General > General Technical Chat
Old electronics shops in Melbourne: what's there today (video)
intabits:
So 307 Elizabeth must have been part this shop on the corner of Little Lonsdale?
(Still can't picture it)
The shop to its left is 303.
Kerlin:
My recollection is that the corner shop was divided into two smaller shops, one behind the other.
Homecrafts was the rear one so the display window and entrance was in little Lonsdale st and was one down from the corner.
Circlotron:
--- Quote from: johnh on November 03, 2015, 03:02:21 am ---All Electronics Components were at 118 Lonsdale St next door to Wesley Uniting Church, now a pizza restaurant.
--- End quote ---
VK3DRB:
The was also Ham Radio Supplies in Elizabeth Street. I bought an FRG-7 there in 1977. I still proudly have the machine, 43 years old - the radio that is.
The guy who said George Brown might have been involved in Hi-Fi gear, might have been thinking of George Hawthorn Electronics - a well known audio shop in the 70's. George Hawthorn himself sold his business, but the business name remained. George then joined IBM as an engineer. He was a colleague of mine in the 80's. He was very smart, and one heck of a nice chap too. George passed away a few years ago.
Other audio shops: Brash's ("Right on, Mr B"), that big store I cannot recall the name of that used to advertise in the Green Guide selling Blaupunkt "Cherman Excellence" rubbish, Tivoli HiFi, Klapp Electronics, and of course Northern Electronics, just to name a few. Klapp and Tivoli are still around and they have maintained their excellent reputation.
Tandy Electronics was pretty big, but I did not like paying $2 for a beautiful presentation pack of a couple of one watt resistors (today's equivalent of $10 each). But to their credit, every Tandy product came with a schematic diagram. I lived about 2 km from a Tandy, but would drive to the city 12 km away to Ellistronics, even if it was uneconomical to do so. There was just something nice about visiting Ellistronics.
Northern Electronics quoted a neighbour of mine to fix a fault on his TV after a "free" diagnosis and quote. The quote was a huge $250 (back in 1979, which is equivalent to around $2500 today) to replace the mains transformer on a valve TV. The neighbour saw me for a second opinion, because be could not afford the repair cost. But the fault was just the mains power on/off switch - an obvious fault to anyone who knew anything about electronics. The switch was spungy and it was inoperable (open circuit all the time). One minute to suspect it, five minutes to debug it. Nothing wrong with the transformer. I fixed it for free and my neighbour was absolutely delighted, giving me a bottle of good quality Ouzo in appreciation (he was Greek).
Unfortunately ripping off customers was rife in the TV repair business. Remember Miller Radio in Melbourne caught red-handed on A Current Affair committing fraud? They immediately went out of business after the show was aired. I knew a bloke in 1977 who charged a customer $350 (around $3500 in today's money) for a re-gunned 26 inch picture tube; but the fault was just a simple 5W resistor that had gone open. He replaced the resistor and cleaned the front and back of the old picture tube and wrote some dummy letters and numbers on the back of the tube with a white marker to make it look like the tube had just been replaced, just in case.
Kerlin:
I would definable say that most TV repair shops were reputable and all customers were stingy, they thought everything should cost $2, and listened too much to the rubbish that was propagated by the media. Don't the public have a big reputation for always doing that anyway?
I never worked full time in TV repair as I could get better paid jobs, it was just an interest.
I did however complete four years of TV and video repair courses at RMIT and met many technicians who attended the courses.
I also worked part time, after work, in in the workshops of three TV repair shops as well as at home.
I have a BOCP and TVOPs, worked as a Senior Technician at Channel 7 and and have trained in installed and repaired digital TV stations.
When I hire technicians anyone who applies that is qualified in and has done TV repair gets the job.
The very best of repair technicians for sure.
Fixing all kinds of items with often no circuit, RF, SMPS, digital anything you name they can fix it and have it ready in a fraction of a day.
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