[Hallicrafters] History in Detroit

[Chris Kepus]

Before this reflector gets too far past the radio history stories, which I
have enjoyed immensely, I want to represent Detroit's offerings and share a
long story.so if you don't want to read a long story, hit the "Delete" key
now. 

My experience was that of a new General Class ham at the age of 13.
Although I lived near Mt. Clemens, only 20 or so miles northeast of Detroit,
Detroit seemed like a thousand miles away as the only way I could get into
Detroit to go to the ham stores was on a bus.  And, yes, it was safe in 1956
to ride a public transit bus into downtown Detroit.  

My fondest memory is of one special trip to Reno Radio on Broadway.  As a
paper boy for the Detroit News, I had saved enough for a new receiver.  My
newly built DX-100 was doing a fine job but the HQ-129X was causing me to
lust after something newer like a Hallicrafters SX-100.  So with my cash
stash in my wallet, I rode my bike to the bus station, locked it up, boarded
a bus for Detroit, and the adventure began.  About two hours, three
transfers and a couple of city blocks later, I walked into Reno Radio.  Man,
what a place!  The fragrance of ham gear and electronic parts was like an
elixir (still is) and Reno Radio had it all.  They had a great selection of
new and used gear, wonderful worn wood floors, glass windowed wood cases,
and the employees were all nice hams who were very helpful.  I told them
what my objective was and that I wanted to try a lot of receivers.  With a
little effort, it was possible to connect an antenna to each receiver so it
could be given a nice test drive.  I tried and liked everything.  Then I saw
it!  It looked like an HRO-60 but it was in some kind of huge cabinet.
Turns out I was looking at was a HRO-50R1 mounted in a National rack
cabinet.  You all know, even though you love and prefer Hallicrafters, that
a relatively new HRO-50 was a very handsome radio. The cabinet, also
gorgeous, matched the color and finish of the HRO and above the receiver
there were enough cubby holes behind wonderful cabinet doors to hold all the
coils.and they all were full.  Of course the speaker was built in and the
whole thing was a sight to behold.  Frankly, at that point I didn't care if
the receiver worked or not.  It was something I had to have.  I asked one of
the hams who was helping me how much they wanted for it.  As I recall, it
was a bit more than I had with me....a small fortune of something more than
$300.  I told him I wanted it, how much money I had with me and that I had
to have enough money for bus fares to get it home.  Considering its weight
and size, he was quite skeptical of my ability to get it all the way back to
Mt. Clemens using bus transportation.  Long story short, we struck a deal,
and with the help of many strangers along the way, who mostly thought I was
a nice but crazy kid, I managed to get the radio back to Mt. Clemens.  It
was a great receiver that I used until I headed for college.  My other
favorite radio stores were Duffy's and Silverstein's Surplus and while it
was wonderful prowling in their stores, Reno Radio will always be the store
I remember most.

Thanks for the bandwidth.