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Local Ham Shops

Junior314

Junior314

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Are there any local shops that carry HAM equipment?

I found one in Salem that I am going to pop into next time I am up there. Also good forums/websites to check out to get started?
 
The Salem one is the closest one that I am aware of, and its where I go to.

Realize that that you can also order from them online (I've done so), and the shipping was pretty darn fast.
 
HRO in Salem is totally worth the trip, I doubt very much there is better anywhere in New England.

In fact, recently I was down in Baltimore for work and needed an obscure (but not really too obscure) coax connector, and being used to the Salem HRO store, I took a ride up the HRO in New Castle DE. It was no where near as nice, well stocked, organized, or staffed with helpful people as the Salem HRO. The dude behind the counter took a listen to what I needed and told me to just order it online as if I didn't know I could have done that in the first place.

Just take the trip to HRO, they will have what you need.
 
EvilDragon said:
Lou's cb radio in west bridgewater.
Click to expand...

I just Googled and checked his website plus reviews on Yelp!

Everything pointed to scanners and CBs. Absolutely no mention of ham gear.

I agree with others, HRO is the place to go. I've spent a lot of time and money there in the past year. Very knowledgeable and helpful.
 
There is an electronics shop in Littleton center, I've never been there but know some who have and I understand they have all kinds of coax and connectors. Not sure the name.
 
JDL said:
HRO in Salem NH really is the only shop of any consequence around. The days of radio communication shops are gone. The internet is your best friend when looking for new or used ham radio gear.
N1HM
Click to expand...

That is very true @JDL .

@Junior314 visit HRO in Salem at least once just to say you did. After that do your research, ask for advice on www.qrz.com or www.eham.net , and then order online.

For online ordering DX Engineering has become a major rival to HRO and in my opinion has surpassed them in some aspects of selection. I remember when they came on the scene as an offshoot of Summit Racing, their e-commerce growth has been impressive.
https://www.dxengineering.com/

For everything you need to build a premium DXing or contesting station visit Array Solutions.
Jay (WX0B) builds some high quality limited production equipment along with being a retailer for a lot of specially imported gear.
Array Solutions

:emoji_tiger:
 
cockpitbob said:
My local ham community simply refers to HRO as "the candy store". You won't find another store that comes close.
Click to expand...

You won't even find another store that specializes in ham gear anywhere else in MA (or probably New England).

From what I've seen over the past year since I got my license, prices seem to be "controlled" so that they are all selling the same item for the same price. Occaasionally one will break away and you'll save a few bucks, but even that is rare. HRO ships almost everything with free shipping if >$100 order (some huge antennas they do charge shipping). HRO will also be at Boxboro Home | Boxboro - ARRL New England Convention in September . . . if you order there for shipping from the store you'll avoid the sales tax. HRO will also be at Near Fest NEAR-Fest – New England Amateur Radio Festival in October.

I get Emails from DX Engineering, www.randl.com, GigaParts, BridgeCom Systems, Main Trading Company . . . ironically HRO doesn't seem to send Emails on what's on sale (almost all sales involve mfr rebates). On the same item, prices are almost always within pennies of each other. Some charge shipping however.
 
Len-2A Training said:
You won't even find another store that specializes in ham gear anywhere else in MA (or probably New England).

From what I've seen over the past year since I got my license, prices seem to be "controlled" so that they are all selling the same item for the same price. Occaasionally one will break away and you'll save a few bucks, but even that is rare. HRO ships almost everything with free shipping if >$100 order (some huge antennas they do charge shipping). HRO will also be at Boxboro Home | Boxboro - ARRL New England Convention in September . . . if you order there for shipping from the store you'll avoid the sales tax. HRO will also be at Near Fest NEAR-Fest – New England Amateur Radio Festival in October.

I get Emails from DX Engineering, www.randl.com, GigaParts, BridgeCom Systems, Main Trading Company . . . ironically HRO doesn't seem to send Emails on what's on sale (almost all sales involve mfr rebates). On the same item, prices are almost always within pennies of each other. Some charge shipping however.
Click to expand...

I have noticed that about the prices. Unless I need something tomorrow, I typically look at HRO online, dx, and MTCradio.com. MTC sometimes has the best prices depending on the sales they are running.

Being on MTC's email subscription is worst for me then some of the gun sites.
 
OLAK said:
There is an electronics shop in Littleton center, I've never been there but know some who have and I understand they have all kinds of coax and connectors. Not sure the name.
Click to expand...

It's called Electronics Plus. I've been in a few times buying little things. Fuses, connectors, splitters, etc. They have a decent selection of components, connectors, and other stuff. When I have more time, I'm going to get one of the Arduinos they sell and a cape to play with.
 
