Scanner Tales: The Other Radio Stores

[N9JIG]

Radio Shack wasn’t the only place to get scanners, accessories and books. Well, for some it was but there were others here and there and some specialized in scanners or had a particularly good selection of scanners, crystals or other accessories. Here are a few that I frequented over the decades. Some I have mentioned before but they deserve to be included anyway. In no particular order:

Mykroy/645 Electronics (Wheeling, IL)

Mykroy was an all-encompassing electronics dealer catering to the TV and radio repairman. My dad had had a TV shop when I was a kid, so we ended up there often. They had a huge wall of vacuum tubes which accounted for a majority of the repairs back in the day. They also had a “Frequency Wall” basically a corkboard with handwritten frequency lists for the area, you told Fred what crystals you wanted, and he pulled them from a file cabinet someplace in a secret location for you. They also had a “Scanner Room” with all kinds of Bearcat, Regency and other makes of scanners. It was my first experience with programmable scanners, the infamous Tennelec.

This was a very esoteric place; every nook and cranny was full of electronics gear along with the occasional table lamp or car jack from Mr. Simpson’s garage. He owned the place; Fred was his manager and if Fred knew you he would always discount the tagged price by some random amount depending on his mood. They changed the name at some point to refer to the street address and finally closed down in the early 80’s after Mr. Simpson died.

Lakeshore Electronics (Burlington ON)

Lakeshore was pretty much a scanner store, but they also dabbled in CB’s and car stereos. They had one of the world’s largest selections of scanner crystals. I first started going there in the early 1980’s as I railfanned that part of the GTA/Hamilton area often. I was an honorary member of “BARF”, the Burlington Area Railfan’s, a group of folks that would hang out at the old Burlington depot in the evenings to watch trains and socialize. I weas looking for crystals for the local railroad channels and was referred to this place. I went and was absolutely floored by it. I ended up getting not only the crystals I needed but also a BC220 scanner. It had a filter on it that would filter out the pilot tones used by the old OPP pseudo trunking system on 140 MHz. at the time. What I didn’t know until I got home to Illinois was that that filter also worked on the old IMTS VHF mobile phone system pilot tones.

LSE also had a huge wall of crystals but with little drawers like one would use in their workshop for hardware. They also had all kinds of antennas and accessories. They closed up sometime in the 1990’s I think but I would stop in every time I was in the area, a couple times a year then.

Scanner Store in Anaheim, CA

I don’t remember the name of the place but there was a well-known scanner store in Anaheim CA outside Los Angeles back in the 1990’s. When my wife and I got married in Las Vegas in 1995 we honeymooned at Disneyland (her choice, not mine, I wanted to go to Hawaii…) We stopped by this place, and I was amazed by it. From what I heard this was where Gene Costin hung out at times. Of course, we all knew him as Gene Hughes, the creator of Police Call. I picked up the CA edition of Police Call as well as the SoCal Detail Edition (of which I still have). Later I became a “Major Contributor” and got a complete set of Police Call free every year. They too had a wall of crystals (somewhat of a recurring theme here) and the complete line of all the current scanner makes.

My wife bought me a new scanner there as a wedding gift, I don’t remember which one, however. I did visit there once more a couple years later when we visited my sister in Torrance, but I heard they closed not too long after that (another recurring theme). There were several scanner stores in the L.A. area, I remember another up near LAX someplace and I am sure there were others.

EEB (Vienna, VA)

The Electronic Equipment Bank, better known as EEB, was a well-known radio store in suburban Washington DC. They had all the high-end stuff from Icom, AOR, Yaesu and others. The wife and I stopped there a couple times when we were in the area, and I went there when I was in Quantico and had a day off from class. I bought an AR900 there the first time and an AR8000 the next. I also had sent 2 of my Icom R7000’s there for their upgrades. These upgrades modified the power supply to run cooler, changed the scan method so it resume after a short delay following a carrier drop just like contemporary scanners as well as tweaked and aligned the radio. It really made the R7000 a better radio!

Of course, all good things come to an end. Apparently EEB’s came about after some purchasing shenanigans involving some government contracts by one of the principals. It was a shame; they had some neat stuff and the prices (to the consumer anyway) were not out of line.

