Radio Shack

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

Highland electronics was great,McDuff ( bought out by TandY) was a good store. Incredible Universe was a smart brain child but Tandy got too greedy and expanded too quickly at the expense of it s arlington and Garland stores. Federated was a great electronics shop. Now Circuit City is in trouble.

[rbrucecarter5]

that said, the radios at radio shack are still WAY too expensive, even for a radio person or radio geek.

Well put - I counted the number of radios in my house - at $200 each to replace them, the numbers took an alarming direction.  And I have three cars - putting aftermarket radios in them for HD would not only cost $200 times 3 - but also disable some nice features like tuning in the steering wheel.  So I guess the HD folks want me to buy three new cars just for the HD radio. 

Thanks for telling me Radio Shack has XM radios.  I may stop in to buy one.

[bill davis]

By the way, does anyone remember the greatness of Heathkit?

And I've still got my Radio Shack 60-in-1 project kit.

[rbrucecarter5]

By the way, does anyone remember the greatness of Heathkit?

All of my Heathkits are still operating, and providing excellent performance.

[C414B]

By the way, does anyone remember the greatness of Heathkit?

I do. And it's a shame I got into amateur radio after their heyday. Some of those kits sounded like fun!

[Don]

you hardly hear stations promoting hd radio? i rarely listen to radio in dallas these days -- but i absolutely can't listen for 5 minutes WITHOUT hearing a promo for hd radio. they are EVERYWHERE, on 5 or 6 stations i button-push through. i hear it more than the edge plays weezer or kzps plays boston!

that said, the radios at radio shack are still WAY too expensive, even for a radio person or radio geek.
[/quote]

Same thing in Philadelphia and New York...it's being promoted rather heavily.  And I agree about the price.  If they get cheap enough, maybe it'll fly, but I'm smelling AM stereo here.  I actually one of those component Radio Shack AM stereo tuners, so I guess I qualify as a radio GEEK!

[Sgeirk]

I grew up DX'ing AM radio at night, and for as much as I believe what HD radio does on the AM band is just plain wrong, from a purist standpoint...

I heard HD radio on AM...a local Radio Disney affiliate and I   WAS          BLOWN              AWAY.

That said, Crutchfield, a few months back had the JVC HD radios with CD player 50 watts per channel (in dash) for less than $200. They were $179, as I recall.

That said, HD car stereos are WELL within reach price-wise.

Portable units/tabletop/boombox stereos? No, not there yet. They may take off when the 50-$70 price point is hit, if that ever happens.

As far as Radio Shack goes, there used to be radioshack dot com stores, in about 2002, they closed them all...they carried everything...

It was old-school Radio Shack sized 3x...everything from 25 ham towers to diy cabling for ethernet to switches, ic's, capacitors, darn near everything you'd see in an old catalog, stocked deep in a store.

Never did understand the reason they were called "radio shack dot com" stores...poor positioning, in my opinion.

[Don]

I grew up DX'ing AM radio at night, and for as much as I believe what HD radio does on the AM band is just plain wrong, from a purist standpoint...

I heard HD radio on AM...a local Radio Disney affiliate and I   WAS          BLOWN              AWAY.

That said, Crutchfield, a few months back had the JVC HD radios with CD player 50 watts per channel (in dash) for less than $200. They were $179, as I recall.

That said, HD car stereos are WELL within reach price-wise.

Portable units/tabletop/boombox stereos? No, not there yet. They may take off when the 50-$70 price point is hit, if that ever happens.

As far as Radio Shack goes, there used to be radioshack dot com stores, in about 2002, they closed them all...they carried everything...

It was old-school Radio Shack sized 3x...everything from 25 ham towers to diy cabling for ethernet to switches, ic's, capacitors, darn near everything you'd see in an old catalog, stocked deep in a store.

Never did understand the reason they were called "radio shack dot com" stores...poor positioning, in my opinion.

They seem to be trying to become a Wal-Mart of electronics.  They chopped their OTA antenna line down to nothing, and don't stock half of the electronic components they used to.  I don't shop there much anymore; instead, I buy my parts from places like MCM electronics.  I like to fix things, and the new Radio Shack doesn't cater to my kind!

[rbrucecarter5]

I heard HD radio on AM...a local Radio Disney affiliate and I   WAS          BLOWN              AWAY.

That said, Crutchfield, a few months back had the JVC HD radios with CD player 50 watts per channel (in dash) for less than $200. They were $179, as I recall.

That said, HD car stereos are WELL within reach price-wise.

I heard it on XM, and I was blown away as well.  The XM signal is much more robust than HD AM, and the head unit is half the price of an HD radio.  I can also take the head unit from car to car and into the house, and use the FM modulator to hear XM through every radio I have, including portable. 

The days of aftermarket car radios are over.  The stock radio is one of the best DX units I have heard in a stock radio, and it is so intertwined with the car removal and replacement is impossible.  I would lose all the remote capabilities on the steering wheel and back seats.

[rbrucecarter5]

Same thing in Philadelphia and New York...it's being promoted rather heavily.  And I agree about the price.  If they get cheap enough, maybe it'll fly, but I'm smelling AM stereo here.  I actually one of those component Radio Shack AM stereo tuners, so I guess I qualify as a radio GEEK!

The TM-152 - I have one, too.  It isn't a DX unit for sure, but does respectably well on locals to medium fringe.  Add a loop antenna and it can get amazing reception. 

The thing about the TM-152 is that - being an AM stereo radio - it has product detection.  Therefore very good fidelity on AM stations that are smart enough not to have chopped off their bandwidth.  TM-152's can be easily re-tuned to include the expanded band, and long after the last C-Quam station signs off, they will be highly valued for their great sound!