OT :Radio Shack

Its still the closest thing to an "electronics" store most people have available anymore. I'm lucky to have a true electronics store less than a block from where I live

Sad but true.

- Chris

I'm sure you can get the breadboards and everything else there, much cheaper than Crap-Shack.

Radio Shack Still sells them on line and at some of there bigger stores. Here in Pittsburgh what they have done is made 4 full stock stores which carry most stuff and the others nothing but junk. You have to wonder how Radio shack even stays in buisness with all the stupid decisions they have been making. they always made there money in parts but yet this is what they have gotten away from. I use to be able to go to local radio shack any time i needed a button or part or switch to keep things running at the radio station now they have none of it. Of course I saw a study the other day where the amount of people who do there own projects or tinker etc has gone way down they would rather buy it made or hire some one to do it. Dam shame I can remember as a kid the Heath Kit , Olsen Electronics and Cameradio , CRS etc stores all gone now. Of course we can blame the FCC and Amateur Radio community for this as well when they put all the radio class levels etc . which discouraged people from wanting to get involved in radio. and then the insistence on all the math to learn electronics as well.When in realty it was not needed. Yea we really did it to ourselves in this country when it come to technology and innovation.

Probably since people have been unwilling to read books/manuals to learn things on their own. In my day we would build these things and buy books which explained things if we did not understand how to put it together or get it to work. These days they expect someone to tell them step by step how to do something. I would imagine they go to the store and bug the heck out of the people working there to tell them how to put something together.

And I had a multimeter at age 12. The 1st thing in the books I read was that you needed a multimeter and they explained how to use it. These days adults will try to do electrical work on their cars or do electrical work on their homes and don't know what a multimeter is, let alone have one! They read nothing before attempting to do this work!

I guess all you need to do these days is watch one 1/2 hour TV show and you are then a qualified electrician?

My guess is they weren't selling like they used to, try Amazon.com

Radio Shack is one of the biggest cell phone dealers in the world. The decline of tinkering projects such as what was offered by Heath Kit has nothing to do with the FCC or Amateur Radio. It's a general decline in the desire to build those kits mostly due to the advancement of microprocessors and transistors. People just don't care for that stuff these days

Same with model rockets, slot cars etc

American Scientific has a lot of electronics kits. A little late to order for Christmas, but always a cool project.

My son got one of those 1001 electronic experiments kits several years ago like they sell at the main stream places and it was pretty lame. A lot of stuff was intended for somebody whop already knows the stuff to play and make themselves feel clever. His grampa brought him a crystal radio kit for Christmas one year and that one was a big success. Of course gramps was the kind to steal his dad's old razor blades to make his own crystal radions in ages past.

My son does make a pretty good attic rat. I had a panic attack this last year doing a floor crawl. (First time ever.) My son saved the day, and pulled all the wires.

Its our instant satisfaction requirement in this country. why build it when i can buy it. Why get a ham license when i can chat on line thru the internet all over the world. I do not know about you but I feel pretty dam good when I design and build things. Couple of the guys I have taught over the years have all said it is really great to be able to go to your kids or grand kids and say look at that building I piped it or wired it or built it. My Great grandfather was an iron worker and I get to see his work every time I drive thru the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. There is just something satisfying about working with ones hands that many in this country have missed out on. I do not know about you but I come home every day even bad days when im all creaky with arthritis and still love what i do.. How many people can honestly say that.

I think I'd much rather have the chat over the Internet than an electronic kit, sure it's nice to put together simple circuits but It's a little hard to compete with Nintendo, Wii, XBox, computers and smartphones

aved the day, and

I can, thankfully without the arthritis.

Ha, that made me laugh. I saw an episode of "finders-fixers". They were trying to fix a mold problem. One of the issues they found was the bath fan was old and not working well. They made a point of saying they were calling in their "qualified electrical expert" to do the replacement. They actually showed this guy install the new fan and stick the wire through the knockout in the fan with no connector. Nothing, not even one of those crappy plastic ones. I couldn't believe it.

I've done the model rockets with my kid, a couple times we filled the nose cone with gorilla glue and didn't install the parachute. You should hear the sound they make when they head back towards earth. Poor kid, he's got no chance.

I'm going to see how he does with the solder-less kits first. I actually did find and bookmark a few similar sites last night. There's a company called Elenco that makes some pretty neat kits. If he does good with the smaller solder kits I'll probably get him one of the robot kits.

When I was a kid my Dad and I built little telegraph boards with buzzers and would sit in the living room talking in morse code. He also was into ham radio, I still remember all the different antennas all over the house.

Theres a company called Ramsey which makes neat kits too

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I was looking at the (weller?) cold heat soldering iron but the guys at my local electronics shop said it's not a good unit for teaching "proper" soldering. They recommended a rechargeable unit made by Wahl.

The guys at my local electronics shop crack me up, it's the same 3 guys working as far back as I can remember. They all have pony-tails and glasses so it's funny when a new customer gets asked who they talked to about something. The usual reply " uh, it was the guy with the ponytail and glasses". It's the big "joke" down there. Anyway, they have everything, and I mean everything, you can possibly imagine. Even shelf upon shelf of old vacuum tubes. I honestly cannot imagine what I would do if they weren't around. Luckily, they've been in business for a long time and have stayed profitable, so I doubt they're going anywhere. I don't know if any of you guys ever heard of the band Harpo, but the one guy who works there has been a member since back when they were still cool.

Oh, yeah, also my garbage man is the bass player from Dirty Looks. Seriously.

We have a cold heat soldering iron in the office. It gets used less than the other two real soldering irons we have... which never get used at all.

Basically, they're only good for the tiniest of connections. Perhaps 30 gauge wire? If you can make use of it though, it'll certainly make a cleaner looked solder than I could ever do with a real iron. I read somewhere that it simply doesn't produce enough heat.

- Chris