[Milsurplus] Maybe the Good Old Days Weren't

[Richard Solomon]

There was a California outfit called Columbia
(IIRC) that had a very nice full color catalog
of some very nice B/A's (and very high prices).

I may still have that catalog around somewhere.

73, Dick, W1KSZ

On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 12:59 PM, W2HX <w2hx at w2hx.com> wrote:

> It looks like Barry Electronics still exists! I had no idea, I pass that
> part of the city regularly. I'll have drop in and see what they have.
> http://barryelectronicsnyc.com/
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
> mstangelo at comcast.net
> Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 10:01 AM
> To: milsurplus
> Cc: Hubert Miller
> Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Maybe the Good Old Days Weren't
>
>
>
> 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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