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16th Jun 2020, 9:10 am | #41 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 3,315
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Re: RS Website
Early catalogues were only about 20-30 pages in total. I am talking 1950's here.
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16th Jun 2020, 9:26 am | #42 |
Octode
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Morden, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 1,552
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Re: RS Website
Yes, I think my Dad still has a Radiospares catalogue from about 1958 no part numbers, just descriptions "min res 4.7k" type of thing. It wasn't much different in 1970, you had to give the part description and catalogue page number.
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16th Jun 2020, 10:22 am | #43 |
Hexode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Peacehaven, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 278
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Re: RS Website
it wasn't Dormer was it? or electrovalue?
I always went to RS first but changed over to Farnell in the early 80s as the local rep was really helpful with kitting and the catalogue generally seemed better |
16th Jun 2020, 11:15 am | #44 |
Hexode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Peacehaven, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 278
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Re: RS Website
I think it was Doram with the 'o' being the omega symbol
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16th Jun 2020, 2:42 pm | #45 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 647
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Re: RS Website
Electromail? Doram (which became Cirkit) were, I think, independents.
Hugh |
16th Jun 2020, 5:42 pm | #46 |
Pentode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK.
Posts: 131
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Re: RS Website
Went to order from RS today and found a new minimum order quantity specified and no free next day delivery available - abandoned the order.
CPC have increased their minimum order value to £17.50 otherwise a "Handling charge" is now imposed. Orakle42 |
16th Jun 2020, 6:15 pm | #47 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,060
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Re: RS Website
Doram for me too, as others have said.
Electrovalue were nothing to do with RS (though they did stock some RS items, as RS wouldn't supply to private individuals). Wound up as the founder, David Longland, wanted to retire and nobody wanted to buy his business, which is much missed |
16th Jun 2020, 10:49 pm | #48 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,190
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Re: RS Website
Electromail were certainly RS. The catalogue was identical apart from the name on the front, and I think the prices were the same too. But anyone could order from them you didn't need a trade account.
Electrovalue were a totally different company. I also remember being able to order from RS (this was after Electromail had come and gone) but they would not allow you to collect from a trade counter. No idea why not. I did ask them and they came up with some H&S stuff which made little sense (quite how it is safe to send me components through the post but dangerous for me to collect them from a trade counter is beyond me!) Incidentallly, does the 'new' small order delivery charge apply if you collect from a trade counter? Or can you order 1 pack of resistors and have it sent to a trade counter for no extra fee? |
17th Jun 2020, 12:52 am | #49 | |
Octode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 1,642
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Re: RS Website
Quote:
Mike |
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17th Jun 2020, 1:35 pm | #50 | ||
Nonode
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Resolfen, Wales; and Bristol, England
Posts: 2,588
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Re: RS Website
Quote:
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Richard Index: recursive loop: see recursive loop |
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17th Jun 2020, 2:11 pm | #51 |
Octode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Dorridge, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 1,475
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Re: RS Website
I have a vague memory it might have been Electrovalue.
__________________
Chris Wood BVWS Member |
17th Jun 2020, 4:01 pm | #52 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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Re: RS Website
Quote:
I remember as a 5th-former studying O-levels also buying my first LED - a red TIL209 - from the Doram catalog then when it arrived _very_ nervously wiring it and its series-resistor across a PP3, and being delighted by the resultant red glow. (A year or so later I was regularly placing £250 orders with RS for parts to build a piece of gear I'd designed - having persuaded my father to use his business to get me a 'trade account' with RS even though I was under-18). |
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18th Jun 2020, 12:17 am | #53 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,316
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Re: RS Website
I do recall once seeing a mail order trader apologising for no personal collection, something to do with them not having public liability insurance.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered some stuff from CPC one afternoon, standard second class mail as it wasn't needed urgently, and Royal Mail delivered it just after breakfast time the next day. |
18th Jun 2020, 8:14 am | #54 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,941
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Re: RS Website
Back in the mid 70's I took a solid state theory course in the maths department at Southampton university. The was taught by the exceptionally charismatic Prof Peter Landsberg. He came in in a tatty academic gown "I wear it just to keep chalk dust off my suit" was his opening remark.