Command Post (Chicago IL)

The Command Post was a short-lived scanner store owned by the late Ted Moran of CARMA fame. Ted was my best friend at the time, and I helped him set it up, I even worked the store a few weekends to allow Ted and his wife Kim to get out of town for a couple days. His biggest seller was the PRO2006 scanner, and we would do the cellular mod if requested.

While it only lasted a year or so it was a great place to hang out. Ted’s wife was my wife’s best friend as well so the four of us would have a great time there even when we weren’t doing radio stuff. A lot of the local scanner community would come around and chat so there was always someone to talk to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good enough business model and they had to close down. Ted had the large metal sign in his garage for years after that and I had the display case that I used as a workbench in the basement of my house.

FCC Electronics (Hoffman Estates, IL)

FCC was the first scanner-only store I ever saw. It was in a strip mall off IL-58 next to Jewel. They had all the latest scanners, crystals and accessories. When the local police went to 800 MHz. (the first in the Chicago area to do so) they had a converter available on switchover day as the scanners of the day would not cover 800 MHz. The local police chief was furious and threatened to arrest the store owner until it was pointed out that there was no law against it. Apparently, Motorola told the chief that no one could hear them on the new freqs and when he found out they were wrong he blew a gasket.

Universal Radio (Reynoldsburg, OH)

While not a scanner store per se, Universal was more a ham radio joint. They did have a wide selection of scanners and accessories for years. They also had one of the most useful websites around, other than RadioReference of course. Their product pages were the stuff of legends, they had complete descriptions and photos of just about everything and even if you didn’t buy from them you probably checked their website for info.

I visited them twice on the way to of from my in-laws in Kentucky. The wife enjoyed going there for the cats that roamed the store and seemed to know who was and wasn’t a cat lover. I did buy from them both times we visited, and I have ordered over the phone or internet many times.

Scanner Master (Holliston, MA)

I have to mention Scanner Master of course. I used to get their catalog and drool over the toys listed and finally got a chance to visit them in their old location in Needham, MA many years ago. A couple years later I was asked to help out with some projects like testing the BC245XLT scanner (the first EDACS scanner) and edited the Illinois Communications Guide. Later Scanner Master moved to a new location in Holliston, MA and, while mail, phone and internet orders were the vast majority, they did have a walk-in store. While that is no longer the case they remain as the premier scanner retailer in the USA.

Epilogue

As far as I know there are no scanner-only over-the-counter stores any longer. Other than at HRO and the occasional truck stop there are few places where you could walk in and buy a scanner these days. The days of specialty stores for this admittedly niche hobby are long gone. While I know I missed a few of the good ones these ware the ones I most fondly remember. Please reply below with the stores you frequented.

 

[KE4ZNR]

In my younger years I worked briefly at a local Service Merchandise location in the electronics section of the store.
At the time Service carried a few models of radios and the one I remember above all others was the Sony WaveHawk ICF-SC1PC handheld. At the time I really considered picking one up but it was always a little too expensive for my tastes. All things considered the radio was not that great of a receiver so I am glad I did not pick one up.

So you can add Service Merchandise (RIP) to the list of stores that once carried a limited selection of hobby gear.

 

[steve9570]

Here in Ma I miss the now closed You-Do-It In Needham Ma. Spent a lot of years and buying from them. WCVB TV 5 across the way was a good customer of the store for station needs.
( I have a WS140 on my desk I am shipping to Scanner Master today for programing.
I cant do it my self any more.)
Steve

 

[a727469]

Great read…also, Scanner World, Albany, NY and Stuart Electronics, Queens, NY.

 

[N9JIG]

In my younger years I worked briefly at a local Service Merchandise location in the electronics section of the store.
At the time Service carried a few models of radios and the one I remember above all others was the Sony WaveHawk ICF-SC1PC handheld. At the time I really considered picking one up but it was always a little too expensive for my tastes. All things considered the radio was not that great of a receiver so I am glad I did not pick one up.

So you can add Service Merchandise (RIP) to the list of stores that once carried a limited selection of hobby gear.

I remember Service Merchandise well, we had one down the street. Confusing as hell to buy stuff but my sisters loved the jewelry!

