I love hearing all these stories. Thanks for taking the time to share that.

I used to work with AC/DC power supplies as used in mini computers. We were trained to short out the terminals of "can" capacitors to dissipate the stored power. Usually through a large resistor called a "bone" to stop from damaging the cap with too fast a power discharge. Otherwise worlers were told to wait a few minutes for the caps to discharge fully.

We did that in H.S. electronics class charge capacitors using the tester. Leave them on one of the work benches.

😅🤣😅...I hate when that happens...!!!

I knew it at the cursing! Lol

same here

Little yards not being able to lobby on the same level as places like pick n pull is what gets them most of the time. As cities expand around a junkyard that used to be in the country, the zoning is always an issue

Yep Could legit do with a good place for parts rn as I need to get a rp-sma to sma connecter and it seems it's only online lmao

I got to see this one near my house only 2-3 times. Last went there in 2003-4 for an 8th grade science project lol. Closed down not long after that. And I'm not counting RadioShacks, went in those plenty

Glad that Lee's is still around! I used to go to Main St. Electronics until they closed down a few years ago :(

Post World War II New York City had Radio Row in Manhattan, several blocks of electronic stores carrying both war surplus and newer current production stuff. All of it was demolished In the 1960s to build the World Trade Center, and all of the shopkeepers and owners were forced to move to a less viable location or driven out of business. Some of them quite literally died from the stress of it all. Antique Radio Classifieds magazine did a 2 part article about it, some years ago.

You Literally can, It's got that unmistakably slightly musty vintage warehouse aroma we pickers love and cherish.

Yup, early seventies, Henry radio, and the store down in Ontario near the corner of Euclid and this other street I disrecall. Looked it up. I think it was “Holt” street.

Once WWIII pops off, there will be plenty for the survivors to pick through.

I do love the smell!

That was a mainstay store for me for the longest time. They're locations were always a bit on the far side, so I usually planned my trips carefully. But eventually it was easier to bulk purchase off of Amazon and my trips to Gateway dwindeled over time. The other cool place that's still exists is Laclede Computer Trading Co. Much smaller than it used to be, but they still have PC parts from 80s, 90's, etc.

I also loved going to Gateway Electronics. It was a great place for parts and "stuff". Of course my favorite part was the surplus section in the back!

I was a customer of Gateway Electronics from about 1972 onward. That was about three years before I got my driver's license! In my early 20s I was often there on Saturdays, spending hours wandering the aisles, talking with other customers about what they were looking for and what they were trying to fix or build, offering suggestions and even helping show them where to find the things they needed. One day one of the owners must have noticed this, walked up to me and said "We're opening a location in San Diego," (as I recall), "Would you be interested in managing it?". I was tempted, but at my age at the time I didn't feel I could do the job properly. To this day I wonder about that offer; I was flattered to say the least, and am happy how my life turned out. But it just shows the kind of people who started Gateway. I miss going there, talking with Lisa and Doug, it was a great place.

I had been going to gateway electronics in st.louis since I was a kid the people who worked there prolly more than 30 years that I was aware of , not sure whatever happened to them , they had the best parts for vintage radio repairs . And massive selection of tubes . Miss ol lurch as I called him and his sis . Hope they landed on there feet

Saw the title, made me sad thinking about losing Gateway, looks like I’m in good company. If the folks from Gateway stumble into this, you are missed, and you were appreciated.

Thanks for sharing that story. As someone who was inspired by a grade-school mentor who helped us build a Heathkit Ham radio, I know exactly how you feel.

I was gutted when maplins closed. Used to love that place. You could physically see what you were buying.

@@CiderPang27 haha, yes first Tandy and then a mate introduced me to Maplins in my teens - I used to spend Saturdays just browsing the aisles 😁 - then ironically I got a Saturday job there in my last year of school - being paid £2.25/hour that put a dampener on things - the 25% staff discount was a bonus though 🤣

In the 70's when I was a kid in nyc supermarkets would have a vacuum tube replacement display. You would bring in your old tube,fit it into a specific outlet,test it and in a drawer you could buy a new one and replace it your tv. Things then were designed to be fixed.

Stocking dead tubes for artists is a great idea

@Troy Belding thanks for sharing Electronic Parts outlet.

How is that possible? The annoying BS Clickbait headline assures us that Apex is the last electronic store. So there can’t possibly be two in Houston.

