[WVARC] Henry Radio QRT

[Joseph M. Wade]

Thanks for the correction on the street.  Of course, it was on Olympic
Blvd.  I worked for almost 3 years on the corner of Pico and Beverly
Drive and it seems like the only thing that helped me keep my sanity
was that Henry Radio was only a few miles away.  I must still have
Pico on the brain.

I loved Johnson Equipment and always wanted a Ranger.  If you go to
California Adventure, they have a Johnson Ranger in the Redword Forest
walk at what is supposed to be a ranger station.

Joe



On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 22:49:20 +0000, John Orton <wa6bob at arrl.net> wrote:
> Olympic Blvd. is where the good old HENRY RADIO store was.
> 
> LA Radio off Hill St., Dad bought a Hallicrafters S-120 from there when it
> first came to the market at Christmas time, a great gift for me. Gee, not
> too far from the old Heathkit downtown Bldg.
> 
> After that I purchased most of my following ham gear from Henry, HT-37,
> (still have one), Central 200V, GSB-201, Gonset G-50, Gonset commIII,
> Dentron match box, Johnson Viking Ranger, waters phones patch, crystals,
> tubes,  and lots of coax.
> In the late 60's I bought my first Collins S-line, tower,  two Hygain 402's
> and a TH3 from Henry. Purchased most of my gear from that store until I
> moved to the Bay in 71. When I returned in 91 it had changed to the dungeon
> type of store, waiting to die off from the retail business. Now there are
> several items for sale on Ebay from henry's warehouses, and of course their
> Amps are still in production, but sold via the internet through RFDan.
> Yes HRO did its thing and grew, as well as Jun, a service engineer at
> Henry's, who later opened Jun's electronics in the southern end of Culver
> City, and progressed to a much larger store at Jefferson and Sepulveda. Now
> that too has moved to the second floor of the building and is much smaller
> and doing business via the internet.
> A lot of notable hams have emerged from Henry in their younger days, Many
> good chats across the counter as well as DX and contesting.
> 
> 73 John (Bob)  WA6BOB
> 
> Just thought I would add a comment to this article about The Henry Radio
> history.
> 
> Joseph M. Wade wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 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

> _______________________________________________
Victory through Mug