Radio Row (mentioned in another post) This topic has probably been done many times. If so, I apologize. When I was a young teenager, several years before I got my license, I used to go over to Radio Row on Canal Street in New York in the mid 60s. What great bargains. It was easy for me to get there because The Jersey Central RR was just blocks from my house in Elizabeth and the ferry terminal was just blocks from Radio Row. By the time I purchased my round trip ticket on the train, I only had a few dollars left. Still, it was a great learning experience roaming through the stalls. I am told that there were similar military surplus areas in Chicago and in LA. Tom WA4ILH (formerly WB2NPO)
I don't recall anything like Radio row in LA but there was a miniature version in Costa Mesa. There was a small strip mall like area with four or five surplus dealers, lots of WWII and Korean war surplus radio and electronics. I loved to visit that place but I was a poor kid and couldn't afford most of the really cool radios stuff. One store had HRO's with the big wooden coil boxes that looked like new, I don't remember how much they wanted for them, I couldn't afford one anyway.
Leeds Radio is still in business. A one-man show now in Brooklyn, NY. Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LeedsRadio
Richard is a fantastic friend to know! Whatta guy... His shop has moved to the Bronx when Greenpoint became uber expensive to live and pay rent. Rich's rent was going to triple. He is here now: Leeds Radio 175 Walnut Avenue, Bronx NY 10454 http://leedsradio.com/ The move was difficult.
I moved to NYC just before the shops on Canal street closed up. They sure were a lot of fun to peruse. Lots of mainframe computer items along with the relay racks full of mil surplus radio gear. I've bought several disk drives, tape drives, and various boards out of DEC PDP mainframes to keep the relics at NYU computing... stuff that looks like this!