I had one of the Sony air-band receivers that looked like that, was not impressed. My dad had an old Icom air-band portable he kept in his flight bag, not all the airplanes he flew had radios back then. He bought it at a pilot's shop at an airport in central Illinois back in the 70's, I don't recall if it was Peoria, Bloomington, Decatur or maybe Springfield but they also had several Regency scanners there and the crystals for the local Tower, Ground and Unicom channels. I used to love playing with that Icom, I would listen to Palwaukee Tower on it all the time, even would bring it with when I rode my bike there to watch planes.

 

[kb3isq]

Radio Shack wasn’t the only place to get scanners, accessories and books. Well, for some it was but there were others here and there and some specialized in scanners or had a particularly good selection of scanners, crystals or other accessories. Here are a few that I frequented over the decades. Some I have mentioned before but they deserve to be included anyway. In no particular order:

Mykroy/645 Electronics (Wheeling, IL)

Mykroy was an all-encompassing electronics dealer catering to the TV and radio repairman. My dad had had a TV shop when I was a kid, so we ended up there often. They had a huge wall of vacuum tubes which accounted for a majority of the repairs back in the day. They also had a “Frequency Wall” basically a corkboard with handwritten frequency lists for the area, you told Fred what crystals you wanted, and he pulled them from a file cabinet someplace in a secret location for you. They also had a “Scanner Room” with all kinds of Bearcat, Regency and other makes of scanners. It was my first experience with programmable scanners, the infamous Tennelec.

This was a very esoteric place; every nook and cranny was full of electronics gear along with the occasional table lamp or car jack from Mr. Simpson’s garage. He owned the place; Fred was his manager and if Fred knew you he would always discount the tagged price by some random amount depending on his mood. They changed the name at some point to refer to the street address and finally closed down in the early 80’s after Mr. Simpson died.

Lakeshore Electronics (Burlington ON)

Lakeshore was pretty much a scanner store, but they also dabbled in CB’s and car stereos. They had one of the world’s largest selections of scanner crystals. I first started going there in the early 1980’s as I railfanned that part of the GTA/Hamilton area often. I was an honorary member of “BARF”, the Burlington Area Railfan’s, a group of folks that would hang out at the old Burlington depot in the evenings to watch trains and socialize. I weas looking for crystals for the local railroad channels and was referred to this place. I went and was absolutely floored by it. I ended up getting not only the crystals I needed but also a BC220 scanner. It had a filter on it that would filter out the pilot tones used by the old OPP pseudo trunking system on 140 MHz. at the time. What I didn’t know until I got home to Illinois was that that filter also worked on the old IMTS VHF mobile phone system pilot tones.

LSE also had a huge wall of crystals but with little drawers like one would use in their workshop for hardware. They also had all kinds of antennas and accessories. They closed up sometime in the 1990’s I think but I would stop in every time I was in the area, a couple times a year then.

Scanner Store in Anaheim, CA

I don’t remember the name of the place but there was a well-known scanner store in Anaheim CA outside Los Angeles back in the 1990’s. When my wife and I got married in Las Vegas in 1995 we honeymooned at Disneyland (her choice, not mine, I wanted to go to Hawaii…) We stopped by this place, and I was amazed by it. From what I heard this was where Gene Costin hung out at times. Of course, we all knew him as Gene Hughes, the creator of Police Call. I picked up the CA edition of Police Call as well as the SoCal Detail Edition (of which I still have). Later I became a “Major Contributor” and got a complete set of Police Call free every year. They too had a wall of crystals (somewhat of a recurring theme here) and the complete line of all the current scanner makes.

My wife bought me a new scanner there as a wedding gift, I don’t remember which one, however. I did visit there once more a couple years later when we visited my sister in Torrance, but I heard they closed not too long after that (another recurring theme). There were several scanner stores in the L.A. area, I remember another up near LAX someplace and I am sure there were others.

EEB (Vienna, VA)

The Electronic Equipment Bank, better known as EEB, was a well-known radio store in suburban Washington DC. They had all the high-end stuff from Icom, AOR, Yaesu and others. The wife and I stopped there a couple times when we were in the area, and I went there when I was in Quantico and had a day off from class. I bought an AR900 there the first time and an AR8000 the next. I also had sent 2 of my Icom R7000’s there for their upgrades. These upgrades modified the power supply to run cooler, changed the scan method so it resume after a short delay following a carrier drop just like contemporary scanners as well as tweaked and aligned the radio. It really made the R7000 a better radio!

