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tabbypurr@gmail.com: May 24 05:51AM -0700 > Tv gives black screen and no sound   Some do that. If you want information on fixing it you'd need to give a whole heap more information than that. Since you haven't it seems unlikely you'd be able to do much more than check the mains plug.

oldschool@tubes.com: May 23 02:29PM -0400 It's official. Radio Shack is closing their doors. The nearest store to me (in a big city about 60 miles away), is having a "going out of business sale". Yesterday it was 80% off almost everything. But there was little left to choose from. I got a few audio cables, some heat shrink tubing and a couple 12v 1a transformers. That's about all I could find.....   This is a sad day..... Radio Shack is the last of the old electronics stores, and while they have not had much in recent years, I still liked their stores, and over the years I found their equipment was made fairly well.   The guy said they are presently going to keep about 70 stores, which is about one per state, and they will only be in the very large cities.   This sucks!!!!

Foxs Mercantile <jdangus@att.net>: May 23 02:47PM -0500 > This is a sad day..... Radio Shack is the last of the old > electronics stores   Radio Shack was NEVER an old time radio store. Except maybe back in the '50s before Tandy Leather bought them.   They sold predominately cheap import stuff. Middle management was draconian at best. Always grinding on the store managers to meet constantly changing quotas. No amount of mismanagement or corporate greed could save them.     -- Jeff-1.0 wa6fwi http://www.foxsmercantile.com   --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com

Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>: May 23 03:58PM -0400

amdx <nojunk@knology.net>: May 23 03:31PM -0500 > The guy said they are presently going to keep about 70 stores, which is > about one per state, and they will only be in the very large cities.   > This sucks!!!!   The last one in my town closed about two weeks ago.

oldschool@tubes.com: May 23 03:52PM -0400 >And then at some point, other companies were doing the same thing, and >Radio Shack stumbled, losing its way.   > Michael   So there was a bankruptcy even back then..... I did not know that, but it seems they have gone thru a lot of them. Two recently.   I never understood the connection with the Tandy leather company. Maybe there was no "real" connection, just that they bought the business. (Is Tandy leather still around?).   There was a point when Radio Shack was called Allied Radio Shack. Did Allied buy R.S. or was it the other way around? I dont know much about the history, I only recall what I remember over the years. I remember when they sold Archer brand items too.   However, I was pleased with most if not all of their gear, and I have quite a bit of their stuff, from a few scanners, a radio, several multimeters, lots of plugs and connectors, and a video switcher.   I realize their parts prices were on the high side, but I paid the price because their stores were nearby and handy. Sure beats paying the shipping from most places, and before the internet buying by mail was involved, required mouth to mouth discussions and having a pile of paper catalogs laying around. Far too complicated just to get a resistor, capacitor, phono jack or semiconductor. It was easier to drive to R.S. and just buy it. But I do agree their parts in recent years were very skimpy and limited.   Regardless, I liked their stores and will miss them.....   The only reason I even found out that they were closing is because the 9volt battery connector broke on my portable weather radio, so I stopped at R.S. to buy one. (I did not know they were closing). I had no problem paying probably about $4 for one of them connectors. Now, I'm stuck ordering one from ebay (I found a pack of 5 for about $3), but I hate having to wait a week or more to get small parts like that, and my bench piles up with projects waiting to be repaired, while I wait for parts. Lately, when I buy a part, I usually buy 5 or more and keep them on hand, so I have that stuff here. Its costing me more to stock all that stuff in the end, but there is no way around it....   What once took a day or two to repair something sometimes takes months now, because I have to keep waiting for each and every part I need. Radio Shack provided a good service in that sense, and I was willing to pay their prices for the convenience. Now they are gone, and I'm not happy about it....

"pfjw@aol.com" <pfjw@aol.com>: May 23 01:59PM -0700 We still have these guys: http://store.acradiosupplyinc.com/   They may have a gussied up website, but they are still an 'old time' radio store with wooden floors, bins and hang-racks. And I can get a 'onesie' on a Saturday afternoon.   Not cheap. But, there.   Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Ralph Mowery <rmowery28146@earthlink.net>: May 23 05:04PM -0400 In article <og23l0$1pfs$1@gioia.aioe.org>, jdangus@att.net says... > on the store managers to meet constantly changing quotas. > No amount of mismanagement or corporate greed could save > them.   Most of the components seemed to be low quality.   The manager of the local store 40 years ago had a major complaint with the company. Whatever was on sale, the company would ship him many of the items. He had an alotment of so many dollars. He may wind up with half of that in antennas that he could not sell, but could not order many of the items he could sell.   Even back in the 1970's I almost never bought anything from them in the parts line. They did sell a few nice large items. Bought one of the Model 3 TRS 80 computers from them, and a nice police scanner.

oldschool@tubes.com: May 23 04:08PM -0400 >> about one per state, and they will only be in the very large cities.   >> This sucks!!!!   >The last one in my town closed about two weeks ago.   According to the guy at my local one, they are all closing or have already closed in the last month. This one will be closed the last day of this month. There is so little left that they may as well be closed already but they are also selling shelves and parts of the store's that are not attached to the walls of the building. I offerred to buy the small parts drawers, but they were already sold and paid for. But he said the buyer has to wait till May 31 to pick them up. Some of the largfe shelves were already gone and there were 8 or 9 boxes of cables and cords on the floor because they did not want to hang the stuff again.   I asked if I could make an offer for an entire box of those cables, but he told me to come back around the 29th or 30th. He said right now he must still sell everything at the percentage off rate that corporate told him to do. I may make a trip there on the 29th just to see if I can get boxed deals.   I got a laugh, because I found a connector in the parts bin that was not in a bag, and he said although all small parts were priced at $1 each, he could not sell that plug without a part number, but since I spent over $25, I could have it for free as a bonus. That was nice of him!

oldschool@tubes.com: May 23 04:15PM -0400 On Tue, 23 May 2017 17:04:56 -0400, Ralph Mowery   >Even back in the 1970's I almost never bought anything from them in the >parts line. They did sell a few nice large items. Bought one of the >Model 3 TRS 80 computers from them, and a nice police scanner.   One part I seem to find that is more often than not, the correct size, are those stereo 1/8th inch plugs that plug into a computer or MP3 player. They almost always seem to be a sloppy fit and get noisy because of loose fitting.   I bought several cheap ones on ebay and they were all crappy (from several sellers). I bought a Radio Shack one on Ebay for 3 times the price of those cheap ones and it fit perfectly. The seller had 3 left. I bought all of them, even at $6 a piece. I dont know why no one else can make them things to fit properly, but I was happy to find some that did fit and not annoy me with crappy sound.

oldschool@tubes.com: May 23 04:16PM -0400 On Tue, 23 May 2017 13:59:25 -0700 (PDT), "pfjw@aol.com" <pfjw@aol.com> wrote:     >Not cheap. But, there.   >Peter Wieck >Melrose Park, PA   I wish we had that nearby!!!

mike <ham789@netzero.net>: May 23 02:25PM -0700 > The guy said they are presently going to keep about 70 stores, which is > about one per state, and they will only be in the very large cities.   > This sucks!!!!   Local store here is at 60% off. Even at 60% off, they're still WAY more expensive than online. RS was only viable if you had an emergency.

Carter <k8vt@ameritech.net>: May 23 07:27PM -0400 On 5/23/2017 3:47 PM, Foxs Mercantile wrote:   > Middle management was draconian at best. Always grinding > on the store managers to meet constantly changing quotas.   Yup, had a GREAT manager at the local RS -- helpful, knowledgeable, a really nice guy. Sadly, they fired him because of the bogus quotas.

clare@snyder.on.ca: May 23 09:28PM -0400 >bought all of them, even at $6 a piece. I dont know why no one else can >make them things to fit properly, but I was happy to find some that did >fit and not annoy me with crappy sound. Back in the day, when we had Radio Shack in Canada, MOST of their product was middle of the road or better. A lot of their stuff was REALLy good stuff.

clare@snyder.on.ca: May 23 09:30PM -0400 >> on the store managers to meet constantly changing quotas.   >Yup, had a GREAT manager at the local RS -- helpful, knowledgeable, a >really nice guy. Sadly, they fired him because of the bogus quotas. Here in Canada a LOT of the stores were franchises - locally owned businesses that HQ could not fire - - -

