I'll never forget the radio Shack TRF ...

The radio that launched many AM DX hobbyists.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s it was THE machine. Served me well. Even with a dial (!) I managed exotic places like St Kitts, Costa Rica, West Germany, Tunisia... and it cost under $50... teenager affordable! (My first DX experiences were actually on a clock radio - KFI 640 Los Angeles, 850 KOA Denver and 730 XEX Mexico City, but that was my 'DX discovery' phase before I knew about DXers, DX clubs and radios like the TRF. I probably didn't even know there was a store called Radio Shack.

Radio Shack had its detractors in the hobby. A lot of their stuff was either spectacular hit or spectacular miss. I just gave away the last of the portable two-bay TV antennas I had which I used to go mobile with. I remember going from one RS outlet to the next is the US while I was on holiday there snapping them and a few other things up. I had six or so. Other stuff, bits and pieces and components I've deliberately purged from my memory, was pure and utter shyte.


https://swling.com/blog/tag/radioshack-12-655/

Around the time that we moved into our last family home in Omemee, in the early '90s, my dad had somehow scored a Realistic DX-160, likely at a yard sale in town. Covered roughly 150 kHz to 30 MHz, though I used it mainly for AM/MW tuning, and it was through this radio that I heard some of the last moments of CFTR as a music station in 1993, as well as a couple of years of "AM 640 - The New Beat of Toronto", and of course locals such as Lindsay's CKLY and Peterborough's two AMs, 980 Kruz (CKRU, the erstwhile CHEX AM) and CKPT.

Regarding the electronics learning labs, my older brother & I had a few of those over the years, including one with AM transmitting capability, though very "flea powered". Wish I still had that kit, if only for nostalgia's sake.

Picked this up at a yard sale a few years ago. The Weather Cube. Radio Shack also had a companion product called The Time Cube. It tuned the various WWV frequencies. I'd love to find one of those. Of course, the weather radio is useless now that Environment Canada has shut down the weather network.

 

Last edited by turkeytop (September 14, 2026 7:02 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

There are no Radio Shacks left in Canada but when it was here, it was always a favourite place of mine to browse.(Bell eventually took it over and rebranded it "The Source." I'm not sure any of those are left, either.) 

Bell did not rebrand it as the Source.
Radio Shack Canada was originally sold to Circuit City, (as the Source by Circuit City)
When Circuit City USA went bankrupt, (or perhaps a bit before) Bell decided to buy the Source stores. 

In recent years, Bell made the business decision to sell to Best Buy and relaunch the Source stores as Best Buy Express, but with several less locations.