Here Are 64 Years of RadioShack Catalogs to Browse Online for Free
August 28, 2024 8:53 AM Subscribe
https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/ Reported by Gizmodo: For more than 70 years, RadioShack was an electronics hobbyist’s paradise. It went bankrupt multiple times in the past decade and now it’s been sold for parts. Its X account famously shills crypto with eye-catching NSFW posts. But the glory days of RadioShack live on thanks to the extensive archiving efforts of RadioShack Catalogs—a website that’s meticulously digitizing seven decades of the store’s catalogs. Previously.
Might as well ask before I spend too long searching the caralogs (awesome post by the way).
Does anyone remember these books that were sold at RS with electronics projects for beginners? They explained the basics of electronics really well, had hand drawn illustrations, and had lots of projects going from simple resistor and led to using ICs?
I got one from a second hand bookstore at a beach resort in Mexico when I was a teen and it blew my mind.
posted by Dr. Curare at 9:11 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]
Does anyone remember these books that were sold at RS with electronics projects for beginners? They explained the basics of electronics really well, had hand drawn illustrations, and had lots of projects going from simple resistor and led to using ICs?
I got one from a second hand bookstore at a beach resort in Mexico when I was a teen and it blew my mind.
posted by Dr. Curare at 9:11 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]
#ptsd has the funniest triggers. I was #humantrafficked on a #radioshack phone with a #code that I was given by a guy I met at Wet and Wild in Arlington Texas when I was 14. That phone cost me my innocence. I'm now a tech founder with a huge voice in that space. Amazing.
posted by lextex at 9:11 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]
posted by lextex at 9:11 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]
Does anyone remember these books that were sold at RS with electronics projects for beginners?
Those were the Forrest Mims books; I think one Christmas I used all the money I got and bought out every one my RS had. Looks like there's a bunch of scans here.
I pulled up the 1987 one: so much nostalgia, all the bits and bobs and oh I had that car stereo amp and 10-band EQ and I bought those RCA connectors by the bucketload -- the 160-in-one electronics kit!...so much nostalgia.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:15 AM on August 28 [8 favorites]
Those were the Forrest Mims books; I think one Christmas I used all the money I got and bought out every one my RS had. Looks like there's a bunch of scans here.
I pulled up the 1987 one: so much nostalgia, all the bits and bobs and oh I had that car stereo amp and 10-band EQ and I bought those RCA connectors by the bucketload -- the 160-in-one electronics kit!...so much nostalgia.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:15 AM on August 28 [8 favorites]
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
The 1994 catalog is like a time machine, I had so many Radio Shack doodads. The Minimus speakers were my go-to travel speakers and also formed my bedroom stereo in concert with my SA-155 mini amplifier that also hooked up to my turntable and Radio Shack CD player and cassette player. It was all so cheap compared to everything else. Radio Shack was an amazing, amazing place and I miss it. I miss the thrill of unwrapping a new set of casssette tapes. I miss going in and buying transistors. I miss the feeling of walking into a store filled with The Future.
I do not miss refusing to give them my telephone number.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:16 AM on August 28 [6 favorites]
The 1994 catalog is like a time machine, I had so many Radio Shack doodads. The Minimus speakers were my go-to travel speakers and also formed my bedroom stereo in concert with my SA-155 mini amplifier that also hooked up to my turntable and Radio Shack CD player and cassette player. It was all so cheap compared to everything else. Radio Shack was an amazing, amazing place and I miss it. I miss the thrill of unwrapping a new set of casssette tapes. I miss going in and buying transistors. I miss the feeling of walking into a store filled with The Future.
I do not miss refusing to give them my telephone number.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:16 AM on August 28 [6 favorites]
Five pages of poteniometers, five pages of toggle switches, and, under Semiconductor Values, for 12 cents, a 500 MA Epoxy Rectifier, whatever that is. Great stuff!
posted by kozad at 9:19 AM on August 28
posted by kozad at 9:19 AM on August 28
I didn't remember electronics in 1985 being that expensive but I tell you what
Like a lot of those prices would not be out of line in today money. but it wasn't today money! it was then money!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:20 AM on August 28 [5 favorites]
Like a lot of those prices would not be out of line in today money. but it wasn't today money! it was then money!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:20 AM on August 28 [5 favorites]
The interface definitely brings back the memory of flipping through trying desperately to find the computers and games. "Why are there all these stupid stereos in the front?" On the other hand, I found the 160-in-One Electronic Project Kit that was one of my favorite Christmas presents either...and I'm kind of shocked that it was only 29.95.
posted by mittens at 9:23 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]
posted by mittens at 9:23 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]
They should have rebranded at some point to Computer Shack, to keep mentionable status.
posted by Brian B. at 9:25 AM on August 28
posted by Brian B. at 9:25 AM on August 28
As a child of the 70s and 80s, hoo boy did Radio Shack have the best toys for nerdy boys. I'd save up to get at least one cool thing a year.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:27 AM on August 28
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:27 AM on August 28
One free battery! Just show up once a month. (As a kid, I did this regularly, but then again, the Radio Shack wasn't a far off walk)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:38 AM on August 28 [3 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:38 AM on August 28 [3 favorites]
Dad helping me build a crystal radio thing.
posted by Czjewel at 9:56 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 9:56 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]
Previous appearances of radioshackcatalogs.com:
boom-Shack-a-lacka-lacka boom (and bust)
Don't forget your battery card.
----
I still think fondly of Jon Bois' A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire
posted by zamboni at 10:03 AM on August 28 [4 favorites]
boom-Shack-a-lacka-lacka boom (and bust)
Don't forget your battery card.
----
I still think fondly of Jon Bois' A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire
posted by zamboni at 10:03 AM on August 28 [4 favorites]
1990 pg 20 the Realistic Mach Two - I had these speakers for 25 years - happy to see the 94db sensitivity.
