[WVARC] Henry Radio QRT

[Joseph M. Wade]

I had a tear in my eye when Henry moved from Pico Blvd to Bundy.  The
building and location at Pico was classic.  The Bundy building had no
charm or personality.  It looked like a sterile office building.  You
could tell that the sales people didn't like it either.  All of the
wind was taken out of their sails.  By the way, it allways ticked me
off that Henry dared put stereo equipment in "our store".  That would
be like In-N-Out burgers starting to sell burritos.

It took me dozens of trips to Henry's before I bought any equipment. 
My novice rig was a DX-60B that I built and initially I used a
Hallicrafters S40-B that belonged to my uncle.  It was a nice
shortwave receiver but had little selectivity.  So, when I saw an ad
for a Drake 2C at Los Angeles Radio (anyone remember them?)  I jumped
at it.  My mom drove me down to L.A. and we picked it up. I spent
every penney that I had.

My first antenna was a 40 meter dipole.  One of the Henry salespeople
drew the diagram for me, did the calculations and rounded up all of
the parts, wire and coax for me.  He also gave me tips and how to
install it and where.  With two crystals, I worked quite a few states
and some DX on 15 & 40 CW.

After getting my general I built the Heathkit SB401 xmtr (I think that
was the correct number) and had a terrible time getting it functional.
 I think the solder was bad because I am, of course, great at
soldering.  Heathkit had it for about two months and declared it
fixed.  Not!  It worked for a few contacts and then died on me. 
Disgusted, I took the SB401, the Drake 2C and the DX-60B to Henrys and
bought a Swan 350C, TH3Jr, coax, 40 foot push-up and an AR-22 rotor. 
WVAC members helped me put up the beam and I was in business.  Henry
was great about the trade-in and as usual, pretty helpful.

When I moved to Orange County, Henry's was in Anaheim.  The store was
great, but the sales people were not.  Not helpful in any way.  Just
sat on their behinds all day long.  Meanwhile, a mile away, HRO would
stand on their hands for you.  HRO had better prices, better service,
and friendlier people from day one.  All you could say about Henry's
is that it had more used equipment.  HRO just flat out put them out of
business.

My last transaction with Henry's was in 1986.  I bought my 2K Classic
Amp from them.  A two week delivery time turned into 2 1/2 months.  I
had to call them many, many times to get delivery.  I forget who
finally got the ball rolling (W6CCP, I think-was he working there?)  I
got quite an apology and they put the 10 meter coil in for me as well.

I seem to remember getting asked to leave Henry's on Pico once or
twice when I was with HGU and NWK.  Seems Cy was ticked off for some
reason.  Bruce and Steve could probably tell you more.  Probably had
to do with some wise cracks.

I sure miss the rooms full of used equipment.  Even in the late 60's
most of that stuff was crap.  But it looked so neat.  Lots of knobs,
the dials were glowing, tubes would light up and they carried all of
those great names from the past.  And mixed in was some good equipment
as well, usually even a Collins receiver or a KWM2.

Henry's would let you take home equipment for a test over the weekend.
 A friend of mine, not known to this group, got Henry's to let him
test an amp over one of the DX contest weekends.  He returned it on
monday and said that he didn't want to but it.

73,

Joe - ex YNI

On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 18:33:11 -0700, Robert A. Wilson <rawilson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Nice post Craig.  I remember being quite intimidated as a teenager
> visiting that store in West L.A.  But I bought my first "real radio"
> there, a used Drake T-4XB (thanks go N6VI's tip), and I even managed
> to trade in my old Heathkit HW-16.
> 
> Eventually HRO put them out of business, because between contesters
> like W6RJ and DXers like Ted Henry, it's just no contest. :-)
> 
> I ended up working a few summers at HRO Store #2 in Van Nuys in 1975.
> The store was managed by Jim Rafferty, N6RJ (SK), and later Al, K6YRA
> who is quoted in the article.  In those days, Jim and Bob F. were
> always doing their best to compete with Henry.  And they did a good
> job.
> 
> 73,
> Bob, N6TV
> _______________________________________________
> Victory through Mug
>