If all you need is cables, connectors, soldering supplies, tools or components, then You-Do-It Electronics in Needham is a great place. They are like what Radio Shack used to be 30 years ago, only bigger and better. No ham radios/antennas but lots of CB, scanners, FRS and commercial band stuff. If you do any kind of electronics hobby stuff you should definitely stop in. It's the biggest place of its kind I've seen in New England.
 
I have been to Lentini in Berlin CT the store is small and they have almost nothing for a ham radio selection although they will order for you. If you are in the market for a guitar Lentint's is a better choice for guitar shopping because there are more guitars for sale there then ham radio stuff. There is no reason to drive to Berlin Ct to have someone order something you can order for yourself.
 
EvilDragon said:
Lou's cb radio in west bridgewater.
Click to expand...

Yeah but do they even sell stuff beyond the typical RCI stuff? lol.

Do you know if they work on applefriars? I have a Messenger M650FR I need to fix someday... lol.

The guy I used to use is not around anymore unfortunately. I miss CB works. Even though Ron worked mostly on CB stuff he was very knowledgeable about
amplifiers and repaired more than one ham amp for me back in the day. Back when I had an Ameritron AL80B he figured out how to get rid of that stupid "bias switching" circuit they put in there, to get rid of the leading edge distortion/clipping and make the amp clean. He figured it out in 5 minutes.

-Mike
 
drgrant said:
Yeah but do they even sell stuff beyond the typical RCI stuff? lol.

Do you know if they work on applefriars? I have a Messenger M650FR I need to fix someday... lol.

The guy I used to use is not around anymore unfortunately. I miss CB works. Even though Ron worked mostly on CB stuff he was very knowledgeable about
amplifiers and repaired more than one ham amp for me back in the day. Back when I had an Ameritron AL80B he figured out how to get rid of that stupid "bias switching" circuit they put in there, to get rid of the leading edge distortion/clipping and make the amp clean. He figured it out in 5 minutes.

-Mike
Click to expand...
Mike,

Just a SWAG, but there was an audiophile repair shop on Harvard St in Brookline a few years ago last I looked up there. Someone there may be knowledgeable enough to tackle this amp, or not?
 
I had him do some work on my 148 GTL some time back. He did good work but he's a one man show so it took a bot of time to get the radio back. I didn't see any HAM gear in there. You might want to call if you are looking for HAM stuff...It's a nice shop. Lots of new stuff but some vintage items as well.
 
Len-2A Training said:
Mike,

Just a SWAG, but there was an audiophile repair shop on Harvard St in Brookline a few years ago last I looked up there. Someone there may be knowledgeable enough to tackle this amp, or not?
Click to expand...

Probably not.... RF amps are kind of a special breed. Probably doesn't have equipment for it. Good CB / Ham amp techs are hard to come by. Now some hams are like "bweah guh buh wuh CB amp omg" (because they're illegal to use on CB or outband, but still legal for ham use if clean enough.) but the best builders I knew back 10-15 years ago often could easily do both. And the best ham HF amp techs had a kind of mutual respect with some of the CB amp techs, even if they didn't necessarily agree with the way it was going to be used.

Before anyone gets on my crap, back in the day a good friend of mine who was an Extra used to hang out in my 1989 tempo with this rig... and because my 11M antenna was tuned for the upper end of 11 and most of 10, when we hung out he would make some pretty good QSOs while we were driving around MA and NH.... he used to go in the non-power limited parts of 10M and annihilate pileups with that thing, it was great... I used to have a 706mkII rigged up with that thing with direct key, it was flawless. It was basically set up to cover 10-12M, the input and output transformers for every set of transistors was tuned for that frequency range. The biasing was stellar and clean. It didn't splatter. I had a huge 120mm PC fan rigged up to it. Amp was fed with #4 welding cable from a 120A alternator with a custom bracket, went to a bus bar in the left rear passenger footwell. I had my 706, the Messenger, and a 160W amp for 2M for my FT2500M. I rarely built anything but I built a custom interface board so I wouldn't blow out the amp keying circuit in the 706.... with a nice reed relay from radio shack. Everything was grounded and bonded well. My car was loaded with ferrite. That setup did an easy 800W, 8 x SD1446... as long as I was moving and I could keep the voltage up! I remember back when the MUF was high way back when, I had a group of hams I used to talk to in no mans land from Texas, every day. It was great because we were all on frequency, and none of us drifted because we weren't running junk. It was like they were down the street from me. I talked to them while commuting, lol. The only thing we had to deal with was pesky mexicans, but usually we didn't have too many problems with them because we all brought the heat..... [laugh]


-Mike
 
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