Amateur Radio/Computer Store Opens On Steen Road

Don’t try to order a sandwich at HAM & Electronics.

The name is in reference to amateur radio, not lunch. The new business at 202 S. Steen Road, south of the Green Thumb Nursery, sells radios, antennas, books and just about everything else a radio hobbyist would need to get started. It also sells customized computer systems.

Owner Patrick O’Dea first got into amateur radio in 1993. He was instantly hooked. A quick check with the Federal Communications Commission proved he wasn’t the only one - there were about 3,500 other licensed ham radio operators in the county.

O’Dea saw an opportunity. Many of those hobbyists buy via mail order, he said, and a small local shop would have an instant customer base.

“If you look at (a radio) in a catalog, it can look a lot different when you actually get it,” O’Dea said.

Selling radio gear is a big departure for O’Dea (who also goes by call sign “KB7VBY”). He is also a veterinarian.

“When I was still in high school, I was trying to decide between electronics and veterinary medicine,” O’Dea remembered. Once he caught the radio bug, a second business seemed like a way of finally fulfilling both passions.

The computer facet of the business turned out to mesh well with the radio sales. HAM & Electronics sells devices that connect a radio to a computer, allowing users to chat by keyboard without using a telephone line. They can even receive e-mail or look at satellite weather maps by tapping into radio waves.

New radios sold at the shop range in price from less than $200 to as much as $1,800. Used equipment is also available.

The shop also carries a few other electronic gadgets, such as personal alarms. If attacked, a victim can pull the pin and the device lets out a high-decibel shriek.

“It’s a noise grenade, alright,” store manager Charles Walz said. “You don’t want to set it off in a building.”

Retail center planned

An addition to the Albertson’s supermarket at Liberty Lake will house 12 new retail spaces.

Vandervert Construction is building the 15,600-square-foot addition to the north end of the grocery store building.

Workers now are erecting the building shell, said project manager Tim Stulc. The spaces should be finished sometime this summer.

Stulc said the addition is the second phase in the development of a planned retail center. A third phase, which would provide space for a single, larger retail tenant, is planned but no date for construction has been set, he said.

The project’s developer is Cantlon Properties of Boise.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo