From: Bob Brock on Mon, Jan 29 2007 11:10 pm

On 29 Jan 2007 16:44:02 -0800, " wrote:
On Jan 29, 3:32?pm, Dave Heil wrote:
KH6HZ wrote:
"Bob Brock" writes:

In response to "Dee Flint" :

Right. adio Shack pimps the hot products for the moment. The way I see
it, them not even carrying license manuals speaks volumes about demand for
them. ow, when you walk into a Radio Shack and see loads of HF antennas,
HF rigs, and a shelf of study guides; then you can say that Ham radio is
back in demand.

Radio Shack cannot compete with big discount houses like HRO.I disagree, Mike. adio Shack had its roots in selling amateur
equipment when it was a Boston firm decades back. hen Tandy bought it,
it in good shape. t swallowedAlliedElectronics back around 1970 and
either closed or turned into Radio Shack stores, all of theAllied
retail outlets. t owns and operatesAlliedElectronics as an
industrial distributor. ight now the company is in search of itself.

Really? Wow, Allied is LYING to us!

I just pulled down the 2007 Allied catalog from the shelf, the one
that arrived at the end of last year. 2,192 pages, 8 1/2 x 11
format. It's about 2 13/16 inch thick. I looked at the corporate
address on the back page:

Allied
An Electrocomponents Company
7410 Pebble Drive
Fort Worth TX 76116

I've ordered from them via Internet. As a result I'm on their
"announcements" e-mail list. I remember Allied from its
beginning days in Chicago, IL. Back in 1956 they had a
large store there selling 1956-era electronic parts. Can't see
a thing about "Tandy" in that catalog.

I was unaware that they were once a "ham radio supplier."
All the time I thought they supplied parts to the electronics
industry. Thanks for clearing that up.

It's always a treat to hop in here and get the "real low-down"
from the ...

Sometimes it's easier to just do a quick Google search and you find
things like this...

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

Bob, thanks for the "Wiki-up" on Allied, including Allied Radio.

If you haven't been here for years, you might not understand
how Heil's "game" is played. :-) Let me explain:

A long time ago, in a State department far away, Heil got
totally ****ed with me in here for not going overboard
with gratuitous praise and congratulations on his mighty
efforts at hamming embassies in the middle of Africa.
Especially Guinea-Bisseau. Since then he's seen fit to
"correct" me as much as possible. Gotta love it when he
tries SO hard! :-) [he *IS* a code-tested extra and
thus very "superior"]

I am not interested in ALLIED (Radio or by the single name)
corporate history. I'm only interested in the parts they
sell, the price for those parts, and whether or not they
have them in stock. So much the better if the signs point
to them staying in business over a year from now. If not,
I look for another distributor that sells in small to large
quantities (there are many of them in the USA and Canada).
No sweat there.

I am well acquainted with "Allied Radio" and actually was
in there store in the second week of February, 1956, my
Dad with me (I had gone along with his meeting of some
model industry supers, then to Fort Sheridan to see if
my footlocker had arrived yet...it hadn't). Large store
interior but almost entirely displays of parts and some
instruments, which made me a bit disappointed in a way.
Expected more. I had ordered "radio parts" from them
in 1948 and then in 1954 while in the Army in Japan, had
always seen their ads in publications of that time. [I
built a thermin for a buddy in '54, he being a music
instructor in civilian life] Allied Radio catalogs were
very thin in those days, perhaps the thickest I remember
is around 3/8 inch. Yes, they has "radio parts" but
their market was mainly industry and the electronic
hobbies went beyond radio then. Chicago was "far away"
at 90 miles before I entered the Army. :-)

ALLIED's 2007 catalog is BIG at over 2000 pages. I'm not
going to look at "all" of them to see if "Tandy" is
mentioned despite Heil's insistence that 20-year-old
corporate history is SOOOOO important! :-) ALLIED is
very much IN BUSINESS and looks to stay that way for a
long time. By e-mail or by voice telephone the staff is
nice and obliging, on-the-job...no detectable Indian
accents. :-) I've gotten a few samples from Chicago
electronic companies shipped from ALLIED stock, believe
it or not. Good service.

A great problem with some olde-tyme hammes is that NONE
of the biggie electronics parts distributors stock much
HF "radio" parts that they expect. The parts market just
isn't there any more. Real radio parts are involved at
frequencies higher than HF. Those are in abundance.
Anyone who wants old-style HF "radio" parts has to go
to smaller mail outlets such as Ocean State Electronics.
But, they will be shocked by the high prices charged,
not at all as low as when they were adolescents.

The same with "plate and filament" transformers. About
the only outlet in North America for stock parts is a
Hammond division up in Canada (distributed by Mouser
down here). Fine products I hear, but the cost is high.
Electronics parts are, and have been for decades,
oriented to lower-voltage semiconductor technology.
What was once a provence of ham radio builders is now
much much larger in favor of computer-digital
components. Vacuum tubes (from new, old stock), if you
can get them, now cost five times what they did in 1960
and go up from there. The old days are GONE. They
won't come back as they once were.

Now, as to Heil, he doesn't know his chain gets yanked
and his buttons pushed by me. :-) That's part of my
game whenever he puts on the Waffen SS persona and tells
me "you never did such a thing!" or puts on the little
red hat while dancing to organ-grinder Miccolis' tune on
"corrections." It is both funny and tragic that they
carry on like they do, but that's their way in here.
Shrug...I've seen worse on BBSs after first doing
computer-modem comms 22 years ago. Usually I just shine
them off but the chain-yanking and button-pushing urge
gets irresistable and off we go. Poor Heil doesn't
realize he's been controlled every time he tries to
control others! :-) Gotta love it...! :-)

Regards,