Old electronics shops in Melbourne: what's there today (video)

[GK]

Are there any current or ex residents of Adelaide here who recall the disposal electronics store that was popularly known as "Robbie's Radio"? I doubt that any of the places discussed in this thread thus far would even compare to what this place was. Anyone who had once visited Robbie's would know what I am talking about, and trying to adequately describe the place in a forum post would be a waste of time.

The only reference I can find on the net to this now defunct landmark is this:

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=92592

The link promising "pictures" is dead.

[digsys]

Are there any current or ex residents of Adelaide here who recall the disposal electronics store that was popularly known as "Robbie's Radio"? 

Holly snapping duck shit !! I remember them, they were near Port Adelaide IIRC - we used to bicycle from Enfield every weekend to paw over all the new goodies.
That was in the late 60s. He had an incredible selection of stuff !  I built a lot of stuff from parts I bought there .. ahhhh memories

I found this - www.ibys.org/shed/the-end-of-robbys-or-deep-handiness-takes-another-blow/

[GK]

I remember them, they were near Port Adelaide IIRC - we used to bicycle from Enfield every weekend to paw over all the new goodies.
That was in the late 60s.

Yes, Long St., that ran parallel with Port Rd. I only ever visited on one occasion - in my early 20's around about the year 2000. This was when the store was only open for a few hours a day or two per week, due to the old guys age. The warehouse-like building by then was looking rather derelict, both inside and out. I purchased a couple of Bunsen burners, a box full of vintage air-dielectric variable capacitors, a CRO CRT tube and a damaged PYE "Overlander" VHF transceiver for parts. I hadn't yet moved out of home at the time and there was a limit to the amount of stuff I could keep adding to my collection. I've just done a google street-view walk down long street. I can't remember the actual lot number but can't see anything anywhere resembling the original iconic store front as I remember it (those big glass windows that had all that paraphernalia, all Steptoe and Son-like, on display behind them). The place was likely leveled shortly after being sold.

[Circlotron]

How about Waltham Trading Company at the lower end of Elizabeth St. Heaps of cool disposals stuff.
And General Accessories in Sturt St South Melbourne.
I think it was Ham Radio Supplies that had a second store in Richmond.

[vk3yedotcom]

How about Waltham Trading Company at the lower end of Elizabeth St. Heaps of cool disposals stuff.
And General Accessories in Sturt St South Melbourne.
I think it was Ham Radio Supplies that had a second store in Richmond.

Walthams will feature in a future Part 3 (1930s - 1960s).  Yes Ham Radio Supplies were in Richmond also (Highett St?).

Click on any one of these magazines from the 50s & 60s to see their old ads.  http://armag.vk6uu.id.au/index.html

[SteveLy]

@ vk3yedotcom / OP

I did not pick up on the fact that you've produced these videos. Very well done! Must have been a lot of work. The narration sounds very familiar - from ABC or SBS docos/current-affair programs perhaps..(??)

[vk3yedotcom]

@ vk3yedotcom / OP

I did not pick up on the fact that you've produced these videos. Very well done! Must have been a lot of work. The narration sounds very familiar - from ABC or SBS docos/current-affair programs perhaps..(??)

Thanks!  Never narrated on broadcast media though. 

The second last page of http://armag.vk6uu.id.au/1986-april-AR.html contains photos of Truscotts in Croydon.  It appears they were also a Dick Smith reseller.

[VK3DRB]

Here's my list where I used to hang out in the 70's and 80's...

McGraths
All Electronic Components
Japanese Transistor Supplies
Stewart Electronics
United Trade Sales
Tasman Electronics (in Coburg - they were a hidden gem just off Sydney Road, run by a young Italian family)
Ellistronics (the best!)
Radio Parts Group (had everything back then)
Ham Radio Supplies
Altronics
Dick Smith (if I had to)
Rod Iriving (if I really had to)
Tandy Electronics (last resort)

A great list!  Curious about Altronics.  My understanding was that the '80s Altronics only had the Perth store (in Northbridge) but there were resellers interstate and in country areas.

