kid
anything.

IBM was five years behind Radio Shack with the PC. Some of the RS
folks are technical, some are not. I have always found them willing to
work with me. I hope for a restructure that keeps the parts available.

Parts??? Your RS has parts?? The RS stores around here are doing good to
carry a switch or knob.

-n6ojn