Chuck <chuck@mydeja.net>: May 24 07:49AM -0500 --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Tim R <timothy42b@aol.com>: May 24 05:51AM -0700 They're long gone in central Virginia.   There is nowhere else to get a connector or other small part locally. Big box home improvement stores don't have anything close, and the specialty hardware stores were driven out of business long ago.   Yeah, you can get cheaper and better stuff online, but you can't have it when you need it.

makolber@yahoo.com: May 23 11:36AM -0700 > Other than it being a touch quick to go into protect, does this sound > like it's actually working properly? Or at least as it was designed?     does the protection circuit sense the current i.e. voltage drop across the emitter ballast resistors?   have they changed value?   is the quiescent current correct?   m

Phil Allison <pallison49@gmail.com>: May 23 07:16PM -0700 Lee wrote:   ------------   > driving it...   > If I feed it a 0.8v pp sinewave from my sig gen it doesn't clip at full > volume and doesn't go into protect.     ** Are you using a dummy load ?   Please describe.       > Other than it being a touch quick to go into protect, does this sound > like it's actually working properly? Or at least as it was designed?   ** Depends on that mysterious load.     > Where it's normally installed, it's paired with some very expensive > speakers   ** And we are not allowed to know their identity either?       > *assuming my sig gen is accurate, of course.   ** Your scope should be accurate enough.   That a secret too?   .... Phil

makolber@yahoo.com: May 23 11:41AM -0700 the RCA cables you get on Ebay these days, the ground tabs are so thin that they don't hold tight at all when you plug them in.   I've taken to soldering wires around them which is a colossal waste of my time. I'd rather pay a little more for a usable connector. Like they were 5 years ago.   Anybody know a source of not audiophool cables but just decent usable RCA cables.     m

dplatt@coop.radagast.org (Dave Platt): May 23 12:19PM -0700 In article <f94ac23b-31d6-451a-9a0a-b68a81f39ac4@googlegroups.com>,   >I've taken to soldering wires around them which is a colossal waste of my time. >I'd rather pay a little more for a usable connector. Like they were 5 years ago.   >Anybody know a source of not audiophool cables but just decent usable RCA cables.   Take a look through the selection of RCA audio cables available at Markertek. They have a whole range of types and prices.   The ones made by Sescom, using Mogami Neglex cable and "the highest quality connectors from Neutrik, Connectronics & Switchcraft" might be a reasonable tradeoff between quality and price.   Another option would be to rip the RCA jacks out of your equipment and install BNC. The cables aren't necessarily cheaper than RCA, but it's a better-designed connector.

"pfjw@aol.com" <pfjw@aol.com>: May 23 12:23PM -0700 > Anybody know a source of not audiophool cables but just decent usable RCA cables.   http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Switchcraft/3502AAU/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMv0W4pxf2HiV5lUvkXdd5eRypf77Wy3gPY%3d Gold.   http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Switchcraft/3502A/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMv0W4pxf2HiV5lUvkXdd5eRmw46vGousy0%3d Not Gold.   http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Belden-Wire-Cable/9961-009500/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMs5%2f3jTaGtq4K0qP2YKd7fbm%252bu1H95Dn34%3d Enough wire to make your own in some quantity.

oldschool@tubes.com: May 23 02:37PM -0400 On Tue, 23 May 2017 12:19:06 -0700, dplatt@coop.radagast.org (Dave Platt) wrote:     >Another option would be to rip the RCA jacks out of your equipment and >install BNC. The cables aren't necessarily cheaper than RCA, but it's >a better-designed connector.   It would take me a month or two to replace all the RCA connectors in my stuff..... Heck, some of the stuff has about 25 of them on ONE piece of gear.

thekmanrocks@gmail.com: May 23 03:17PM -0700 Parts Express

makolber@yahoo.com: May 23 11:42AM -0700 On Monday, May 22, 2017 at 7:40:15 PM UTC-4, David Farber wrote: > -- > David Farber > Los Osos, CA   appears to be an actual design error m

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