Did the Melbourne CBD place brand itself Altronics and have most/all of their range?  (as opposed to the Tandy reseller model where a country appliance store would have a few hooks and shelves with Archer bits and Realistic amps)

From their catalogues and EA ads Rod Irving seemed to have a similar range to Altronics or Jaycar (with more PC stuff as the '90s wore on) but an eye opener has been the low opinion in which they were held (eg your post here and others' elsewhere).

Good videos Peter and good research. First of its kind probably anywhere in the world.

Actually I might be wrong. I think it was All Electronic Components in the upper reaches of Lonsdale Street in the early 80's, not Altronics. Altronics today is in Springvale.

By the way, before TECs on the same site was the famous Ellistronics. Besides Tattlers Disco in Swanston Street, that was THE place to hang out in the 70's. ST 2N3055's for 69 cents. 55 timers for 20 cents. Where no females could be seen among us jumper-wearing dags. But my then girlfriend (who is now my wife) bought my 21st birthday present there - the kit for ETI's STAC timer. I still have the wife and I still have the STAC timer. There was fantastic service by the electronics guru's in the store who knew about electronics. There was a dark haired bloke, and a fair headed chap who looked like Ralph in Happy Days. The owner was Jock Ellis whom I heard sold up and went to QLD. Sadly, he passed away some years ago.

United Trade Sales operated in the 1970's too, not just the 60's. Lionel VK3NM used to work there. They were right opposite McGraths. McGraths is pronounced "Mc Grars", not "Mc Graaths".

It is a shame the electronics retail industry has been diminished by a dumbed down society led by dumbed down politicians. It does not have to be that way, but it is. One of my kids lives in Tokyo and he tells me the two great electronics "cities", Akihabara and Nihon Bashi (in Osaka), have devolved into similar to what Dick Smith has. Dick Smith Electronics, once a respected name among electronics enthusiasts, now a laughing stock. The only place where electronics is probably booming is in red China.

We need to pull up our socks and reinvent the electronics industries in Australia. For that we need:

1. Politicians with vision and a strong sense of the value of electronics IP.
2. Big tax breaks for companies developing and manufacturing electronics here (whilst preventing the Chevrons and Apples of this world scamming the tax system).
3. A transformed education system that teaches compulsory maths, physics, electronics and embedded programming from an early age.
4. No fee degrees for permanent Australian residents in electronics, mechatronics and computer systems engineering courses.
5. No GST for electronic test and manufacturing equipment.
6. At least one electronics engineer to be awarded Australia Day honours each year.

Only by transforming our society will we ever become an electronics powerhouse once again.

[Circlotron]

Here we go. Ellistronics had a place in the mid 80's at 797 Springvale Rd Mulgrave.

http://fairfaxmedia.newspapers.com/search/#query=ellistronics

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.9230346,145.157781,3a,47.9y,284.51h,91.31t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sV9Oi2yClahExdHbmNkjsRg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DV9Oi2yClahExdHbmNkjsRg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D50.17651%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

Edit -> The Google Maps link won't format properly. You may have to copy and past it.

[VK3DRB]

Here we go. Ellistronics had a place in the mid 80's at 797 Springvale Rd Mulgrave.

For a very short time. Jock Ellis sold out to TECS who is not in Blackburn Road Notting Hill.

In the 70's/80's you could buy almost everything in Australia. RS and Farnell were flush with components. Today, RS and Element 14 have stuff-all stock of even basic stuff. Good luck buying connectors, transistors or IC's without having to import them with a big lead time and in the case of Digikey, a whopping shipping fee. Jaycar and Altronics still have some parts but they are limited to just basic hobbyist stuff. Rockby has a much bigger variety and has SMD parts.

Rockby is only real electronics store left that I know about... www.rockby.com.au. We should all support Rockby to help them stay in business. Their low prices and service levels are excellent and they ship at a reasonable price to anywhere in Australia.

