Quote:
The majority of the electronics hobby shops have either vanished or become consumer electronics outlets.

Amen to that. I needed a simple switch (spst) and ran to radio shack to pick one up. Nary a one to be bought. LED's, they had 1 packet of 20 random ones, nothing specific. And my favorite, not a resistor in the store. Not one. How the hell can you build ANYTHING without a resistor. They DID, on the other hand, have an entire drawer full of different types of F-connectors. Grrrrr.... I need to find a place that sells small replacement bits like this around here. I usually just go to the TV repair store and buy one from their stock.