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Old 13th Feb 2013, 3:21 pm   #21
yesnaby
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Default Re: Bygone radio traders

Hi,

In the 1960s I used to cycle to Waltons and Fenwicks in Wolverhampton from Bilston (3 miles distant). Would not try this now - far too many ring roads and cars! Not much money in those days (aged 12+) so could not do much except window shopping. Fond memories indeed.

Michael
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 3:24 pm   #22
m0cemdave
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Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
I once got taken to Mac O'Morley's by a fellow student but we got there as it was shutting. Never did get back. M&B's I visited regularly. I think they've moved.

Padgett's Liversedge Old Town Hall

Jim Fish on Chapel Hill/Milford St junction Huddersfield

Taylor's Macaulay St then King Street Huddersfield. Later run by the very elegant Miss Taylor.
And Monty Passingham's in Dale Street, Bradford. I'm not sure when it closed, but it must have been in the early 70's.

M&B had a second building, an old warehouse full of interesting items including crates full of valves and a mountain of vintage BBC equipment - including OBA/9 panels and similar equipment left over from the 1940's, with lots of stud faders and EF37A's. If you went out of the main shop and under the railway bridge and took a couple of right turns, it was down the end of a side street near the canal or river. Much more interesting than the main shop!

--------

In Liverpool the principal one was Super Radio (originally known as Benson's, I think) in Whitechapel which sold components and a lot of Surplus stuff. I recall seeing complete WS19 kits in the wooden crate, for a few pounds in the late 60's. The block it was in was demolished in te 1970's to make way for a new road system (along with the nearby historic Opera House which was then being used as a cold storage warehouse; this caused something of a local outcry).
Another was a triangular shaped shop at the fork where Brownlow Hill meets Mount Pleasant.
Later (c.1970) a new surplus electronics shop opened. I think it was on the corner of Seel Street and Slater Street - I can visualise the shop, which was in the basement of a modern building, but I can't be quite sure of the road names.

There was also Rogers Radio in one of the back streets in Southport (Shakespeare Street?) which was full of ex-military radios, WS19 HP Amplifiers, 62 Sets, etc. My last visit there would have been in 1971 or 72.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 4:08 pm   #23
Paul Adams
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Default Re: Bygone radio traders

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
Another one to mention - A.H. Thacker of Cheslyn Hay in Staffordshire.
Ah, I remember A.H. Thacker, I still have an Eddystone receiver that I bought from there, and it still works.

Happy Days, indeed.

Paul.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 4:34 pm   #24
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Default Re: Bygone radio traders

Hi, I was one of the lucky lads to have a Saturday job at Servio Radio , South Wimbledon during the 70’s. I must have served some forum members during my 8years.
Chris.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 4:40 pm   #25
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Anyone remember Jobstocks in Walthamstow, London? Would take over an hour just to look at the contents of all their shop windows. Inside there was just about room for 4 customers - tiny public area.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 4:42 pm   #26
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From Balham Train station you can see an old Ekco TV sign above a parade of shops. In Twickenham York Street there was FR Butchers and independent Radio and TV shop. Long gone.
I had a shop in the early 1980's in Wandsworth also now gone many years. I attach a picture of the Twickenham shop and my old Wandsworth shop which was taken before I had a sign painted above the shop.
John
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 4:47 pm   #27
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The Aladin's Cave section of M&B described above was demolished to make way for Asda's head office BUT Brian (who owned it), moved this stuff & much more besides to a large industrial unit in the Stourton area of Leeds, very close to where Skelton Grange power station had been. H ewas still there circa 2000 when I left Leeds myself.

Now for those of you in the Midlands, who were "Midland Instrument Co." of Moorpool Circle, Birmingham 17? I've just found one of their 'flyers' amongst my old catalogues; never went but must have bought something mailorder in the past. (1lb reels of enamelled copper wire 16 SWG = 3/- , Eddystone shaft couplers 10/- a doz)
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 5:04 pm   #28
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I was first introduced to (Peter) Thacker in about 1980. Old Norman used to hold the fort when Peter was not there. I got to know him well, and sold a few Grundig TVs through his shed, and later he had 'scopes off me. He closed down following a "Forced Sale" when the local authority wanted his yard and the small shop premises for re-development, and I bought quite a bit of stuff off him at the time. He got tired of forced retirement, and felt compelled to "do a bit", going to auctions etc. In fact, I would go to his house, then we would drive to an auction, typically in Gloucestershire, and return late afternoon. I would often buy some 'scopes, overhaul and calibrate for sale, and many times he would buy them from me if he had a customer lined up. Later, when I was employed rather than self employed, he would turn up with a batch of scopes. A price would be agreed, but he would often buy some of them back, knowing he could now sell them without comeback. In fact, he sold me about 10 scopes just before I sold my Staffordshire cottage and moved to the Island. I took up employment over here, but felt I should not "compete", so the scopes lay untouched for nearly 15 years. Only recently have I overhauled and calibrated them. Anybody local wanting a Telequipment D63, DM63 or D755 should give me a call. MotorBikeLes.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 7:52 pm   #29
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I have such fond memories of the Radio Constructors Centre (Flemings), in Westborough Road, Westcliff on Sea, Essex. It was owned and run by Bill and Jean Fleming and later their son Jim. You could get every component you needed and they used to sell loads of old equipment and surplus stuff. It was one of those shops that you could just pop into for one thing, and stay there for the entire morning talking to the people who used to go there. Bill, Jean and Jim were so helpful and the nicest of people. I loved going there.