Nice little time machine, thanks for the link.
posted by djseafood at 10:17 AM on August 28
Nice little time machine, thanks for the link.
posted by djseafood at 10:17 AM on August 28
Aw, man. When I was in elementary school my dad, an enthusiastic ham radio dude since he was a kid, helped me build a crystal radio set for science fair. I remember going to RS and looking through all the little drawers with him to find the parts we needed. Highfive, Czjewel, it was a fun project, wasn't it?
posted by PussKillian at 10:28 AM on August 28
posted by PussKillian at 10:28 AM on August 28
The idea that anyone was paying $1500 (in today's dollars) for a copy of the Bible on CD-ROM in 1989 is mind-boggling.
(See: 1989 RadioShack Educational Products Catalog (RSC-20E), page 4)
posted by rh at 10:34 AM on August 28
(See: 1989 RadioShack Educational Products Catalog (RSC-20E), page 4)
posted by rh at 10:34 AM on August 28
Homer: We’ll search out every place a sick, twisted, solitary misfit might run to!
Lisa: I’ll start with Radio Shack!
posted by credulous at 10:43 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]
Lisa: I’ll start with Radio Shack!
posted by credulous at 10:43 AM on August 28 [2 favorites]
In the early 80s, I worked for a physicist while in High School. He had several feet of wall in his office/lab devoted to parts from Radio Shack.
posted by Spike Glee at 12:26 PM on August 28
posted by Spike Glee at 12:26 PM on August 28
The idea that anyone was paying $1500 (in today's dollars) for a copy of the Bible on CD-ROM in 1989 is mind-boggling.
On the plus side, a decade later they moved towards a shareware model: call our number and pay us $60 unlock the rest of the CD!
posted by pwnguin at 12:27 PM on August 28
On the plus side, a decade later they moved towards a shareware model: call our number and pay us $60 unlock the rest of the CD!
posted by pwnguin at 12:27 PM on August 28
I have come to my electronics hobby late in life, I was not at all interested back in the day. And it’s a renaissance these days. I am massively lucky to have a Micro Center with an entire STEM/maker section right on my commute home. Never mind the profusion of online shopping options.
Radio shack style electronics hobbyism died when PCBs started to be populated with surface mount instead of more accessible DIP or socketed packages. But it has been born anew with the current crop of super-cheap microcontrollers made in breadboard friendly form factors. Never mind how easy it is to get your own fucking PCB printed now! I can design a board in KiCad and get five of them delivered within about 2 weeks, for like $120 including shipping. We live in the future!
posted by notoriety public at 12:31 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]
Radio shack style electronics hobbyism died when PCBs started to be populated with surface mount instead of more accessible DIP or socketed packages. But it has been born anew with the current crop of super-cheap microcontrollers made in breadboard friendly form factors. Never mind how easy it is to get your own fucking PCB printed now! I can design a board in KiCad and get five of them delivered within about 2 weeks, for like $120 including shipping. We live in the future!
posted by notoriety public at 12:31 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]
before we get too misty-eyed about the Forrest Mims books, we have to remember that he's a dedicated climate change denier because it doesn't fit in with his fundamentalist beliefs
posted by scruss at 12:59 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 12:59 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]
Hehe. The Radio Shack Color Computer was peak Shack for me, but I remember (aside from countless runs for components and batteries) one of the Radio-Shackiest things I bought was:
An adapter that plugged into the 8-track player in my hand-me-down Volarie station wagon such that I could play cassette tapes from my Sony Walkman in the car. Talk about living in the future.
posted by chromecow at 1:04 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]
An adapter that plugged into the 8-track player in my hand-me-down Volarie station wagon such that I could play cassette tapes from my Sony Walkman in the car. Talk about living in the future.
posted by chromecow at 1:04 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]
My memory of rat shack from the 1980s was that its house-brand stuff was the electronic equivalent of "toughskins" jeans from sears. Maybe sturdy (though oft not), sometimes cheap, but deeply uncool.
posted by maxwelton at 1:29 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]
posted by maxwelton at 1:29 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]
Hence the TRS-80 computer often getting derisively referred to as the "Trash-80".
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:19 PM on August 28
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:19 PM on August 28
> I still think fondly of Jon Bois' A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire
This is a hell of a read.
posted by Sauce Trough at 4:31 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]
This is a hell of a read.
posted by Sauce Trough at 4:31 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]
Kramer: "Why does Radio Shack ask for your zip code when you buy batteries?"
posted by valkane at 5:04 PM on August 28
posted by valkane at 5:04 PM on August 28
Frankly for my entire lifetime, Radioshack's core value to society was best served by at most a single store in every metro region, but they instead they had like 5,200 in 2014.
On the plus side, there's a Microcenter opening up near me this year, first in California!
posted by pwnguin at 5:24 PM on August 28
On the plus side, there's a Microcenter opening up near me this year, first in California!
posted by pwnguin at 5:24 PM on August 28
This is a hell of a read
After reading that you realize this is a company which needed to die in a fire, however fondly many of us might remember visiting its locations.
posted by maxwelton at 5:24 PM on August 28
After reading that you realize this is a company which needed to die in a fire, however fondly many of us might remember visiting its locations.
posted by maxwelton at 5:24 PM on August 28
Because the infrastructure wasn't built out to lojack peoples purchases via loyalty cards and non cash payment methods at a time when the overwhelming majority of purchases were with cash.
posted by Mitheral at 5:27 PM on August 28
posted by Mitheral at 5:27 PM on August 28
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And it was so much fun going into the stores back in the day. Over time I probably bought every conceivable audio cable and adapter as well as parts and connectors to cobble together my own....
Good Times.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:05 AM on August 28 [3 favorites]