Stuart Electronics in Flushing.

[check_and_advise]

Awhile ago somebody on here recommended that shop. I had a PRO-164 and wanted a few systems
put into my radio. This was last year, after waiting several weeks I bought a Uniden BC346xt and figured
out how to program it through my computer with the help of some members on here. Pete kept on giving me excuses, he said we don't hold onto radios,blah,blah... so when he called me to say my radio was done(after several months) I told him to keep it. I had no use for it really, I know I could have sold it on Ebay but I didn't want to set foot in his shop no matter what!

He sends me an email a few days ago, I feel that he wants to rip me off again by dropping off my uniden BC346xt at his shop and going through what I went through with my PRO-164.

"We have just spent the last 2 days, including today (SUNDAY) completely redoing all the metropolitan
nyc, nj , nassau, suffolk, federal, media, aircraft & airport frequencies, the new westchester system, the new nyc uhf trunk system

There have been many, many changes in tones and operating frequencies in the last 4 1/2 weeks.

we changed the program to go by boro, all the tac tones changes, etc, etc

Please come in any day after tues, and we will completely reprogram the radio to your specs"

NO CHarge..................
pete

 

[newsnick175]

Peter is an acquired taste, I've known him since crystals defined your scanner's frequencies. He's never done me wrong but I can't speak for everyone. Try to know exactly what you want and stay calm, he is always doing several things at once. In the long run the experience will be worth it.

 

[minasha]

-Stuarts Electronics

I ran into this thread and I can't believe Pete is still at Stuarts electronics. He sold me a Bearcat 101, Whamo 10
and act tk16 touch radio about 35 years ago. Some things never change!

 

[Dispatcher394]

I ran into this thread and I can't believe Pete is still at Stuarts electronics. He sold me a Bearcat 101, Whamo 10
and act tk16 touch radio about 35 years ago. Some things never change!

My very first visit to Stuart Electronics was in 1972 where I purchased a Sonar FR-2526 (if memory serves me correctly) VHF-UHF crystal controlled scanner. I think it was my first scanner, before the Bearcat 101 era. Stu NEVER had buffs, LI volunteer firefighters, etc waiting in lines to get the attention that Peter did. I believe Pete was still behind the counter when his daughter was born in 1972 (or so). I wonder if Walter still does the 'city tuning' of scanners in the basement shop, like the old days. In February 1975 after dropping off my parents at LGA for their trip to Tampa, I was to travel to this Parsons Blvd store and met a guy with similar radio interests. His name was Kirby McElhearn, an employee of NYC*EMS. He became a Dispatcher in their Wodside Queens office after serving in the 14 Battalion (Lincoln Hospital?) Two men I'll never forget in all my days..... Peter Guggenheim and Kirby McElhearn. Kirby's style behind the radio microphone and on the telephone in Queens & Citywide EMS assisted me years later when I became FDNY Dispatcher 394. God bless you Kirby.... Jim

 

[minasha]

To Dispatcher 394

I do believe I too was at Stuarts before the programmable days because i remember getting crystals there
for a sonar unit I had that was rotary selectable not a scanner yet so it must have been around 1973 or74.
I do remember going to buy the BC101 and Pete told me to get the Whamo 10 instead because the 101
suffered from intermod, but I got the 101 anyway and still have it working fine today.
Let me ask you being a FDNY dispatcher are you friends with or do you know Harvey Ball?

 

[Dispatcher394]

I do believe I too was at Stuarts before the programmable days because i remember getting crystals there
for a sonar unit I had that was rotary selectable not a scanner yet so it must have been around 1973 or74.
I do remember going to buy the BC101 and Pete told me to get the Whamo 10 instead because the 101
suffered from intermod, but I got the 101 anyway and still have it working fine today.
Let me ask you being a FDNY dispatcher are you friends with or do you know Harvey Ball?

Hello... I hope this posts in the right place. My time (as an employee) in the FDNY was just slightly over seven years and six months. My buff time goes back to 1967. To answer about Harvey Ball, I have not heard that name before this. I did know of a Harvey Eisner, a fire photographer form northern NJ, a friend of FDNY and a super-buff AND I knew and worked with a Jeff Ball, formerly Dispatcher 404 who sadly passed away much too young. Sorry, I hadn't known a Harvey Ball. 73

 

[newsnick175]

Boy! Aren't we showing our age. In '67 when I joined MFD, I had a "tunable" Lafayett Lo-VHF reciever for fire band. It was some time before I could afford the Sonar VHF Hi-Lo UHF 10 ch scanner.

 

[IW_RADIO]

I too have known Peter since 1972 when I purchased my first Regency Scanner, the ACT-8-H/L. I then subsequently moved up the scanner ladder to the Regency ACT-10-H/L/U, the Bearcat IV and the Bearcat 4-Channel Hand-Held H/L. I also had a couple of the small Fanon 8-Channel H/L/U mobiles. I eventually graduated to my first programmables, the Bearcat 210 and then 210XL and 800XLT. I also purchased some CB radios too back in the 70's like the EF Johnson Messenger 223 base and the 323 mobile. I probably haven't been in the store or seen Peter in 20+ years! Great Memories!