@@StevenBradford It sounds like Apex is more of a surplus superstore. EPO is in a strip center, and is only, maybe 2500 square feet. They pack a LOT into it, including a train you can push a button to start running around the store above head height.

EPO is great, highly recommend checking it out, though their prices can be a bit high

The fact that there could be, almost as easily, a culture of repair and preservation, makes me sad.

the inside looks very similar as well. I have not been to the new location yet. NASA sometimes uses Skycraft parts for prototypes according to a NASA engineer I met there about 20 years ago.

Just checked them out, I love the alien ship and rocket at the entrance. It reminds me of the Fry’s Electronics entrance in Burbank, CA. RIP.

@@PeteMeets I miss the glory days of Fry's in Burbank! I guess I should be used to bad management screwing up a good thing, I was a factory service center tech for Commadore Amiga in North Hollywood!

The new store doesn't have the smell of the old store.

Thanks, I worked with the owner for months to make this happen. First, I had to build trust. Then she helped me find a customer who I thought was interesting and could do the place the justice it deserved.

@@PeteMeets Nicely done...I admire that kind of dedication...keep up the great videos!

Next time in LA my family can go to Disney.... I will go here

Wish I could have gone to this Jërnt a couple of years ago, when I was down in that area!

You'd think they'd be happy to have the advertising. Crazy. But then again, those properties that make shops like this cool are also what causes them to eventually fail.. Eccentric owners and practices

What a great memory. I know that if I started buying things there for a personal collection, I would not be able to stop.

I love the Tonight Show story. I saw a stack roadie cases from a concert tour that were gone on my next visit. You gotta act fast!

That’s a great story. I feel the same way about my grade school science teacher who worked with us to build build a Ham radio in class. I’ll never forget the wiring harness that ran through it. At the time It seemed impossibly complicated to route and solder. I have a black and white photo of the class working on it above my bench.

@@PeteMeets Wish I had a photo of the old high school shop. I've got a photo of the instructor in a yearbook, but that's it. He was quite the fellow, worked in a standards lab during and after WW2 before somehow ending up teaching high school shop & electronics. He worked with millionth's of an inch like we would an eight of an inch. He did watch repair as a hobby because "it's relaxing as you don't have to be very precise". But we have the memories, more precious than gold :)

Watchmaking to relax because the tolerances were lower!? Science teachers always seem to have interesting backgrounds. The guy I mentioned was also an Alaskan bush pilot. I need to track him down next time I go back east.

@@PeteMeets Track him down while there's still time. I became good friends with that instructor during and after high school. I sure do miss him and his wife. They were both so kind. And it was always interesting to see what he was working on. One time it was a woman's wrist watch. The balance staff (if I remember the numbers correctly) was worn down 7 / 10,000 of an inch, so he sweat soldered a sleeve over it and then machined the sleeved shaft down to size. This is on a part so small you could barely even see it.

I remember electric shop in Lane Tech High School in the 1970s. What great years!

AE7HF here

You’re welcome, it took months of planning to make this happen but it was a blast getting to know all the Apex employees and customers along the way.

RIP Metro 😢

Did you ever make it down to the Bay Area surplus places? I grew up around Weird Stuff Warehouse, Halted, Action Surplus, and a bunch of other places. One of my favorites was out in Milpitas, but I can't remember the name of it ( think it was called Surplus Stuff). I used to sell stuff to Chuck and Jim Schuetz (of Weird Stuff). They are great people, and loved to talk about all the crazy things you'd find all over Silicon Valley when it was more about hardware and less about software and KZfaqrs. Last I heard, Jim Schuetz (brother of the founder of Weird Stuff, and their former chief buyer) works as a buyer for Outback Equipment, the company that bought all of Weird Stuff's remaining inventory when Google decided to demolish Weird Stuff's building to build a bigger campus.

I believe you're referring to 'Radio World', which was run by Dave Floyd W9MPD. I met him when I was young and he was still in Collinsville, IL. Later I worked as a tech for his first wife at the shop in Collinsville after they had split up. He kept in touch with many old friends back here and I was honored to be invited to a get-together when he was in town. Dave was indeed a wonderful guy, very encouraging and helpful, which along with his vast experience and skill made his business a real treasure for the community. There is a good obituary about him on QRZ. He died unexpectedly and suddenly in 2015.