Of course, all good things come to an end. Apparently EEB’s came about after some purchasing shenanigans involving some government contracts by one of the principals. It was a shame; they had some neat stuff and the prices (to the consumer anyway) were not out of line.

Command Post (Chicago IL)

The Command Post was a short-lived scanner store owned by the late Ted Moran of CARMA fame. Ted was my best friend at the time, and I helped him set it up, I even worked the store a few weekends to allow Ted and his wife Kim to get out of town for a couple days. His biggest seller was the PRO2006 scanner, and we would do the cellular mod if requested.

While it only lasted a year or so it was a great place to hang out. Ted’s wife was my wife’s best friend as well so the four of us would have a great time there even when we weren’t doing radio stuff. A lot of the local scanner community would come around and chat so there was always someone to talk to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good enough business model and they had to close down. Ted had the large metal sign in his garage for years after that and I had the display case that I used as a workbench in the basement of my house.

FCC Electronics (Hoffman Estates, IL)

FCC was the first scanner-only store I ever saw. It was in a strip mall off IL-58 next to Jewel. They had all the latest scanners, crystals and accessories. When the local police went to 800 MHz. (the first in the Chicago area to do so) they had a converter available on switchover day as the scanners of the day would not cover 800 MHz. The local police chief was furious and threatened to arrest the store owner until it was pointed out that there was no law against it. Apparently, Motorola told the chief that no one could hear them on the new freqs and when he found out they were wrong he blew a gasket.

Universal Radio (Reynoldsburg, OH)

While not a scanner store per se, Universal was more a ham radio joint. They did have a wide selection of scanners and accessories for years. They also had one of the most useful websites around, other than RadioReference of course. Their product pages were the stuff of legends, they had complete descriptions and photos of just about everything and even if you didn’t buy from them you probably checked their website for info.

I visited them twice on the way to of from my in-laws in Kentucky. The wife enjoyed going there for the cats that roamed the store and seemed to know who was and wasn’t a cat lover. I did buy from them both times we visited, and I have ordered over the phone or internet many times.

Scanner Master (Holliston, MA)

I have to mention Scanner Master of course. I used to get their catalog and drool over the toys listed and finally got a chance to visit them in their old location in Needham, MA many years ago. A couple years later I was asked to help out with some projects like testing the BC245XLT scanner (the first EDACS scanner) and edited the Illinois Communications Guide. Later Scanner Master moved to a new location in Holliston, MA and, while mail, phone and internet orders were the vast majority, they did have a walk-in store. While that is no longer the case they remain as the premier scanner retailer in the USA.

Epilogue

As far as I know there are no scanner-only over-the-counter stores any longer. Other than at HRO and the occasional truck stop there are few places where you could walk in and buy a scanner these days. The days of specialty stores for this admittedly niche hobby are long gone. While I know I missed a few of the good ones these ware the ones I most fondly remember. Please reply below with the stores you frequented.

Lafayette Electronics, I bought many scanners from them, they even had their own brand scanners

 

[MiCon]

I wasn't sure whether Lafayette had scanners. I used to go to the local Lafayette store in Plainfield, NJ. At that time (mid-1960's, before scanners) they were mostly SW, CB, and antennas.

 

[KevinC]

I wasn't sure whether Lafayette had scanners. I used to go to the local Lafayette store in Plainfield, NJ. At that time (mid-1960's, before scanners) they were mostly SW, CB, and antennas.

They did. That's were I bought my Unimetrics DuraScan 8 back in like 1492 or so.

Not sure if Woolco was nationwide or not, but they sold Bearcat scanners, got my BC250 there.

 

[sallen07]

I remember Service Merchandise well, we had one down the street. Confusing as hell to buy stuff but my sisters loved the jewelry!

Wait I remember Service Merchandise ... I think. Wasn't everything a display model and you had to grab a ticket and they would pull the item from the warehouse at the back of the store?

Or am I imaging that?

 

[N9JIG]

Wait I remember Service Merchandise ... I think. Wasn't everything a display model and you had to grab a ticket and they would pull the item from the warehouse at the back of the store?

