[Milsurplus] Electronic/Military surplus stores

Sun Mar 4 13:20:12 EST 2018

For decades there were three notable surplus stores in central New York. 
In downtown, there was the Outdoor Store, and they did advertise 
nationally once in a while. Most of their inventory was outdoor and 
sport clothing, but there was always several shelves of widely varied 
surplus. In addition, large items were set wherever they would fit. You 
found a huge power supply under the field jackets hanging above, and 
boxes of shoes may have been piled on top of it.  The next one was the 
OPP 2 Store- "Second Opportunity Store", run by General Electric. The 
offerings were wide and varied, and tended to be more expensive than 
other places. The worst thing about them was only one month after I 
finally got a good paying job, they closed. The big one was Central 
Electronics in Utica. They had a connection with Griffiss AFB and the 
local General Electric plant. The selection was usually awesome, and 
prices were reasonable. The owner, however, was "challenging" to deal 
with, and in many cases, downright mean. He took all the bad attributes 
of capitalism to the their far extremes. He utterly refused to sell any 
transmitters or receivers intact because he didn't want to even talk to 
a customer about how the restoration went. He would go so far as to 
dismantle a receiver into it's modules, and furiously refuse to allow 
one to buy them all and rebuild the rig. A gatekeeper bully to the max! 
Across  town in Utica, was another surplus dealer who didn't always 
follow the rules with the government, and had an "accidental" fire in 
the warehouse when the"heat" got too intense.  That ended his getting 
any more stuff, but he was crafty and friendly to the younger (poorer) 
enthusiasts. He carefully pulled the walls and roof from the burned 
warehouse down  and moved them away. All the stuff that was in the 
warehouse tumbled more or less gently to the floor, where it was spread 
out  in the open. We could pick through the pile and pay usually five 
cents a pound for what ever we wanted. It was amazing   how rugged the 
equipment was, being rained on had surprisingly little effect if you 
restored it carefully. One friend got an R-390 truly packed full of dirt 
and ashes, and with patience, restored it to full operation.  It cost 
him $10.00 to buy, and $500.00 worth of sweat equity labor at 1971 rates 
to restore it, but like most of us returned veterans finishing our terms 
at Griffiss AFB,  we had plenty time and little money.   What we all 
learned prepared most of us for  careers far beyond our expectations 
after we  finished our military service terms and somehow survived cruel 
sweatshop jobs through the mid 1970s.

      Bruce Gentry  KA2IVY

On 3/4/18 10:18 AM, Ron Lawrence W4RON wrote:
> I really miss the old surplus store that used to be in Charlotte.
> it was called Surplus electronics, my high school electronics
> teacher took me there the first time in Sept 1970. It dropped off
> my radar until I had a friend take me back in 1975. I was pretty
> active on 11 meter SSB and was talking to the friend one evening
> telling him I had been laid off from my job and had to go to the
> unemploment office the next day, it turned out he had been laid too
> and was going in the next day too so we met up there, he asked me
> if I wanted to go by Surplus when we got done, I said sure.
> Since 1970 the old man that ran it back then had died and hos sons
> had taken over and moved it.
> It was amazing, lots and lots of good stuff in a old building that
> reminded me of the catacombs...
> You had to pick up one of their many flashlights so you could see
> your way around. when we got ready to leave I had a double are
> load of goodies, lots of early tubes. I went up to owner, he looked
> over what I had in my arms and said "oh how  about $5, I was stunned
> and hooked on them for good. The main guy that ran it was a retired
> professor of entomology (bugs). Over the years they moved around
> several times but stayed great, you could never tell what you might
> find there from parts, sniper scoops, F4 radar unit, and racks and
> racks and racks. every time you went the parking lot would be
> full of cars  with big antennas and ham call tags.
> In the mid 80s they finally folded up, I really miss them, I've got
> a bunch of good junk I'd love to  take to them to sell or trade for
> some other goodies...
> There's never been any place that came close to them since.
> I'd love to run one myself but I doubt you could make a living
> off one these days.
>
> Them were the "good ol days" for sure.
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice
> Pull down your pants and slide on the ice"
>
>                Dr Sidney Freedman Phd
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> 73, Ron W4RON
>
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