Ordering parts onesie twosie

[Alan Perry]

> On Jan 1, 2020, at 09:23, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> I could see the writing on the wall when the local independent
> electronics parts supplier (Norvac) closed in the 90s.  That left
> mail-order or Radio Shack, but the smaller stores who had very limited
> inventories.   I still have my portable all-band radio that I bought
> around that time.  It cost, IIRC, somewhere around $200.  I listened to
> the BBC World Service a lot during that time.  I remember first hearing
> about 9/11 on the WS.
> 
> Now, of course, who listens to shortwave broadcast radio?  The Internet
> has killed off a lot of things, broadcast radio and TV among them.

There are a lot of short wave services shutting down, but there is still a lot out there. With a 75-foot long piece of speaker wire run up a tree behind my house in the Seattle area, I can listen to stations in New Zealand and central Africa. Being able to listen stations that far away over the air with such a rudimentary setup gets some people interested in short wave.

In a similar vein, supposedly cell phones are killing ham radio. Ham radio stores (who customers were buyers of electronics parts) have shut down in most places. But there are more license holders than ever and there is a bunch of public interest in it (for emergency preparedness and such).

alan