Interesting (non musical) YouTube videos.

[simon]

The scene early on in the video above of the chap buying a new tweeter and crossover filter reminded me of the Not The Nine O'Clock News woofers and tweeters sketch of course

[jack]

I think I can just about make a argument for this being about social history rather than music. Nearly 70 years ago and in some respects little has changed.
.

Brilliant. All men. Some fidding with vane variable capacitors, so radio rather than audio - one was fiddling with what looked like a bit of a Bush DAC10 preset block.

The electronics shop at the start was almost certainly HL Smiths of Edgware Rd, just north of Praed Street. Bought my first valves there in around 1968 aged 10. Looks like they tidied it up a bit for the cameras - no-one wearing a suit whenever I went in... Bought my first transistor there too - an OC71 ISTR... though it may have been an ACxxx something or other...

[Andrew Ivimey]

There was an HL Smiths at the lower end of Tottenham Court Road too, or was it just off Charing Cross Road, next to an amazing 'junk' treasure shop from which I bought 10 nab spools of very experimental weird music tapes, phroaaaaaaar.

I remember those hand written notes in the window so well and vast amounts of waxy capacitors... oh my

[Nick]

As a kid into short wave listening, one of the highlights of the year was the HL Smiths catalog. All those drawings of Bulgin plugs and sockets.

[Andrew Ivimey]

All good stuff. A propos of this I was wondering just what is on short wave radio these days. As a teenager it was full of exotic wonderful messages, station's, whishes and phroaisches, ssb, morse code phasing in and out and always, radio Moscow. In Israel, years later it was the voice of peace; rock music bringing peace to the world, yeah right.
Radio Caroline and Luxembourg 208 -
What's left???