Radio Shack has gone bust and declared bankruptcy!
or Tandy as it is known in Australia.
Dave reminisces about the good'ol days
Discuss: http://www.eevblog.com/forum/eevblab/eevblab-7-radio-shack-declares-bankruptcy!/'>http://www.eevblog.com/forum/eevblab/eevblab-7-radio-shack-declares-bankruptcy!/
TRS-80 Model 100 teardown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prl6D7bqQo8
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Forest Mimms Interview: http://www.theamphour.com/171-an-interview-with-forrest-mims-snell-solisequious-scientist/
Dick Smith talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK2KBDo7ISY
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Hi, it's time for another Eevee blam RadioShack have gone Blast! Yes, it's finally happened today. They filed for bankruptcy and well, it's not surprising everyone saw it coming. Everyone knew it was gonna happen years ago. Even decades ago, a lot of people have been saying this is coming from and electronics hobbyists like me and no doubt you RadioShack have some really fun memories that I'd like to talk about.

a few adjust for a minute here because this is how I got my start. They're called a RadioShack in the U.s. of course, but they'll never call that here. It was always Tandy Tandy Electronics and this is how I got my start because the nearest electronics store to me when I was they started out in electronics when I was five or six years old.

The nearest store was just around the corner at the local shopping center local Tandy store couldn't go to the local Dick Smith store that was much further. Oh, I wasn't old enough to hop on a bus alone and go out there and do it, but I was allowed to go to local Tandy stores. that's pretty much all I had. That was my electronics world back then before the internet and the communications revolution.

all that yeah, their electronics, magazines and your local RadioShack store that was the LH rice hobbyist world back then and back then. I'm talking late 70s to early 80s for me anyway. so this is how I got my start. look this is the classic RadioShack 200 in one I started with the 50 in one kit.

then I got the hundred and fifty and one and then I got. well. the ultimate. the 200 in one kit.

And you've seen this on my blog before. That's the original manual for it. Fantastic and countless electronics hobbyists started their career on the Spring Terminal 51 201 Tandy RadioShack kits and back in the day, of course you wanted to buy your parts while you went to Teddy and you bought your one chip. look at this one.

it's a one. I Dug out of the archives that's even yellowed. All the plastic is yellow. I used to have these hanging.

this is a voice AVC P200 Voice recognition I see wonder if it still works? Actually fire it up on a breadboard and see. But you used to get the datasheet in the back and everything was fantastic. And you could famously, of course, buy your two resistors in a pack for a dollar or whatever. always at five resistors I think it was a couple of resistors or you bought your one fuse or you bought your one transistor or your one Sim for double-o chip.

It was really, you know I don't know how expensive it was back in the day of relative to now I can't really remember, but yeah, it wasn't the cheapest thing. We take everything for granted these days. But and of course, no doubt, countless people out there went to their local RadioShack store, picked up a copy of Forrest Mims Classic Engineer's Notebook. This is the 1980 edition directly out of my archives.

I've had dumb Forrest Mims on the Amp Hour radio show. Link that in down below if you haven't seen it. Fantastic episode. He talks about how he you know developed all these fantastic engineers mini notebooks and what else are we got.
Of course when I got my first multimeter when I was like five or six can't remember saved up my pocket money from doing our jobs and I went and got this beauty. it's the micron Table which was a Tandy RadioShack brand name a 20 to 201 you I think it's an 18 range analog multimeter. That was my first ever multimeter. I saved up all my pocket money went down at Andy This is the only one I could afford and well this did me for years.

It was fantastic! So I had my 50 in one kit I had my multimeter, had my parts I had my engineers notebook where I'd build stuff up I had a bought a little bread board from Chandi's everything else. that's how you started back in the day and of course Tandy did some innovative things. they pioneered home computers of course. yeah, the trash ad the model one which I've done a review on I have to link that down below the classic art Tandy 100 portable computer.

even though it wasn't actually designed, it was done by somebody else but anyway drove a lot of that so that. was really a pioneering company and computers and hobby electronics back in the day and now well think on Ski. Well, you know it was inevitable. really.

just like Dick Smith Electronics here in Australia everyone talks about I wasn't the same when you know Dickson is sold out and a lot of people don't realize he sold out he like 1982. Oh I think it was sold out to Woolworths Oh, it's a hell of a long time ago the Golden Age of Radio Shack and places like Dick Smith Electronics here in Australia Anyway I just thought I'd announce that and show off a few things RadioShack they're gone. It's a different era now. Totally different.

So yeah, don't be sad. just look back with fond memories of all of your visiting. RadioShack if you've got any good great stories about RadioShack if you worked there. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention it was actually my first job when I was still in high school.

I did work experience at the Art Tandy Repair Center or Into10 as it was called. that was like the incorporated company here in Australia into Ten Proprietary Limited and that's where they serviced all of the all of the computers and all the products back in the day and I worked in the computer service department working on that model threes mostly a Trs-80 model threes, aligning disk drives and doing repairs and stuff like that. That was my first job in high school. that was about 1987 86 something like that.

Anyway, that's pushing my memory, but that technically was my first job I Didn't get paid for it. it was work experience. but yeah, fun memories and of course having the Local I repaired the local Tandy RadioShack Headquarters like within a bike ride distance you know. rode everywhere on the bike.
back then it was push bike by the way, not motorbike push bike. I'd ride that down there like like a couple of times a week. they would have a place in the back where they would actually get all these all products and things like that that they were trying out or whatever bit computers, electronics or whatever and then they go are not suitable or whatever and they toss them in these junk bins in this back room. So you go into the back room and there's all this cool stuff which you know it wasn't in the catalogs or anything and that was just.

ah, that was just a goldmine back in the day. It was fantastic. So there you go. Yeah! I got a lot of fun memories of Tandy as it was called here in Australia Now they're gone ski.