@@bradandrews7823 Thanks for letting me know.

@@bradandrews7823 I worked repairing radios for Dave in the 80s. One day a week on my days off at Dist.13 Illinois State Police, on the dogs that the full time guys were unsuccessful with. He was a wonderful, highly intelligent gentleman and one of the finest Men I have ever known. He also wrote procedure manuals for project Gemini for NASA.

Wow, I lived in BC, Nv in 1994 and there were some interesting businesses there. Like the inventor and manufacturer of the Space Pen. i didn't even scratch the surface of BC in a year. Never knew about the electronics place.

@@bradandrews7823 Dave was with a friend buying some electronic stuff when he had a medical episode and passed shortly thereafter.He was a regular at the local radio swap meet with his big white van.

Same, there were even WW2 big zinc carbon batteries that were dry, just waiting for the water to be added. I bought 4 of them and they supplied my teenage experiments with 6 volts for years. Nothing beats gear made for wartime military.

I have fond memories of building a Heathkit Ham radio.

You-Do-It is my jam.

There's also Electronics Plus in Littleton MA, its like a preserved 1980s RadioShack in all it's glory

When I was a kid in the 80’s we called it You-Blew-It Electronics…

@@RailBuffRob I lived in the next town (Boxborough) for 35 years and was a tech person at several community theaters around the area. Electronics Plus was my go-to place whenever I was building some special effects gadget for the theater. Occasionally I'd head down to You-Do-It as well.

@@jamiebraman2299 Same.

Noooooooooo 😢

That's what the government wants ANYWAYS!!! It's been going on a good 40 years now!!!

That is the plan , outsource what you can to China. Create a problem and then a solution.

The government isn't interested in educating youth on how to build and repair things. If you can do things on your own, your dependence on government services is reduced, limiting their power over their subjects

The more money they spend keeping places like this open, the less money they have to providing homeless people with drug needles.

Kids don’t go to stores, sadly. To be honest most of us don’t go as well…

I’m really happy to hear that! 😅

@@PeteMeets EPO is incredible!! I wish we had someplace like this in Pennsylvania. We used to have Edmund's scientific in New Jersey but I believe they stopped having such cool stuff.

Ahh, but what is more satisfying than taking the cover off and getting a good heady whiff of that ole electronics smell?

Wow! Talk about a long time customer. What do you like to buy there?

Skycraft is still open and going strong. They just recently moved to a larger store.

@@jimirayo I know. I drove down there just to check it out last year :-) I'll miss the old place though. It was only a few miles from where I lived in Winter Park for years. Do you know if they found a home for the UFO?

maybe not for long, rumour is they are closing up their last location in Van Nuys.

When I was a kid, I would spend my Saturdays at C&H. And then there was Dow Radio about a mile or two west of C&H on Colorado Blvd....

100x more organized than it used to be. I haven't shopped there in 20 years, by my God, if you found something you wanted out in the open-air back yard and it was water soaked and rusty with loads of bugs on it and dripping mud, congratulations, you just found the most expensive item in the whole store.

@@alanpecherer5705 found a Metcal soldering station there in a bin of crap out there. They plugged it an and the tip didn't get hot. They sold it to me for $5.00. Replaced the coax to the tip and all was good. That was a rare victory.

Thanks for sharing those memories. You will be happy to know that the 2nd and 3rd generations are enthusiastically running the business!

Remember 1001 something (I can’t remember the rest of the name) on Foothill Blvd in Tujunga?

@@clarkinthedark1 No, can't think of anything off hand. I've been gone for 20 years now...

What a great dad!

That’s a great story. Where do you keep all this stuff? You made me recall my repair experiences as a kids. I remember taking my Apple II computer in for repair. I’d watch the technician pull out schematics and do board level component repair. 14 year old me thought it was the coolest thing. I wish this was commonplace today.

John. OEM?

@Cory Gill I remember building a Heathkit HW-101 with my grade school science class.

Sounds like "Fistells" on 10th & Bannock in Denver.

What do you like to get? Are you a collector?

Mysterious!

