[Hallicrafters] Philco "Radio TV Labs"

[Jim Wilhite]

This is a great read.  Several years ago I found a R/TV parts shop in El 
Paso, TX that the original owner was still running.  He was probably 75 at 
the time.  His wife was from my home town, so we had lots to talk about.

His store was the typical successful store in the late 50's, 60's and 70"s. 
He survived because of the manufacturing plants the American companies 
opened in Juarez, MX.  He supplied parts to them for years.  As he grew 
through the years, he would buy the building next door and put in a door to 
store more parts.  You have all seen buildings like this, I call them 
Shotgun Buildings.  They are about 60 ft. wide and 125 ft. long.

He had all sorts of NOS parts from Johnson, Millen, B&W, etc.  Tubes galore, 
postage stamp mica caps, NOS multi-segment caps, RF chokes, transformers, 
chokes and so much more, it is hard to describe.  At one time, he was a 
Collins dealer but did not have any of their ham equipment left.

He went from old radio parts to TV parts to transistors, and ICs.  Pretty 
much the gamut of electronic parts.  One time I asked for Globar Resistors 
for inrush current and he disappeared into the back and returned with two 
cards of them.  They were generic replacements for Hallicrafters, Motorola, 
Philco, GE and Sylvania TV sets.  And this is but one example.  He sold me 
two NOS 811As for 20 dollars, a double handful of various postage stamp 500 
volt micas for 10 cents and much more, probably the best part of visiting 
his shop was how nice, congenial and friendly he was.

Then imagine my surprise when I moved to Casper, WY in 2001 and found a shop 
much the same.  I can call them today and ask for parts Mouser, Digi-Key or 
any of the modern parts places do not recognize and they find them for me.

It reminded me of my boyhood in the early 50s when old time radio was still 
king.  I don't miss the days, just the parts and friendly people.

73  Jim
W5JO


>
> This is a great thread. It's fascinating to read about these legendary 
> radio shops and the characters that ran them.