December 11, 2008

For the geek in all of us - Radio Shack catalogs from 1939 to 2003

Available in low-rez and high-rez versions. Some years are missing, some years are available but not posted yet. An amazing resource -- Radio Shack Catalogs The 1963 edition is bringing back some amazing memories. I was 13 then and reading this catalog opened up a lot of new vistas. Included were the beginnings of home tape recording (Magnecord and Ampex) home high-fidelity (Acoustic Research, Macintosh and KLH), lots of listings for shop equipment -- power tools, jointers, a Toolkraft 12" drill press which I still have in my shop (cost a whopping $52.47 without the motor), the beginnings of transistorized home televisions and radios. Super eight movie equipment, microscopes and telescopes, cameras and home darkroom equipment, RC airplanes and toys, office machines, pre-recorded music (disks and reel to reel tapes). It also featured the Minivac 601 Digital Computer of which I still have mine. I unfortunately lost the programming guide and jumper wire kit a number of years ago but the console has an honored spot in the DaveCave(tm). An amazing trek through the time when modern electronics was just hitting the consumer marketplace. Fun stuff... Posted by DaveH at December 11, 2008 9:01 PM | TrackBack