Bye bye "Evil Empire" . . . Radio Shack

Well it was Tandy (the UK name for Radio Shack) that encouraged my interest in electronics and computing, though I never did much with it. I do remember buying some of their electronics kits and making some crappy radio, but it was still fun. I recall their micro computer from about 1980/81 was popular here (before the ZX81/Spectrum appeared) and I remember watching in awe as my older cousin programmed and played with his. He later did well with computers and presently works over your side of the pond in California somewhere.

But their own branded electronics products always seemed second rate and weren't really competitively priced. Tandy went bust about 20 years ago and have apparently disappeared into nothingness as there is no mention of the UK Tandy on wiki. Considering they had shops in nearly every city in the 1980's, that's quite odd.

Your comment about Prius owners being old is probably sadly true here too. I think I'm one of the youngest I've seen; and I'm in my mid 40's

 

I don't think they were evil... just a bit arrogant and greedy perhaps.
Back in the mid 80's the FM Dipole "T" antenna used to cost the store 32 cents, they sold if for $3.

They had their place, but let's face it... kids don't come home from school now and solder together FM radio kits and such. There's an app for that!
It's too bad these kids don't know what they're missing out on.

My daughter had to take a "shop" elective back in middle school (we're talking five maybe six years ago now). She decided on "Electronics", she was the only girl in the class of 22 kids. She was also the only one who knew how to solder! She's now taking engineering in college.

 

Heathkit, geesh, I remember that. The siren call: why just buy a complete, ready to use receiver, when you can get one completely in pieces? Why oh why was that so tempting...

At least a decade back Radio Shack became The Source in Canada. Strangely pretentious name. You could still find most anything at the back. The front end sure evolved though.

 

It's so hard to keep up with technology, that anything one could build on one's own is just plain boring in comparison. I remember struggling with my third year courses as a CECS major, and the professor noted that the processor we were studying is probably in a microwave. Moore's Law is a very interesting theory that we learned of/comes to mind.....

SCH-R530M ?

 

where is the radio shack of today? the heath kit? where do the modern day geeks spend their time, inter netting?

 

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One of the fondest memories for me was building my own receiver, and knowing what was behind such an object. It was that experience that helped influence me towards an engineering degree.

Today's generation are even less knowledgeable about their technical devices they enjoy. Ignorance seems completely acceptable these days. In fact I perceive even more disdain from corporate leaders than I used to - like they despise engineers as opposed to the admiration I used to get decades ago.

On another note, I find it more unbelievable than ever that brick and mortar stores can stay in business. Although I still like to patronize local businesses when it makes sense, most of my bigger ticket items tend to be purchased from internet sources.

 

i think the day is coming when brick and mortar will be reduced to fashion and cosmetics.

 

thanks, sponsored by radio shack!

 

Did you have to mention Heathkit?

Radio Shack now has Arduinos but I think they could have moved more quickly into that area. Now we have Sparkfun and some other hobby sites that I use a lot more than the Shack. But I still like to get stuff there sometimes...so it'll be a loss hope they can keep some stores

 

Anyone see Kevin Spacey in the movie American Beauty working in Radio Shed? Clearly a poke at Radio Shack.

 

It's all a sad part of the dumbing down of a nation.
Not so long ago you (and myself) and others for their "hobby" built useful electronic devices from scratch- soldering, identifying parts, assembling them correctly, using multi-meters and scopes, reading wiring diagrams and even troubleshooting from those same schematics... and none of that was considered extraordinary at that time.

Recently someone told me that their high school age grandson was a "real electronics whiz" because he was able to connect the speaker wires to their surround system! I don't think he'd even know what a soldering iron was if you showed him one, no less how to use a VOM or scope. The bar has been set very low indeed.

It's very concerning when you actually consider that we rely more and more on advanced technology every day- but the young people that (hopefully) will inherit it all one day seem to know almost nothing about even the fundamentals behind the tech...

 

I don't know which is more dependable, the younger generation getting dumber or the older generation always complaining about the younger generation getting dumber. In my work life I have been an Electrical Engineer (and that still continues) and I just do not see the "dumbing down". Store clerks are clerks because the talented individuals go out and find the work needing talented individuals. What changes is what new engineers MUST be knowledgable about. I have no use for an engineer that can solder. I have great use for an engineer that knows both hardware and software programming languages. I have lived thought all the following changes:
1) Tubes replaced by transistors.
2) Transistors replaced by Integrated Circuits.
3) Integrated Circuits replaced by Field Programmable Gate Arrays.
4) FPGA being replaced by Systems on a Chip.

Yeah, so some obsolete knowledge is lost, but so much more is gained. Radio shack is a dinosaur and the meteorite doing them in has already hit.

 

I agree with much of what you say (old EE myself), but what is there to get kids interested in engineering today?

 

I find they are either interested in how things work to begin with or not. To me the trick is not trying to inspire an uninterested kid but to seek out and support an interested kid. Curiosity is totally technology independent.

When I judged science fairs, I went right by all the "mandatory" entries to the voluntary entries. Some schools required (graded) projects to be made and some schools allowed voluntary entries. So as a judge I went past all the forced entries to talk to the kids who did stuff because they wanted to, not because they had to. They were excited to explain what they did and why.

 

Just figured that out.

 

a lot of young people are into software engineering, they leave the soldering to china.

 

I got a number of kits growing up from Radio Shack....crystal radios, 100-in-one kits, etc.

Funniest story was a metal detector as a Christmas gift. Spent ALL DAY assembling it (remember a big part of it is an AM radio circuit.) Turn it on for the first time and get the voice of a local radio DJ. Got it exchanged for a pre-assembled working radio detector.