Electronics Exchange

Provided by Chuck Hines, K6QKL

9216 St. Charles Rock Road

St. Louis, MO 63114

Phone: 314-426-4263

FAX: 314 426-4848

Web Site: http://www.electronics-exchange.com

Here is information about another electronic surplus place in St. Louis -- one different from Gateway. Name of the place is Electronics Exchange. South of the airport. Located on St. Charles Rock Road 1.2 statute miles west of I-170 at the intersection of the Rock Road and Woodson Road. Their building is immediately adjacent to a Dairy Queen on the south side of the Rock Road.

They buy-sell-and trade anything in electronics. And advertise low prices. If you think your junk box is a bit untidy and is organized, wait until you see this place. Lot of stuff. Most of it displayed in general, broad categories. Items within categories are arranged randomly. E.g., A couple hundred pull-out plastic drawers containing IC's, diodes, transistors, etc. All those drawers are un-clustered by type so one has to read the label on every drawer in the store if only looking for diodes or just for IC's. Takes a while to snurf through all that. Resistors are not linearly arranged by increasing value. Look at the listing on each box of resistors to find a particular value.

What they do have in quantity is a lot of spools of various sizes of wire. You measure your wire using their machine, tape it, and present it at the counter for purchase. I bought one hundred feet of very nice 16 gauge plastic coated multi-strand antenna wire for $2. Superb quality miniature toggle switches (DPDT) in original factory envelopes were $0.75. Three-prong AC cord adapters for two-prong wall plugs were twenty-five cents. They have a substantial supply of those large MF, blue cylindrical electrolytic capacitors -- the kind we use for zapping nicads -- pots, and other capacitors. But had zero one meg pots anywhere today. This is not a place to visit when you are looking for a specific part. Better to plan on just wandering through it all while gathering things you happen upon and think you may use someday. Think of it as a tour through someone else's extended junk box augmented with shelves and aisles.

Chuck, K6QKL.

June 2003