[Milsurplus] Surplus stores

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

W5MO (first licensed 1927 if I recall correctly) was Larry Gaddis II (not the 
current holder of the call and don't get me started on that).  Signal Corps 
radio instructor during WW-II.  Ran a radio-TV repair business in my home town 
and around the time I started to college put in an AM radio station.  They 
lived across the hollow from us.  His son and I were the same age and roomed 
together for two years at LSU.  He got me started by giving me a BC-454-B and free 
access to the junk area in the rear of the radio repair shop.  Where I found 
enough parts to build an AC supply and loudspeaker unit for the receiver.  
Considering that my previous technical experience was limited to wiring an 
S-gauge train set, building an early single transistor radio kit, and building a 
black gun powder factory in my parents basement with parts from an Erector set, I 
sometime wonder how I built the supply (the black powder was decent FF grade 
pistol powder).  But I used the receiver the entire time I was at LSU (about 
three years).  I also acquired a T-23/ARC-5 from our local Scout Master and 
converted one channel to 6 Meters.  That earned me a visit from Jerry Freeman 
during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I bought my first Super Pro (an SP-110-LX) 
while at LSU.  Worked on my first BC-610 (it almost killed me - literally).  
Space, the Air Force had a MARS station in a WW-II vintage building next door to 
the Military Science building.  Many of my acquisitions got stored there.  
Money, ask my Mother.  However, I can't say in retrospect that Baton Rouge was a 
particularly target rich environment military radio wise.  When I transferred to 
LA Tech in '65, Shreveport (near Barksdale AFB) was much better and only 86 
miles away.

When I left LSU in 1964, pretty much everything I had acquired fit into the 
rear of an International Scout 80.  When I went to Vietnam in 1967, what I 
hadn't loaned out (and mostly never got back except for one BC-610) filled up the 
back of the radio shop in Farmerville.

But the BC-454-B was definitely the fuse that lit it all.  

In a message dated 7/22/2008 11:58:32 PM Central Daylight Time, 
kargo_cult at msn.com writes: 
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: <WA5CAB at cs.com>
> >To: <Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
> >Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:44 PM
> >Subject:  non-Canadian Surplus Stores
> 
> >what got me
> >>started as a ham and a surplus radio collector - our neighbor W5MO is 
> responsible
> >>for that circa 1961 when I started to LSU).
> 
> How did you manage that? While that would have been an excellent time
> for scrounging good stuff, most student types are real limited in bucks and
> real estate. -Hue
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480   
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