[Milsurplus] Maybe the Good Old Days Weren't

[Michael Clarson]

Mike: Leeds is still around. They were in Williamsburg for quite a while,
and, now they are in the Bronx.

http://www.leedsradio.com/

In mid 60s, I bought an ARC-3 transmitter for 2 meters from G&G, and,
sometime around 1980, I went to the second floor location to purchase a
9002 or 9003 tube for something or other and I must have gotten the ham, as
he was quite helpful.I wanted to look around, but there was very little
light.

Barry is still around also, but a shadow of its former self.
http://www.barryelectronicsnyc.com/

I was there about 5 years ago when they were on 2nd Ave (they have since
moved). Barry had passed away, and Kitty was still running things then.
Barry's S-line was for sale. I do remember going to the old Broadway
location to purchase some "Green Sheet" items. The whole process was much
more of an adventure than the way it seems now.

One of my favorite places was US 1 Electronics in Linden NJ. Military
surplus close to my home. No stories I can recall. --Mike, WV2ZOW

On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 10:01 AM, <mstangelo at comcast.net> wrote:

>
>
> I first visited G&G radio radios in the late 1960's. I was a novice
> looking for equipment to use on the air and the pictures in the catalog
> looked tempting. Once I saw it in person it showed it's age and even to my
> inexperienced eyes it did not look suitable for operation without extensive
> mods. I would pick up a couple of command set receivers which I did use.
>
> Fast forward 15-20 years later. I was working in downtown Manhattan and
> decided to see it G&G was still in business. The storefront was replaced
> with a shop that sold all types of tapes (this was the age of VHS, Beta and
> Cassette tapes). I noticed there was a mailbox slot for G&G, which was now
> located on the second floor.
>
> I went up to the second floor on creaky steps and entered a large room.
> There was equipment piled all over the floor. Except for being on the
> second floor the decor hadn't changed since I last saw it in my teenage
> years. The owner was there as well as a ham who worked for the owner.
>
> I had some questions about the identity of some tuning units and the owner
> gave the same response that he gave when i first met him, something to the
> effect of "Kid - I don't know what the stuff does, I just sell it".
>
> I did have a nice chat with the worker who was an old Ham who lived in
> Brooklyn. His name and call escapes me. One interesting project he worked
> on was installing the Collins transmitters on ABE Nathan's radio ship "The
> Voice of Peace". I remember him asking me if I knew what a combiner was.
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Peace>
>
> Going back to the 1960's. I visited the surplus shops in downtown
> Manhattan, such as G&G and Leed's and ended up in Barry Electronics on my
> way to Penn station.
>
> Barry asked me what I had bought and what I paid for it? I told him the
> price. He said I overpaid and he had it cheaper. I replied "Fine, I'll take
> one" but he never had it in stock. I never bought surplus form Barry but he
> did have a nice stock of new Millen components.
>
> Those were the days
>
> Mike N2MS
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Hubert Miller <kargo_cult at msn.com>
> To: milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 05:34:04 -0000 (UTC)
> Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Maybe the Good Old Days Weren't
>
> Some of the old catalogs and ads, and probably i'm mostly thinking about
> G&G as the perfect example, were loaded with
> stuff that just wasn't very usable, like the RAY-3 and BC-645 and who
> knows what, and when you scale up the prices to
> today's, you see that they were flogging their large stock of
> not-very-desirable stuff for not bargain prices. Well, maybe
> a bargain in relation to what Sam paid for it, but only. Some of the ads
> weren't real informative either, like the ads for a
> whole RU-GF system. The price seems like almost a deal, but not a steal,
> but nowhere in the ad was any word that the
> receiver was a TRF and no, you probably wouldn't greatly enjoy using it
> on the hambands.
> -Hue Miller
>
>
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