Same with a big surplus store near where I live now. One day everything was gone - the buildings were empty and the semi-trailers in the store's yard, full of tools and a yard full of equipment were gone. Later I found the owner passed away and his brother who ran the place for a few months really had no interest. He was there probably just long enough to sell the place off to a scrapper. It's now just a big empty fenced lot with a couple empty buildings. Perhaps that's what happens - people die and that's the end of everything they tried to build. Two years ago a large ag repair placed closed about 50 miles from where I live. I spoke with the owner. Despite the place being in business for several generations, he said his son wanted to be a gunsmith and has no interest in running this million dollar business. So he was selling everything. I would have given my right arm to inherit a business like that. And this place was gigantic. I filled my truck with metal shelves, trays of assorted brake fittings and tools. Their welding shop alone would do any metal supply proud with all their stacks of metal. One of the large rooms above where they worked on the larger equipment such as dump trucks and road graders was filled with many tens of thousands of different hydraulic fittings. It would have been interesting to see how they moved a 1,500 ton hydraulic press they had sold off in their shop. I've never seen so many specialty tools. They also had an auto parts store. But it was beyond any normal Napa store because it also catered to the commercial and emergency truck and ag equipment customer. From there I bought boxes of auto parts. And in addition to emergency spot lights etc I bought a new locking hub for a 1960's 2-ton International 4x4 for a few dollars. It will be interesting to see how many hundreds that goes for on eBay. All weekend long their parking lot was full of trucks loading up with everything from their parts store and their repair facilities. Just so sad to see a large independent repair business like that now gone.

No kidding! I have several Edwards / Mojave aviation videos on my wishlist.

You ever wonder why there is so much black and white footage of fighters shooting at other fighters from the planes viewpoint or footage of bombs falling out of the plane and crashing into the ground? Well all military planes have cameras linked to the fire controls through that box. When the pilot or gunner/bomber pulls the trigger that box interpolates the signal and triggers the cameras

Dont forget about Ace Electronics

You and me both!

I'm about a decade too young to have been able to visit Radio Row in Manhattan, but from what I read it was quite a place. I wish I could climb into a time machine and go back for a visit! Several square blocks of almost nothing but electronics. It was all demolished in order to build the world trade center, and the shop owners were forced to either move to a less viable location, or simply close up shop. Some of them actually died from the stress of it all.

The closest thing I came to something like this was Akihabara district 40 years ago

@@PeteMeets, I used to sell tubes and vintage electronics parts and gear as a sideline; the flea markets in New England were awesome for finding this kind of stuff, a decade or two ago, although most of it has likely either been sold off or dumpsterized by now. Every now and then I would find particularly valuable new old stock tubes, Western Electric speakers, tube hifi gear and so on. One time I found an old tube type RCA broadcast/recording mixer console for $70, which I sold for a nice chunk of change. One guy I mat at a flea market was in the late stages of doing a clean out of some small industry a warehouse that had been loaded up with electronics and he had filled 2 dumpsters almost to the brim already. I could only dig a couple feet down into the dumpsters and so I'm sure there was lots of stuff near the bottom that I just couldn't get to, but I got tubes, sockets, high quality ceramic ritary wafer switches, chicken head knobs, audio and power transformers, and all kinds of desirable vintage electronics out of there. I Fill the back of my station wagon twice, and paid guy 200 bucks, and I think I sold everything for about 5 grand. It kills me to think of how much stuff must have been in the bottom of those dumpsters that I couldn't get at and there wasn't time for me to hire a 3rd dumpster delivered so that I could transfer everything I didn't want over to a spare/empty dumpster as I dug down through it all.

I am a Simpson who lives in NZ. My father left me a collection of Simpson meters, some new that were open circuit. He said that the US meter Simpsons were distant reletaves.

Just curious are the Simpson meters that you are fortunate to have are marked model 260 - something? Only bad thing the new digital VOM meters are auto ranging and reverse polarity still still produce a reading.We had two Simpson meters at my first job and every year I would tame them to be calibrated and relaced test leads at the same time.

As a kid interested in electronics and living in Pasadena I remember Dow and C&H very well.

Use to love going to C&H Surplus in the 80’s and 90’s. Could spend all day there.

There is something about being in a physical environment with like minded people that is SO inspiring.

I don't buy anything on line. My life suffers because I'm so stubborn.

Hahah. He did a video on it over 10 years ago. You’ll notice how much more organized it is now!

It makes me happy too! The 3rd generation is helping run the operation. I wonder if people would like to learn more about people doing projects here. I have someone else who wants to share their restoration projects.

a week.