Hidden Vintage Electronics Shop: Chester Electronics, Kenosha Wisconsin

[brunel]

https://youtu.be/VAs7adDdcaQ

[Radio Wrangler]

Halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. A bit far for us to organise a coach trip...

To hell with going to Disneyland, cruising route 66, the beaches of Florida and cities named twice. THIS is a US holiday destination!

Their costs per square foot of retail space must be orders of magnitude less than in the UK.

David

[Argus25]

This sort of place reminds me of another one that I visit sometimes when I'm in Florida, Skycraft Parts, complete with a flying saucer and a few rockets outside. All sorts of interesting stuff inside, it really is as interesting as it looks.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/uv?hl...oiowDHoECBwQBg

[Radio Wrangler]

Skycraft.... hadn't heard of that one.

I love it.

And part way down that string of photos, there on a shelf is an HP Microwave Link Analyser (the transmitter box only) I was the manufacturing engineer for those for several years and wrote the final production change order making them obsolete. Only ever made at South Queensferry.

David

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Argus, any good shops in Oz, especially Melbourne ?

Ed

[robinshack]

The 14 to 16 minute section looks most interesting to me. Reminds me a bit of Brian Bamber and his Anglia Industrial Auctions. Anyone ever visit them? I did. Still have "bargains" I bought but still haven't found a use for after 30 years!
Looking at the Skycraft prices on some relays and switches just reminds me. Anything you have, no matter how exotic, rare or whatever it cost, is only worth what people are prepared to pay. Often, not a lot! Just look at some of the items sometimes offered on this forum with no interest!
Rob

[60 oldjohn]

Great shop, but the camera waving action gives me motion sickness. I managed to watch nearly half way through before I switched it off.




John.

[McMurdo]

I will be dreaming about shopping in a store like that in the UK tonight. My regular youtube tv-repairer Shango066 sometimes takes video of his shopping trips for spare parts in LA and they have a similar-looking place there. They always say things are alot bigger in America!

[merlinmaxwell]

I remember Bambers in Littleport, a TV shop and just down the road the surplus "shop" all sorts of wonders for me as a teenager. I think their main job was dealing in large scale surplus stock. There was a section of odd and miscellaneous stuff, heaven!

[Argus25]

Originally Posted by Ed_Dinning

Hi Argus, any good shops in Oz, especially Melbourne ?

Ed

I cannot think of one off hand.

There was a great Electronics shop up at the top of Queen St in Auckland city NZ, up until a year or two ago sadly. About 10 years back they were selling new old stock AVO meters and had plenty of valves and transistors.

I think in the UK you are lucky to have Langrex, I have never been there but ordered parts, like OC16's. A fellow who went there told me it was like an Aladdin's Cave.

Also, many years ago in Auckland there was an electronics store called The Electrical Equipment Company. But nobody ever called it that. Every person interested in electronics in Auckland that I met all called it by the same name:

"Alice's Restaurant"...

Because you could get anything you wanted there. The man who ran it always wore a casual style bowler hat. If you asked him for any obscure part, say some oddball Thyratron with a CV number, he would produce it in less than a minute. I never managed to stump him on a part.

It does make you miss places like this.

Also I used to wander in to John Stokes radio shop in Auckland and ask him about some valve or circuit. He always wore a grey overcoat. He never had to look anything up, he'd come up with also sorts of detail about it, who made it and when, how to get the best out of it and what its specs were.

[donutty]

Dang.. I was probably 10 miles away from that place 2 months ago when I was working in Racine, WI !!!

But I am back in Chicago next month so maybe I could pop in...