[SteveLy]

I only found out about Rockby a few days ago thanks to the State of Electronics videos. I thought I knew about all the players in Melbourne having been into electronics since the late 1980s (and I used to shop at TECS too but not at 797 Springvale Rd). Rockby's sounds like a treasure trove. I must check them out.

[vk3yedotcom]

And now Part 3. The oldest, newest and maybe the best.  1930s - 1960s.

[German_EE]

I miss the old style electronics shops, one or two rooms full of real junk that had to be useful to someone, it just had to be the right person to walk through the door. As a boy I remember Mazel Radio, New Cross Radio and Berwick Electronics in Manchester and M&B Radio in Leeds who were a Mecca for test equipment. Then of course there was Edgeware Road and Tottenham Court Road in London, each of which would take a day in the good old days. All gone. 

[VK3DRB]

Thanks Peter for part 3. A lot of work. Maybe some of the people abroad in the UK and the US should do some similar videos.

It is rather disappointing these many great electronics stores have been replaced by kitsch shops selling rubbish and illegal drug paraphernalia, Asian food, and vanity products. I guess the types of shops reflects the mentality of the population.

I bought my FRG-7 at Ham Radio Supplies in Elizabeth St in 1976. Still have it in mint condition. VoA, BBC, Radio Australia, RCI, Radio Netherlands and the many other great stations are gone or almost gone now. VoA was a great station in its day. I liked "Jazz Hour" which would beam into Oz with an armchair copy unless the annoying Russians were trying to sabotage it. But even stations like Radio Moscow and Radio Peking blurting out their relentless comedies of communist propaganda is somewhat missed. Many of the signals out there now is of a religious nature, spreading the word.

I was a member of the renown Australian Radio DX Club in the late 1970's. This club based in Melbourne had about 500 members with and many from overseas. Bob Padula (arguably the most famous DX'er in the world after New Zealand's very famous Arthur Cushen) was president of the club much of the time then. I remember visiting Bob's place and his receiver not nothing more than a valve Marconi. The noise figure from that radio was negligible compared with solid state radios. A beautifully engineered analogue Marconi. He ran the receiving station in suburban backyard on Melbourne but he had an impressive array of antennas. No one could DX like Bob. The second most prolific DXer in the club was Peter Bunn. I still have all my QSL cards, including an award for the rarest station, Radio Gabon in Franceville, picked up on a dipole in my backyard in 1977.

Sadly, like the electronics stores featured in the video, the ARDXC is virtually defunct. http://www.ardxc.info/. I am not sure whether its demise was due to the misguided coup from a Sydney based mob, or just a downgrading of SWL and DXing as a hobby in general. Probably both. In any case, such an empty website is a sad epitaph to a 50 year old club.

The good news is Bob still has the passion... http://swaus.blogspot.com.au/

[VK3DRB]

It is rather disappointing these many great electronics stores have been replaced by kitsch shops selling rubbish and illegal drug paraphernalia, Asian food, and vanity products. I guess the types of shops reflects the mentality of the population.

Do I detect a note of disapproval? Just what sort of shops would you like them replaced by? In reality the electronics shops were replaced by online electronics shops. The other shops just rented the vacant premises.

As for the mentality of the population. That hasn't changed. Disposable income is what has changed.

Electronics shops replaced by on-line shops? Well if I needed a part, I would just go to my nearest shop and buy them. Places like the old Radio Parts - you could get anything there. Not so today. Most on-line "retailers" like Element 14 and RS stock stuff-all in Australia. Pros and cons on both sides of the coin. At least we have fantastic data available on-line now. Little need for those bulky data books that cost a mint.