Dan.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 8:44 pm   #30
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... my old Wandsworth shop which was taken before I had a sign painted above the shop.
WHere was that, John. Not Garratt Lane?
Nick.
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Old 13th Feb 2013, 11:36 pm   #31
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There used to be a useful place on the corner of Stokes Croft and City road in Bristol, I can't remember the name. I used to buy parts to repair TV's and record players there - to supplement my student grant in the 1970's.
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 12:12 am   #32
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In the late 60's we bought loads of ex computer boards from New Cross and stripped them for parts, especially the ASZ21 transistors (pnp germanium, 300 MHz ft) which we built into VHF oscillators to cause mischief outside the local TV shops.
I got some of those boards with the ASZ20s on. I think they were from the Ferranti Atlas machines , loads of OA47 diodes as well.I found Globe & Shudehill Supplies too expensive and nothing I ( or anyone else) wanted at Mazel's. Another place was WB Supplies on Oldham St, near New Cross, I got the bits for my first crystal set there, later on New Cross sold me a couple of "red-spot" transistors , 1/6 each as I recall,. Later still, an ex-military indicator unit with a VCR139A and an 807 inside- useless but interesting!
Bill
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 7:17 pm   #33
Anthony Thomas
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I lived near Brighton from 1954 until I moved to Norway in 1971.

Brighton had two great surpluss shops, Arthur Sallis in North Road which later moved a few hundred yards to Gardener Street and Ten Thousand Valves which again was just off of North Road in one of the side streets (Sidney Street perhaps) and just about 3 hundred yards from Arthur Sallis.

I must have spent lots of my hard earned pocket money from my paper round in both shops in the early 1960s perhaps favouring Frank Beal as he was quite sympathetic to us youngsters and often gave us parts. Sallis had perhaps a larger selection of gear and lots of new parts.

Sadly Frank died in the late 1960s and the shop just disapeared over night almost. Sallis senior also died but this was in the 1980s and for a while John the son took over. My mother used to take the bus to Brighton and purchase parts from Sallis for me and John often told me that he would send me any parts I wanted.

Both long gone now and the last shop I can remember in the Brighton and Hove area that sold parts (not Tandy in London road) was out in Hove or perhaps Portslade.

Tony

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Old 14th Feb 2013, 7:47 pm   #34
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Continuing this thought-experiment: back in 1979 I bought my AR88D from a trader who used to advertise in the back pages of "Wireless World". The ads were always a full-vertical-column down one side of the page, and they generally sold lots of test-equipment.

I also recall they offered RCA ET4336 transmitters described as 'for export only'...

Can anyone who has a stash of Wireless Worlds remember who this company was?
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 8:16 pm   #35
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Could it be P.F. Ralfe of Chapel St. London NW1. ?
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 8:22 pm   #36
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A picture scanned from MURPHY NEWS September 1947. Home radio Mitcham.
They were around all the time I had my shop just a short distance away at Colliers Wood. I think they are no longer with us. John.
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 8:29 pm   #37
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Could it be P.F. Ralfe of Chapel St. London NW1. ?
I'd have to see the actual ad to confirm this, though the name seems familiar.

Another trader was "Derwent Radio" up in Scarborough: they used to advertise in Short Wave Magazine back in the late-1970s.

I bought a HRO from them, then shortly afterwards swapped it [with some additional cash and - if I remember correctly - a pair of lightly-used-but-now-too-small-for-me rugby-boots] for an acquaintance's Eddystone 730/4, whose total deafness on the highest-frequency range turned out to be caused by a burned-out aerial coupling coil.

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Old 14th Feb 2013, 8:34 pm   #38
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I thought you might like to see another Radio Shop that closed in 2003. The picture was taken in 1994. I ran my television sales and service business from these Colliers Wood High Street premises from 1971-2003. My previous shop was at 200 High Street now a Holiday Inn Express. Happy days, yes very happy days. John.
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 8:55 pm   #39
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here's Ralf's advert
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Old 14th Feb 2013, 9:00 pm   #40
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here's Ralf's advert
Yes, thats the one!
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