[GreenKeys] The End Of An Era.....

[Geo. Hutchison]

GreenKeyers - - -

World War II, The Korean Conflict, Viet Nam, and more recent military 
actions participated in by our country have repeatedly resulted in a 
bountiful supply of Communications Equipment and Electronic Gadgets many 
of which have found their way into the hands of radio amateurs and other 
collectors.

Without going into great detail, much of the surplus material was made 
available to a large number of surplus stores which sprung up to market 
said surplus to the general public.

New York City and the East Coast in general had hundreds of outlets, as 
did the rest of the country. San Francisco had a couple of stores which 
were quite creepy if you went into the second sub-basements.

The Oakland Airport (Calif.) had establishments with thirty-foot high 
piles of ARC-5 Transmitters and Receivers still in their boxes, and 
tubes, parts, etc were often sold by the pound.

The Pacific Northwest was blessed in about the late 70's with Radar 
Electric and The Old Technology Shoppe in Seattle, and in Tacoma, 
Washington, Glen Galati, WA7BOJ  (Box Of Junk) opened his store called 
Electronic Dimensions.

Glen carries most anything one could imagine. If you needed a radar 
system from a B-52, he had one in stock. Antenna masts, wire, and 
insulators were plentiful. To this day he has perhaps 150,000 tubes in 
stock, and the list goes on and on.

Changes in the way the Department of Defense made surplus less available 
in about the early 1990s. This in turn radically changed the retail 
surplus business as a whole. Equipment decidedly became more difficult 
to acquire, and that has resulted in many, many closures of some very 
good stores.

Glen once helped out the RTTY community by buying a lot of Dovetron 
Terminal units, and made them available to us at about the cost of 
acquisition and shipping. He still has some terminal units and switch 
panels on the shelves.

Today, Saturday, September 30 is Glen's last day of business.

The City of Tacoma wants his building, which is fairly old and has many 
floor support timbers which date back to when one could get two-foot by 
two-foot Douglas fir beams forty feet long. It is not certain yet where 
his massive pile of "STUFF" will end up.

He plans to warehouse some select items and sell them back to the 
government at unbelievable prices, but to the average parts and junque 
enthusiast there will be no more.

This is indeed the end of an era for the Northwest.

I plan on going to Tacoma to wish him well, (and perhaps get a couple of 
extra select goodies).

If anyone is of a mind to do so, it would please him greatly to hear 
from some of you who have dealt with him. The phone number is 253-272-1061.

Thank you, Glen, Time for you to go smell some roses.

George - W7TTY