Nows and Forevers

I’ve been really missing Radio Shack.

Back in the day, electronics experimenters and amateur radio operators (of which I am both) could pop down to your local Radio Shack and find an obscure little connector or a plug or any other type of component you needed. But with Radio Shack going out of business in 2017, there’s no longer any stores I can drive to on a moment’s notice to get what I need. Instead, I have to wait at least two days for Amazon to deliver or longer if I want to get an item from somewhere else.

That’s what happened to me last weekend. I’m building a dipole antenna and I needed a few pieces. I needed to go to Amazon for the BNC connectors, Harbor Freight for the banana clips and I ended up going to AutoZone for some stranded copper wire. I also was trying to connect a new battery to a radio, and that took a couple Amazon orders and returns.

Not so long ago, that was a single trip to any one of four or five Radio Shacks that were within a 20-minute drive.