 

[newsnick175]

His shop is a throw back to the 70s. Walter got a conner of the shop to set up a bench, but I haven't seen him in quite some time.

 

[IW_RADIO]

I do remember Walter. Back in the 70's, I brought in a Midland pocket scanner to be repaired and Peter handed it to Walter who just stood there and stared at it for 5 minutes wearing a Star Wars t-shirt. How funny was that???

 

[LIScanner101]

I know this a very old thread, but I was just Googling "Stuart Electronics" and I came across this thread.

I was only in that shop once. I had a Bearcat BC780XLT (I believe it was like 1998 or 1999...??) Anyway, I called him to ask about his shop, we got to chatting a bit and I told him I had the aforementioned scanner. He said "We do a special mod to the scanner to make it more sensitive on 800MHz". Great, so I said I would stop in the shop.

A few days later I stopped in and reminded him of our discussion. He looked at me a little strangely and said he would "take it into the back" so another fellow (an older guy, very quiet) could "open it up and check it out". Stu took it, and I actually saw him walking around in the back for a few minutes with my scanner (I don't think he knew I could see him!) and then went back far enough so he was out of view. About 30 seconds later he said "yeah, we checked it, out, it's a little weak on 800MHz" and then started blabbing about how scanners have changed so much over the year yada yada yada. I was actually so amused by this I didn't ask him the obvious question that was on my lips, which was "Stu, did you ACTUALLY open up my scanner, or did you just walk around with it for a few minutes?". I TRULY believe that he NEVER hooked it up or did anything to it. There was simply not enough time. BTW, that other guy was walking around in the back the whole time so I know he never had his hands on it.

It was then that I decided to never step foot into that shop again. The only reason I Googled it was because I was curious if they were still in business.

 

[PCN]

Stuart Electronics

I did business with Pete via phone from Syracuse in the early 1960's. The late
Jim Garrett from Drennen Photos in Mineola put me in touch with Pete. I ran Mobile Photography/News Service in Syracuse and needed something to receive the then new 460 police system. Prior to this we monitored several upstate freqs on old GE ER-6's and some Link receiver sections converted to 110 v as well as a old turnable Monitoradio and Halicrafters.

Pete set me up with a couple of Regenceny Scanner 10 crystal sets that worked fine, What a difference in being able to receive multiple systems on one receiver.

It's hard to believe that Pete is still around. I must be getting very old!

 

[LIScanner101]

For some reason I wrote "Stu" instead of Pete - my error!

 

[newsnick175]

Yes, Peter still holds court at Stewart Electronics. I fact I'm waiting for a call to come in and get my third 996X, a reconditioned one for half price!

 

[warren]

These are blasts from the past. I to go back to the tuneable radio days and I still occaissionally stop by to see Peter. Kirby was a good friend and he passed to young. You guys brought back some really good memories.

 

[PCN]

Rembering the turnables

Back in the 1950's I worked as a news photographer for Platnick Photos in Hempstead, (first Sam and then Ray Platnick) who had a contract with the Daily News and CBS to do Nassau and Suffolk coverage. This was to avoid having to pay union photographers to cover the Island. Later I worked for John Drennan in Mineola who serviced Newsday, The Long Island Press and all the newspapers in NYC.

This thread started me thinking about the crude tunables we used in the 1950's to monitor police and fire for the news photo business. Besides the Halicrafters and Monitorradios, I remember the first car radio which I think was a Gonset tuner that you connected to your car AM (no FM in cars then) radio to get the low band police and fire signals. It never worked very well.

Then came the old tank radios that were tunable, but were not very usable. They used a lot of power. After that we used the receiver part of the old Link radios developed by Fred Link. Link later was bought out by Dumont. Price Electronics were the Dumont dealers on Long Island. Vic Lucas who worked for LILCO rigged the links with a relay that you could activate by holding a switch down to switch crystals to get the car to station call back on the Nassau County Police radio system. Nassau County only used one freq countywide for dispatch and another for cars to respond on. No car to car at all.

We also used the receiver part of the old GE ER-6 and the receiver part of the Motorola 13V 's. We had to install high amp generators on our cars and sometime second batteries to handle the high power consumpion used by all these these receivers.

We also used a small crystal radio built by a guy named Tripp in Lindenhurst that woked great as a AC house receiver.

Anyone else have any memories of these times?

 

[archduke]

Does anybody remember going out RT 46 in New Jersey to Gregory Electronics? What a great place with stacks and stacks of GEs, Dumonts and Motorolas. You could even pay them to "crystal and tune" a radio for you. Ah the smell of rust, overheated transformers, mildew and dead mice when you would open up the door on a "weather-proof" base cabinet.

 

[PCN]

Stuart Electroncs

I remember Gregory in NJ. I think we bought an old Link remote control from them for our press relay radio system.

Another place we found good stuff was Electronic Purchasers in Connecticut, some place along the shore. They bought out radio systems from the State and other places when they updated their radios.

A lot of old memories that somehow I can remember now, even though I can't remember what I did yesterday!

 

[scannerman5555]

Harrison Electronics in Farmingdale by the Republic airport on Suffolk County Long Island NY.

 

[mg5555]

NY Times article on Peter. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/nyregion/peter-guggenheims-life-of-fixing-radio-scanners.html?_r=0