[kwlug-disc] Orion Electronics

Sun Jul 15 16:17:37 EDT 2018

A heartbeat ago, 1979 and 1980, I spent my summers working for Orion.

My job initially was to determine what was salvageable in a
nasty/crusty/moldy basement filled to the ceiling with boxes of sockets,
semiconductors, passive components, transformers(small signal and power),
ICs all acquired by Joe K.(the owner of Orion) from various assembly shops.
The parts were surplussed out due to being stale-dated or out-of-spec or
simply obsoleted.

Next up, sort, test, bag and tag and display. Joe set the prices,
ostensibly list prices from various catalogs. Ironically, I would end my
summer shift at 5PM at orion, walk across the street to 327 Breithaupt
Street where a fledgling company called KW Surplus resided. I would go do
an evening shift there from 5 to 9.

I would describe to Joe what some of the US catalogs were pricing their
bits at(my fav was Jameco) and what KW Surplus had similar prices at.
I hate the idea of anyone charging list prices and made my view known, but
alas, it fell on deaf ears.

I was seduced by the job(where, weirdly enough, I set my own salary) and
learned a lot about the semi industry, the local eng/mfg shops, especially
NCR and Electrohome.  I ate a constant diet of analogue parts, wound my own
toroids, bend sheet metal to make audio amps, knurl alum stock to make
knobs at Waterloo Collegiate High School, draw up my own PCB layouts, run
to Waterloo Electronics to get some Ferric Chloride to etch my boards, and
stuff with parts. Orion played a huge role in me being to do all this,
albeit at a price even with a 25% employee discount.

in '79/80, it was innovative for anyone, much less a visible minority to be
hired simply because I went in and ask for a job.
Anti-brown sentiment was very rampant between 74-82, at least for me and I
valued Joe taking a shot at me doing whatever I want and letting me set my
salary.

Before I showed up, he was just starting a "Computer Showroom" to showcase
the Sinclair Z80-based computers, I added the Apple ][ Plus clones, the BMC
IF-80(I think) CP/M all-in-one and some sort of a US-sourced SBC running
CP/M but with bit-mapped graphics(!).

I could write a few chapters on KW Surplus and Orion from that time when
the PC market was just starting out, totally cowboy country where we made
our own rules negotiated the broad surface of DIY audio tech,
electronic/electrical components and that upcoming thing called personal
computers. These 2 companies provided a remarkable service to folks into
electronics, DIY, personal computers. I truly value them greatly for that
service.

Today, I go to Orion 3-4 times a year to grab a connector that I absolutely
must have right away, nothing more. Freaky still seeing Joe and his ex-wife
doing exactly what they were doing 38-39 years ago! I get stuff from China
if I can wait, I get stuff from Digi when I need parts right away. I get
cabling from Newark, but they are a real irritant for me to work with as I
have zero patience for vague ETAs. Most times, they are my only choice
though due to stock being available.

About K Surplus, something I just remembered -- nothing like getting an
open-frame long-persistence phosphor 12" green tube from KW Surplus and
trying to marry it to a 80-Column card in an Apple ][ Plus spitting out
80x25 but at the wrong refresh rate, haha. Huge fun and learning to be had
doing machine language  for Motorola 68xx chips back then.

So yeah, today, Orion ain't all that no more;
                                                                       back
in the day, they were already spendy,

today, the price delta is even more exacerbated thanks to online shopping.
Orion is for emergency needs to for a place to grab a product sku and go
buy it online(I'm totally guilty of this).

I feel Orion's pain, they were able to be the big cheese for a while back
in the 70s and 80s, Their computer biz was essentially cut off at the knees
thanks to a guy from Hong Kong and yours truly(Waitronics, PC Factory and
Group 4 Technologies). I am sure Joe(Orion) simply recognizes that he will
never have client expansion or sales expansion, so the only thing left is
to pretend one is a "boutique" and price one's commodity accordingly.

OK, I am getting the "look", I need to go tend to my beef ribs(failed Hindu
here), sorry about the stream of...

A poll(if you dare): how many people on this list engaged in
dumpster-diving at NCR on Weber and Electrohome(Wellington) on those
"special" days, back those decades ago? Other than me of course!

Thanks,

Ron Singh

On Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 11:57 AM, Chamunks <chamunks at gmail.com> wrote:

> I switched over to Sayall years ago after both hearing and experiencing
> the price issues they have, being way out of control.
>
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 6:06 PM CrankyOldBugger <crankyoldbugger at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> has anyone been in Orion on Lancaster lately?  I was in last week and it
>> looks..  different..  but on the plus side, they now have an improved
>> website: https://www.orionone.ca/
>>
>> Maybe I caught the store when they were in a transitional stage, but they
>> had maybe 20% of the inventory I saw there the last time I was in.  It
>> almost looked like an Apple store.
>>
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