He then took out a small solar cell and an LED (probably from RS, so vaguely on topic) wired together, and you could just about see the feeble glow of the LED. "And that is basically what this course is about" And launched into Bloch functions, reciprocal lattices and other topics I have forgotten to the extent I couldn't name them. He derived everything from first principles on the blackboard, and if he spotted that the small class (I think there were 16 of us) was dozing or just copying things out by rote, he'd build an error into an equation. Then follow it through until everything was a mess. "Ah - must have made a mistake. Can anyone spot where?" A true charismatic academic titan, with interests from solid state through to cosmology and the nature of time. And who brought a solar cell and LED into the first lecture. Craig |
18th Jun 2020, 10:40 am | #55 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Oxfordshire
Posts: 719
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Re: RS Website
Back in the 60's my Dad used to bring home the Radiospares catalogue sometimes (he was head of the science dept at the local comprehensive). I used to read it from cover to cover - it probably was no more than a few dozen pages in those days. Here's a memento I have from then:
Last edited by Keith956; 18th Jun 2020 at 10:47 am. |
18th Jun 2020, 6:45 pm | #56 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,060
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Re: RS Website
Looking at the solder (super photo, Keith!) I think the rebranding from Radiospares to RS Components took place in the early 1970's. Which would put the reel at a bit later than the 60's.
Someone correct me if wrong! |
18th Jun 2020, 11:32 pm | #57 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: LEEDS.......North of the River Aire.
Posts: 872
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Re: RS Website
Original Radiospares.
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19th Jun 2020, 11:17 am | #58 |
Diode
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 4
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Re: RS Website
It's RS every time for me ... I opened a non-trade account with them when they were also known as Electrovalue (or something similar). When they closed that down, my account was conveniently transferred to RS. The free shipping on all orders is a new thing (last couple of years?)
I don't miss Maplin at all. I had one on my doorstep, however if you wanted three of anything you were stuffed because they never seemed to stock more than two of anything. |
19th Jun 2020, 12:51 pm | #59 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,941
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Re: RS Website
Maplin's slide into the history books of corporate failure was progressive and very sad. Around 20 years ago I bought Elna Cerafine electrolytics there, and also Eminence Kappa high power 15" bass guitar drive units. They progressively discontinued those and other superb products and went into things like radio control cars and drones and similar tat.
The multiple changes of hands between investors and private equity is detailed in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maplin_(retailer) My preferred suppliers are RS, Farnell and Mouser. Second tier are Rapid and CPC. Craig |
19th Jun 2020, 6:00 pm | #60 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,529
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Re: RS Website
When I was at 6th form, myself and a friend set up a kind of mini company, with a bank account, and managed to get a trade account with Farnell (otherwise you couldn't deal with them at all). If anyone else we knew wanted parts, we would order them and charge a small commission (very small and made clear). One person we knew used Maplin, when it was a mail order only (well apart from the shop in Rayleigh) and although they were cheaper on items they sold, they didn't have the range of products that Farnell had. To my mind, Maplin went the same way as Tandy. When they started to get physical shops they were useful for getting urgent bits and pieces. But the quality and range started to drop and prices went up, so people didn't buy components anymore, so they didn't stock them. Very ocaissonally they had online only prices that matched anyone else, so you could click and collect.
Where I worked until April we used to order from RS most days, sometimes several times a day. Yes they tend to be expensive (though not always) but we bought so much from them that we got a decent discount (though I was never told how much) and free next day by 10:00 delivery. They would even sometimes special order stuff for us apparently. I do remember our account was important enough to them, that we persuaded them to continue stocking a particular style of 4mm banana that we used hundreds of when they initially discontinued them. On some items, though, I couldn't stomach paying what they wanted even if we were getting discount. I needed a long HDMI lead, 10 or 15m kind of length. RS wanted something like £100. CPC £14. Not quite as bad as another company who willingly paid £90 each for 2 1.5m HDMI leads from PC-world. |