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Remember Radio Shack?

All is apparently not lost, with RS, we have three in my relatively small city of about a quarter million. I guess all three are going to stay open, we will see what the next few months or years brings....I agree there is still electronics building going on, I know two guys my age that have built gaming computers with their sons, but for the most part I think this is buying components and plugging them together to make a unit, still you have to learn a little about how the box works to pick the components.
 
Good points. Things change... and these newer digital projects are pretty cool too! I remember how difficult robotics were 45 years ago... but not now (with amazing sensors and controllers). And speaking of Radio Shack, my local one has Arduino (and related) gear at 40% off.

I may have to visit the local RS to get geared up! But then I'd have to devote time to fiddling with the things, it'd suck me in. Did that over a decade ago with an EPROM programmer and a lot of other stuff was left in limbo (much to Mitsy's displeasure!).:lol: Last breadboard project was an LED clock, mounted in a plexiglass housing. Over the intervening years it was cobbled of various components for "other" uses.

I have enuff distractions.



*SQUIRREL!!!*
 
I may have to visit the local RS to get geared up! But then I'd have to devote time to fiddling with the things, it'd suck me in.

I find the Arduino stuff addicting, and I'm not a hardware guy at all. Wish I had more time to play with it, would be some fun projects. Only so much time...
 
Here's a photo of the Heathkit clock I built in 1972. It's still running!
image.jpg
 
Hey, we forgot about Dynaco? Anyone build one? I built an integrated amp in about 1972. That was great gear.
 
My dad built a couple Dynaco systems. I asked my mom if she still had the ST70 tube amp I had put in the basement. Those sell North of a thousand dollars these days. She thinks she gave it to Good Will. :sick:
 
I find the Arduino stuff addicting, and I'm not a hardware guy at all. Wish I had more time to play with it, would be some fun projects. Only so much time...

Same here. I recently got one working that uses a nine-pin RS-232 interface and simulates communicating with an older CNC control to use for testing comm programs. For kicks, I cobbled together a thing that (if it ever works right) will be used in an art project - it uses a proximity sensor to move something when an onlooker gets too close.


Also, RS filed a Chapter 11, so all may not be lost.

My impression is that there are more "projects" available than ever but there're also more things to compete with them for attention.
 
My dad built a couple Dynaco systems. I asked my mom if she still had the ST70 tube amp I had put in the basement. Those sell North of a thousand dollars these days. She thinks she gave it to Good Will. :sick:

Both the pre-amps and power amps (tube ones) have become very valuable. Very fine quality... but a shame if it went to Goodwill!!!!!!!!!! At least tell her to write if off her taxes as a huge donation. ;-)
 
you want to see a really neat application of old tube/amp technology, when I saw my son a couple months ago he was telling me all about the Klemt Echolette he got, basically a loop tape reverb machine, it records then plays over three other heads, you can adjust the speed as a whole that the tape turns as well as the volume on each individual auxiliary head, just oo cool an example of early electronics/analog technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loWj4F9kvO8 He bought it on Ebay and had it repaired, each was very much hand built. I told him the Beatles used one in there early days in Hamburg, he was buying into it, and I had to admit I really had no idea, but it is quite possible.
 
Hey, we forgot about Dynaco? Anyone build one?

No, but I once bought, and still have somewhere, a Dynaco Quadaptor that someone else had built.
 
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