[Q] Canadian Electronics History- Armaco

Wow, Armaco...there's a blast from the past. Haven't thought about them in a really long time.

I remember a few boyhood trips to the will-call desk at Armaco to buy Japanese radio parts. You filled out a form, mailed it in, and in a couple of days went and picked up your parts. CEL (Canadian Electronics Limited) was further away, and operated similarly. (I never drove there, so I don't remember exactly.) The local ham shop (Rendell-Paret Electronics) got a bunch of their stuff from Armaco as well.

They'd sell to anybody, in practice, but you had to make up a company name. A friend of mine used "Enematronics", and nobody batted an eyelash.

Cheers

Phil "former Vancouverite" Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

They're on Manta:

224 5th Ave W Vancouver, BC V5Y 1J4, Canada - View Map

Darrel Jones President & Board Member

Location Type Single Location Year Established 1982 Annual Revenue Estimate 3884800 Employees 20 SIC Code 5065, Electronic Parts and Equipment, NEC NAICS Code 423690, Other Electronic Parts and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers Business Categories Wholesale Electronic Equipment and Supplies in Vancouver, BC Electronic parts and equipment, nec Electronic Parts And Equipment, Nec, Nsk

I invented Simple Systems Corp so I could get all the free mags and data sheets and samples and such.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

There's no sign on the building- which may not mean anything.

Also another listing shows a P.O. box address and 3 employees.

So maybe a former board member bought them out?

Cool. Thanks for that, Phil. I remember his newsletter and the stories of buying trips to Japan.

Who was that crazy aussie electronics guy? Dick Smith?

He opened a store in silicon valley, in a bad location, selling cheap junk. It didn't last. His catalogs were fun, with the occasional spoof product.

There used to be electronic parts stores and surplus places in every major downtown. No more. Actually, Digikey and Mouser are better.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   laser drivers and controllers 

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

pid=171063443

While there's no substitute for being able to grab a handfull of something out of a bin -- DigiKey and Mouser are better.

--

Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
http://www.wescottdesign.com

They are but if you need a handfull of parts really fast you can't anymore. Either you pay through the nose in shipping charges and still won't have it before the next day or you pay less and wait until next week.

A while ago I had to build a prototype really fast, like same day. Hopped on the road bike, zipped down to El Dorado Hills where the last surviving Radio Shack of our area is or soon was, came back with a backpack full of stuff, built the device, done. No shiping costs and some health benefits to boot (the way back is all uphill). In a few weeks or months I may not be able to do that anymore.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

In the Toronto area there are still a number of places you can get a wide range of (mostly older technology) parts and replacement parts at retail- Sayal, AA Electronics, Supremetronic and so on. Probably a better selection than Digikey or Mouser when it comes to consumer Japanese parts and such like. And you can get RC servos and Arduinos on a Sunday if you must. But you may pay extra for the privilege and in the case of the downtown spots deal with parking and traffic hassles. When Digikey reliably ships overnight for $8 and it costs $10 in gas and parking to shop local..

Much of the newer stuff you're not going to use without designing a PCB for it (HDMI socket? TQFP package? QFN?) so it doesn't much matter if you can get it instantly or not. I suppose with a stock of breakout boards having a supply of things like tinylogic chips would be handy- but I have that sample kit that someone (John L, I think) recommended, which is even better than having to take a 45 minute round trip.

That's what your junk box is for!

Either you pay through the nose in shipping charges and still

Another $15 for overnight is a bargain. As compared to driving, parking, all that hassle. $15 won't buy a good burger around here.

RS didn't have anything serious. Any kid can now get exotic optos, GaN transistors, VCOs, test gear, cool stuff from Digikey.

When I was a kid, I had a revolving credit line with Allied, courtesy of my mother. The local shops didn't have the really cool parts.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

I found that my road bike runs at about 10c/mile in cost. Not counting depreciation because it is more than 30 years old. So the Radio Shack pickup costs me $2-3 in transportation. Plus $4 for a pint of Blue Moon at my "gas station" on the way back. Plus $2 tip. Oh wait, there's the $8 again ...

I have a client in TX who has no problems dead-bugging just about everything if it saves time. In TX you can call in a Mouser order by

600pm and have the stuff the next morning, at reasonable shipping costs. Just sent over some part numbers and it'll all be there tomorrow.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

My wife keeps bugging me about all those "E-waste" circuit boards and why we have to keep them. Those are my emergency shop.

But it does here, at my beer stop on the way back from Radio Shack or Fedex (it's right next to the Fedex place in El Dorado Hills):

They don't have much anymore but many times they saved the day. Like when we needed clamp-on ferrites, right away, at a client, and the flight was the next day at 6:00am. No chance for overnight because it was already night.

Nice! We had only a distributor that had mostly parts for consumer designs and radio repair guys. You could only buy there is they had the impression that you were sent by a reputable repair shop. That meant showing up with a reasonably clean lab coat, so ...

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

I used to take the streetcar to Radio Parts Inc, near Lee Circle in New Orleans. The counter guys, and the owner, liked me and gave me discounts, often 100%.

And I used to buy military surplus exotica (radiosondes, PMTs, acorn tubes, radar displays, thyratrons, flashtubes, klystrons) from Fair Radio Sales in Ohio, practically by the pound.

--

John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

Streetcars and buses would have swallowed valuable funds so I did just about everything by bicycle.

You guys had the good life. That kind of stuff was very hard to obtain and financially out of league for a student in Europe. Occasionally we'd land a deal on some WW-II dynosaur at one of the Dutch dump dealers. Everything else had to be scrounged from discarded TV sets. OTOH that also steeled people in frugal design methodology. You had to make do with what was inside a 15-30 year old TV set.

Every December there was (and still is) a gigantic ham flea market inside a huge stadium hall in Dortmund (Germany). It was a sort of a pilgrimage that was almost mandatory for the serious hobbyist. Ride share was the name of the game to save money. So you'd see little Opels and Volkswagens on the autobahn with 3-5 guys in there and on the way back hopelessly overloaded with stuff.

Last I heard this flea market is slowly shriveling up which is really sad. Not enough true electronics hobbyists left.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

The Foothill Electronic Flea Market, in Los Altos, used to be awesome. We'd arrive before the sun came up, rain or shine, to get the good stuff. I met Bob Pease, Jim Williams, and Peter Alfke there. It, and they, are gone. I think ebay killed the flea markets.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

It's still taking place, but has moved to De Anza College. Second Sunday of the month, March through October.

It isn't quite what it was back at Foothill, but there's still plenty of interesting stuff to be had. In the last few years I've picked up a 100 MHz oscilloscope, UHF and microwave spectrum analyzers, a 10 MHz rubidium frequency standard, high-voltage caps, some Rogers "Duroid" PC-board stock, a whole projects box full of through-hole JFETs and other neat goodies, etc.

People still do arrive at oh-dark-thirty and wander around looking at stuff with flashlights. I suspect that many of the cash-rich "early risers" are looking for stuff they can hawk on eBay.

Bob Pease and Jim Williams... *sigh*... no, they aren't there. :-(

I built almost all of my early stuff out of parts salvaged from old TVs. I used to get rid of the CRTs by putting them in a garbage can and shooting them with my slingshot.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

On a sunny day (Thu, 05 Mar 2015 16:40:40 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

Right, in the Netherlands we had many 'dump shops', as a kid I bought one of these:

Actually got it working and could not resist to say 'Hello anybody there?' or something... I got an immediate reply from the military.. and they were close. Used it for parts after that :-)

You could get anything you want...

My friend used "Euradic" for similar purposes.