[Milsurplus] Dayton the day befor

[Ray Fantini]

Today at Fair Radio was crowded; I got their late at thirteen hundred
local. Had to stop over at the Hamvention and pick up paperwork and then
did side trip to Midwest Electronic Surplus. When I got their parking
lot was full, including a chartered bus full of Japanese gentlemen who
were buying all manor of things. Instead of talking about the inventory
or the stacks of stuff I wanted to write up some basic information about
the company. Fair Radio started back in 1947 and now is in the second
generation of ownership by the Sellati family, the founders sons ran the
business together until now when we are down to the surviving brother
Phil; there are a total of five full time employs and one dog, Raven
working their. They have a total mailing list of just fewer than ten
thousand customers with ten percent being outside the US and
approximately ninety five percent of their business being mail order,
with today being the biggest local sale day. I am told that despite the
current economy that their business has to this point been unaffected,
and that their slowest periods of business were following the beginning
of the Iraq war and during 911. Kim who been with the company for some
years now tells me that one of the biggest changes in the past twenty
years has been the fact that the government just isn’t selling equipment
like they did in he past and that most of the items are being destroyed
and as a new source for equipment Phil, who is also the chef buyer is
now also pursuing estate sales and non military electronic surplus. Many
pictures were taken and I hope to have them posted soon. Hopefully this
may provide a small insight into their operation. Myself I have to say
that I have been looking forward to the arrival of their catalog for
over thirty years and hop to see them in business for many more, and to
that end I contributed to their operation by purchasing a couple items
today.
Ray Fantini KA3EKH