Oh well, it's a brave new world. Catch you next time. Leave all your comments down below. Tell us all about your stories about Tandy Beauty.

Say.

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By YTB

21 thoughts on “Eevblab #7 – radio shack declares bankruptcy!”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Abel Zavala says:

    I’m missing radio sharp

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars LegitMan335 says:

    At least you got some good stuff

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars nick fatsis says:

    Oh yes, I can remember going into Tandy at Northland shopping centre here in Melbourne in the mid 80's, getting the new Tandy catalogue and going home and taking hours to read through it and lust after the multimeters, it was bliss, I miss those days.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Toby Miller says:

    I still have a palm-sized solar panel I bought from the local Tandy's as a kid – reckon it cost about $7, and put out about 1/50th of a Watt..

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ron Thompson says:

    Had a 170 in one ,gave to neighbor kid who in collage,there needs to e a new places for kids and adults,to go to,but radio shack was always so expensive .for what I paid for two resistors,at rip of shack ,I can let over a hundred from.China ,we need a reasonable priced electronic shop chain,there is still a market for it,I am sure ,as long as we make kids they will want to try electronics .

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RAShomestudio37 says:

    Tandy, Realistic, then Velman was my pick-up here in France, but around the 90's they disappeared…. obsolescence was already around…..

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars alphazulu25 says:

    I crossed de US-México border on weekends with my parents as a kid. I was the only kid I knew to buy at least 3 electronics learning kits at Radio Shack. There wasn't anything like Radio Shack in México in the 80 and 90s.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars John Robinson says:

    Radio Shack is now called 'Tayda' and 'Elenco'. Just kidding, of course. Different companies but the products are about the same.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars saintpine says:

    I met the Tandy Radio shack brand in the adverts I found in 40 Electronic magazines that a man chucked out in the mid seventies.
    I lived in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa and there was no way for a 15 year old to get his hands on any of those goods.
    It took me a few weeks to get the components to make a simple astable multivibrator with one LED and it cost me 5 Rand equivalent to about a few hours of work for an adult.
    So I could only enjoy myself reading.
    I started enjoying myself when my dad financed my remote schooling in electronics in the late seventies and I build my first kit.
    A small 2 valve EL80 CRT oscilloscope SANSE L500 (South African National school of electronics)

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Willy Rivero says:

    I lost my 200 in one so many years ago but managed to get a manual a few years ago just for the heck of it.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Guns Cars and Digits says:

    We still have a Radio Shack open here in New Mexico. It's owned by an older fellow. I can't understand how he stays in business.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars michael bryan says:

    I got TRS-80 Micro-computer. A sad day , for sure, Radio shack.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars michael bryan says:

    I loved radio shack!

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Spark Doctor says:

    It’s strange looking at the comments below, now knowing that Maplis have gone bust.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ve1arn says:

    My first kit was the Archer Globe Patrol 3 tube Regen receiver. Still have it. Bought the solid state version kit as well and have it alongside the tube one in my radio room. I still remember the 'Battery of the Month' card. Free batteries! Loved it.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Électro-Bidouilleur says:

    I loved that place. That is where I grew up! I had little money, but still managed to buy what I needed. I would ask the owner to crack open a pack of control knobs and sell me only one. He would, as he knew I would come back sooner than later to buy the rest of the pack for another project box!

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert's Electronic Hobbies says:

    Radio Shack died because they forgot who their customers were and too much of the store was taken over by cell phones. If they had stayed with electronics and moved into all the new ways we build projects they would have been fine. Wouldn't be nice if you could pick up some filament for your 3D printer or the latest DC/DC converter module at the local store? I bet the people who run Radio Shack now don't even know what these things are.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars sedicirich says:

    still got my micronta dmm, bought from tandy. used it 2 days ago as my fluke 87 was left in the car.

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars kd4bao c says:

    Radio Shack like retailers have their positive and negative sides. The Tandy Corporation just let the internet sales side pass them. I do have good memories with Radio Shack, but I always felt the company was not price competitive with some products. I interesting video. Please keep the videos coming.

  20. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ncrdisabled Submarine vet says:

    I found there still some store open here in the USA . But I live right by one closing and got 50.00 worth of stuff that would cost 200.00 I even found a un opened tandy computer ibm compatible. I am 55 and started in electronics when I was 8 . My dad was a master mechanic for over 55 years. He would drag me along to work 4 days a week after school .
    I learned how to take a car apart but I started going to the radio shack next store and bought a 50 in one and really learned a lot. I was getting paid for doing oil changes and stuff when I was 11 .I must have spent 1000.00 or more back then. I even started fixing the car radios as they would throw them out and put in new ones. I would sell them to folks who could not afford a new radio . Back then the radio shack guys knew more than what they do now It was due to radio shack that I made a high grade on my test to go in the NAVY I become a nuclear electronic tech running and repairing the reactor on submarines . I was on 3 the SSBN would go out 70 s days or so under water. But in shore I would even go to radio shack to fix things I was in for 7 years but got hurt bad but thats a different story all on its own. I miss the old radio shacks.

  21. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Idaho Spud says:

    I enjoyed this video, but I never did like Radio Shack. The main reason was poor quality products. A large percentage of things I purchased there went bad much too soon. Some things didn't work the first time I tried to use them. It didn't take me long to stop shopping there, except for an occasional resistor or other part I needed in a hurry.

    When I was younger (late 50s), I purchased most electronics by mail from catalogs. It was an enjoyable anticipation waiting for things that took weeks to arrive in those days.

    My first multimeter was a heavy, steel incased analog meter that ran on 110 VAC. I still have it. I'm too sentimental to toss it.

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