[Coco] A little off topic

Thu May 18 12:54:45 EDT 2017

On Thursday 18 May 2017 09:13:27 Dave Philipsen wrote:

> Sorry, if you look at either of these two webpages you'll see
> references to "Allied Radio Shack".
>
> http://www.alliedcatalogs.com/
>
> http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html
>
> Dave
>
My first contact, even awareness of Radio Shack, was walking into the 
Tandy Leather Company Store, toward the eastern end of Main st, in Rapid 
City SD after my job at EAFB had wound down, to see what they had in 
leatherworking tools (very well equiped) and discovering, among the 
odors of freshly tanned cowhide, a back wall full of electronics stuff.  
This would have been in the time frame of Mr. Tandy buying them + 6 
months I'd guess.  They did change the name on the front facade to Tandy 
Radio Shack a couple years later. The stuff on the back wall slowly 
expanded, but that was one of the slimmer $ times in my history until I 
had acquired a 1st phone license and had advanced in the KOTA-TV staff 
ranking from a tx operator to engineer status at their studios.

I still remember my time in RCSD. I'd bought a 2 bedroom place west of 
town about 3 miles out, hunting and fishing and generally enjoying, 
along with my wife Annie, the sorts of things you could do in the Black 
Hills of South Dakota. I figured Annie and I could ride it out till the 
rapture, but her's came in 1968 when she had a stroke, blood clot 
blocked the junction of the middle cerebral artery on the left side, and 
died, making her services a feature of our oldest daughters 9th birthday 
on June 2nd.

I have been back to RCSD a couple times in the last 30 years, but its 
true, the place has grown and taken on big city memes, so I could never 
go back there and call it home again, that town simply doesn't exist 
anymore.

The flood in '72, and the subsequent ban on beds in the 100 year flood 
plain made the survivors build along the major roads leaving town, and 
of course the first thing all those folks did was put up no hunting 
signs, so no access to the land behind their 150 foot deep strip along 
the road, effectively locking up about 150,000 acres of huntable land in 
the half a million or so  of the hills.  Now they kill more deer with 
their cars than guns & have the gall to complain about it. Somehow my 
sympathy supply just doesn't quite reach those people, they are getting 
exactly what they asked for.  But I digress.  So I'll shut up.
> On 5/18/2017 1:07 AM, Arthur Flexser wrote:
> > The second link you refer to seems to be missing.
> >
> > Here's Wikipedia's history, which makes no mention of anything
> > called "Allied Radio Shack":
> >
> > History[edit
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allied_Electronics&actio
> >n=edit&section=3> ]
> >
> > Allied Electronics was founded in 1928 by Simon "Sy" Wexler[7]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Electronics#cite_note-Vintage-
> >7> as the radio parts distribution arm of Columbia Radio Corporation
> > (founded in 1921 by Wexler).[8]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Electronics#cite_note-RadioMus
> >eum-8>The company distributed radio sets
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_set>, tubes, capacitors
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitors>, amateur radio equipment,
> > citizens band radios, communications equipment, electronic kits and
> > consumer audio systems <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loud_Speaker>
> > through retail and mail order. In 1970, the Tandy Corporation
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_Corporation>, Radio Shack’s
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadioShack> parent company, purchased
> > Allied Radio, the consumer division, along with Allied Electronics,
> > the industrial division. Over the years, Allied Radio was folded
> > into Radio Shack <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadioShack> and
> > Allied Electronics focused on distribution of electrocomponents to
> > electronics engineers
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electronics_engineers&ac
> >tion=edit&redlink=1>. After multiple owners between 1967 and 1993,
> > Allied was purchased by Electrocomponents
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocomponents> in 1999. Today,
> > Allied Electronics is the North American
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American> distributor for
> > Electrocomponents <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocomponents>
> > selling more than three million parts from about 300 suppliers to
> > engineers <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineers> and purchasers
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing> around the world.[9]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Electronics#cite_note-History_
> >of_Allied_Electronics-9> Timeline[edit
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allied_Electronics&actio
> >n=edit&section=4> ]
> >
> > *1928-29* Allied Radio was established as the radio parts
> > distribution arm of Columbia Radio Corporation. The company was one
> > of the first to sell electronics through a catalog.
> >
> > *1941-45* Having survived the depression
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression>, the company
> > focused on the war effort
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II>, primarily servicing
> > government contracts and high-priority industrial orders. Allied
> > gained experience in the industrial arena for the first time through
> > government and military contracts.
> >
> > *1946-60* The electronics industry exploded as new developments in
> > electronics were adopted on a widespread basis in commerce and
> > industry. Innovations such as television
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television>, industrial
> > automation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_automation>,
> > space technology <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Technology>
> > and defense <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_technology>
> > accelerated the need for electronics
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics>. Consumer demand also
> > grew as radio sets and components that were not available during the
> > war proliferated. During this era, Allied gained both the experience
> > and specialized staff necessary to handle both consumer and
> > industrial sales.
> >
> > *1967* Allied was acquired by LTV Ling Altec, which is defunct at
> > present.
> >
> > *1970* Allied was acquired by the Tandy Corporation and moved its
> > headquarters from Chicago, Illinois
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Illinois> to Fort Worth,
> > Texas <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth,_Texas>.
> >
> > *1978* Spartan Manufacturing acquired Allied Electronics, but sold
> > them in 1983 to Digitech <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitech>.
> >
> > *1981* Allied began the process of moving from an all-manual system
> > to a fully computerized company. The process was completed in 1985.
> >
> > *1986* Hallmark purchased Allied but sold seven years later to Avnet
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avnet>, a competitor, in 1993.
> >
> > *1999* Allied Electronics was acquired by Electrocomponents
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocomponents> of the United
> > Kingdom <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom>, who
> > continues to own them today.
> >
> > *2007* Allied built a new and bigger facility in Fort Worth, Texas
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth,_Texas>, with a
> > state-of-the-art <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-of-the-art>
> > warehouse logistics <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warehouse>
> > management system.
> >
> > *2013* Allied celebrated 85 years as an electronics distributor.[9]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Electronics#cite_note-History_
> >of_Allied_Electronics-9>
> >
> > On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 12:57 AM, Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com> 
wrote:
> >> Haha!  I just found a reference to the old kits.  They were called
> >> "P-Box" which was short for "perforated box".  Here's a link to
> >> some references: http://my.core.com/~sparktron/pbox.html
> >> <http://my.core.com/%7Esparktr on/pbox.html>
> >>
> >> Also, this goes back to around 1970.  Does anyone remember when
> >> Tandy acquired Allied Radio and the original Radio Shack was called
> >> "Allied Radio Shack".  Here's a webpage about it.  If you scroll
> >> down a little way you'll see the Allied Radio Shack logo.  I think
> >> the P-Boxes I bought as a kid were made when it was still called
> >> "Allied Radio Shack".
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> >> On 5/17/2017 11:09 PM, William Mikrut wrote:
> >>> Wow... i forgot about those mini engineer books!!
> >>>
> >>> On May 17, 2017 10:47 PM, "Melanie and John Mark Mobley" <
> >>> johnmarkmelanie at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I found another book...
> >>>
> >>>> Radio Shack Engineer's Mini Notebook Basic Semiconductor Circuits
> >>>> By: Forrest M. Mims III
> >>>>
> >>>> Miniature RF Transmitter...
> >>>>
> >>>> See page 31 of this book...
> >>>> https://tinyurl.com/mo8uz6j
> >>>>
> >>>> This is a legitimate source for this document.
> >>>>
> >>>> John Mark Mobley
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Coco mailing list
> >>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >>>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >>
> >> --
> >> Coco mailing list
> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>