Sorry Wilfred, but the mentality of the population has changed - very considerably. Show a kid a radio transmitter or SDR and its ho-hum. The wow factor is gone. When I was younger, wow factor was much bigger among the young in general. The magic is gone. In high school, a terrific teacher named Mr Blanc bought his Barlow Wadley XCR-30 to school. That magic radio with a big wow factor changed my life. In those days, people built kits and the magic of electronics came alive. These days, many young people don't even know what an AM radio is, let alone how one works. A couple of years ago, the local Jaycar had radio receiving kits on their shelves. They sold only one in over two years. The mentality of DIY electronics is largely gone. Most of the population today are users, and are simply not interested what is under the hood. Today, how many people want to know how digital TV works? Very few. In fact, no one has ever asked me. 30 years ago, I was asked occasionally by different people how a colour TV worked. It was like magic to them.

Some bimbo with a barge-arse but no talent beyond self promotion can make a fortune. I don't think that would have happened in the 70's. Sadly, far more young girls these days want to be a singer or actress when they grow up than want to be an engineer, scientist, technician or computer programmer. In my primary and high school I knew of no one who desired to be an actress or entertainer. All our aspirations were down-to-earth.

There are many, many other examples now mentality has changed. Some for the worse, some for the better.

[IconicPCB]

Zardos like barge arse.. Zardos like Rolling stones.. Rolling stones like fat bottom girls...

[Muttley Snickers]

Sorry but I've been looking for an excuse to link this video and opportunity knocks but once....

[SteveLy]

Sorry but I've been looking for an excuse to link this video and opportunity knocks but once....

Seize the moment!

[IconicPCB]

Carpe diem...

Seize the moment...

but do it with class... just like the sarge

[VK3DRB]

Wrong Barge Arse... I did mean some bimbo named Kim. In any case this is my favourite episode... especially the train crossing scene. 

[VK3DRB]

Don't lose heart. We're as good, bad, smart and stupid as we always were. Take away the technology and peel back the veneer of civilised society and we revert to type in a heartbeat. Look what happened in New Orleans after the hurricane. It can happen anywhere. And it will.

The way to test is is to see how people behave when they don't have enough food for their own kids. That was one of the root causes for the The French Revolution.

The real test is if the Internet died instantly. There would be pandemonium as our society has no backup plan to the Internet. Watch how people start acting when they cannot get money, petrol or food. Maybe a whopping solar flare might be the trigger.

A really good example of the such human behaviour is perfectly illustrated in the Twilight Zone episode called The Shelter. It is on the USA Netflix and also here...

http://putlocker.is/watch-the-twilight-zone-tvshow-season-3-episode-3-online-free-putlocker.html

[vk3yedotcom]

Another 'end of an era'.

Truscotts, one of the long-term survivors in retail electronics in Melbourne, is closing.

Holding a clearance sale

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/melbourne/search/?callsite=commerce_mktplace_www_hoisted_pdp&hoisted_item=2085409061761933&query=truscotts%20electronics

[digsys]

Another 'end of an era'.
Truscotts, one of the long-term survivors in retail electronics in Melbourne, is closing. 

I'm not going to go ! I'm not going to go ! I'm NOT going to go ! ok, fiiine, just going to look only !

[wilfred]

I went down there about 5 years ago for the first and last time. I took pictures of the parts drawers in case there was something that I might need someday. They had at that time mostly standard parts suited to magazine projects of the 1980's. eg no microcontrollers.

As I recall it was a bit or a disorganised junkpile. I was amazed someone could run a business like that. I thought that it was something a hoarder might have.

I wouldn't travel far if you do intend to go. But I didn't dig too deep to see what was there. I was afraid of injuring myself.

If anyone goes please post about what you found. What are they selling the semiconductors for? I might need a modem chip. 

Let's hope Rockby stays around a while longer.  I still occasionally go there for a thing or two. Or just to trawl through old stuff in the clearance room.

[digsys]

IF I am after older parts for repairs, and I work from home / office in Mt Waverley, I do go to Rockby, as it is just down the road. IF I happen to be in Baywswater, then I'd often go to Truscotts .. a similar setup of "older" parts.
Admittedly, Rockby has a larger range of useful / consistent stuff, but Truscotts has a very much wider range of weird stuff !!
Hopeless if you were after several types of ICs for example, as it was pure hit+miss as to which ones they had. Definitely some weird stuff there though :-)