Or am I imaging that?

Yep! It was weird for sure.

 

[KE4ZNR]

Wait I remember Service Merchandise ... I think. Wasn't everything a display model and you had to grab a ticket and they would pull the item from the warehouse at the back of the store?

Or am I imaging that?

Yep. They were a "Catalog Store". Most Service stores had exactly what you describe: You would see demo models on the floor (more expensive stuff was always locked up to prevent theft) and you would write down model numbers on tickets, pay at register then wait with receipt at pickup counter which usually had a conveyor belt where the items traveled from the back storeroom/warehouse.
Service Merchandise is one of many retail chains that I worked for that are no longer in business: Service, Toys R Us, Kmart, Radio Shack. Guess it is good that I now work in government as we will always be around!

 

[ladn]

Scanner Store in Anaheim, CA

I don’t remember the name of the place but there was a well-known scanner store in Anaheim CA outside Los Angeles back in the 1990’s.

The store, as I recall, was called "The Newsroom". It was near Anaheim Stadium. I never dealt with the store in person--only via phone and mail order. Very knowledgeable folks.

A few other nostalgic radio/scanner stores in the LA area were Eagle Electronics in Glendale, Buddy Sales in the San Fernando Valley, and a store in Burbank (not HRO) whose name evades me at the moment. This store was owned by Bill Smith, N6MQS, who also owns Artsci Publishing. Bill's store catered to the scanner and ham crowd with a bit of CB for added cash flow.

 

[trentbob]

They did. That's were I bought my Unimetrics DuraScan 8 back in like 1492 or so.

Not sure if Woolco was nationwide or not, but they sold Bearcat scanners,

I bought a Electra Bearcat there at WOOLCO.. it was an offshoot of Woolworths. Last one closed sometime in the early eighties, 83 or 4 maybe.

 

[KevinC]

How about Scanners Unlimited? Never visited but I'm pretty sure I ordered from Glenn at some point.

 

[trentbob]

At one time we had so many brick and mortar ham radio shops and radio shop selling scanners and antennas and anything else you could want, put Radio Shack to shame but they're all long long gone.

My favorite was of course Lafayette Electronics.

 

[INDY72]

Sears had Unidens, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, most Pilot, Flying J, etc... There was a CB shop in Meadville, MS, that had a few sxanners too, but I can't recall it's name.

 

[KF4JYE]

After Allied and Lafayette shut down, Tucker Electronics (somewhere in TX) became my favorite mail-order store. It had all the high-end AOR, Icom, Drake, and JRD radios. I purchased my first good SW radio, a Sangean ATS-803A, from them. They had a great selection of quality cables (Belden), and connectors (Amphenol & Switchcraft). Also, their book selection was excellent, and included all the books from Paladin Press (Tom Kneitel, etc.).

 

[trentbob]

After Allied and Lafayette shut down, Tucker Electronics (somewhere in TX) became my favorite mail-order store. It had all the high-end AOR, Icom, Drake, and JRD radios. I purchased my first good SW radio, a Sangean ATS-803A, from them. They had a great selection of quality cables (Belden), and connectors (Amphenol & Switchcraft). Also, their book selection was excellent, and included all the books from Paladin Press (Tom Kneitel, etc.).

Don't forget crb research, Tom Kneitel had a piece of that and all of the frequency guides that were orange and red so they couldn't be copied by the only thing they had then which was a mimeograph machine.

Those were the days when your local radio stores where your main source of information long before the internet was even a word.

 

[KF4JYE]

I think I still have most of the books purchased from Tucker, including most of Tom Kneitel’s, all 3 of Bill Cheek’s, plus 2 editions of the thick Monitor America books.

 

[techman210]

I believe the “Scanner Store” in Anaheim was “Communications Center”- I’ve never heard of the Newsroom. I’m not saying that information was wrong, however.

It was conveniently located across a small street just south from the Anaheim Henry Radio store. Mainly carried scanners and a lot of crystals, and a few CB offerings. I don’t know who was there first, but it was a shrewd decision to move next to another electronics/communications store that wouldn’t compete with each other.

When Henry closed that store, HRO moved in and they remain there to this day.