In January of 1924, Elmer opened the "Nadeau Radio Electric Shop." According to Detail Print #58 (MRL No.4 Telefunkin Crystal Set) the address was 1909 Nadeau Avenue. His brother Cyril worked with him, as Elmer referred to it as "our" store. This was just up the block and around the corner from their house at 8011 Crockett Boulevard! In Radio Builder & Hobbyist #38, Elmer related that he built many crystal sets while at this location, and sold them with a cabinet for $15.00 (equivalent to about $270.00 in 2024.)

We also have an address for a shop with the same name on the same street from the Los Angeles Times as 1928 East Nadeau Street. 1909 and 1928 Nadeau were across the street from each other, about 100 feet apart.

Los Angeles Times advertisement, dated June 18, 1922.

It seems the Nadeau Radio Electric Shop had existed prior to Elmer opening his own shop across the street. According to the 1922-1923 Los Angeles directory, it was owned by Louis and Eva Kipp. Their residence was next door at 1930 East Nadeau Street. On the other side of the radio shop, at 1926 Nadeau, was a hardware store owned by William Kipp. The buildings no longer exists. Louis Kipp seems to have vacated the Nadeau Avenue store and opened a radio and electric supplies shop at 1749 E. Florence Ave, two blocks away. How is it that Elmer opened a store with the same name on the same street, but didn't just move into the existing store? Did competition from Elmer cause the Kipp's to move, or did they move first, then Elmer opened his own store?

	This correspondence to "The Practical Druggist" is dated December 27, 1923. Elmer opened the Nadeau Radio Electric Shop a month later. Modern Radio Laboratories may never have appeared in 1932 if Elmer had opened a drugstore instead of a radio store. The country was in the middle of what is known as the "radio craze" of the 1920s, which certainly would have influenced his decision.

Later in 1924 Elmer moved the radio shop to Manchester Avenue in Los Angeles, and named it the "Manchester Radio Electric Shop." This shop was one mile from his house. He worked in the store from 9AM till 9PM six days a week, and a half day on Sunday. According to Elmer, (Radio Notes No.1, page 16 and MRL Data Sheets Vol 3, Page 11) he made hundreds of Harkness Reflex sets. Back then you could trade in your old radio when purchasing a new one. Elmer would disassemble the old sets and build a Harkness Reflex using his own coils. He then added a power supply, batteries, a cabinet and a speaker, and sold them for $65. He was also a dealer of Stewart-Warner, Federal, Sparton, Ungar & Watson, Edison, Grebe, and Majestic brand radios.
 

In various issues of "Radio News" and QST magazine, it was reported that the call sign 6NW was heard all over the country from 1925 to 1928. 6NW was also heard in Venezuela, Japan, Alaska, and even on a submarine docked at a port in Honolulu, Hawaii. 6NW made the "Brass Pounders League" in the March 1926 issue of QST with 117 contacts. However, these contacts weren't made by Elmer Osterhoudt. Elmer had been issued the call letters 6NW in 1919. The call 6NW was reassigned sometime around 1922 to James F. Upchurch of Vallejo, California. The March 1922 issue of Radio contains a report from station 7LR in Albany, Oregon, of stations he received. One of them was 6NW. It was likely James Upchurch who was heard. In 1924, 6NW was assigned to Emry C. Stuedle of Vermont Street in Los Angeles, California. Emry Stuedle seems to be the person who made the contacts heard all over the world. Elmer apparently let his license lapse. At the time, he was a radio operator working aboard various ships at sea and would have been unable to renew it. Coincidently (or not) when he opened the Manchester Radio and Electric Shop in 1924 it was also the end of the era of the spark-gap transmitter. In December 1915, the year Elmer made his first crystal set, the Bureau of Navigation had issued 6NW to Morrison R. Webb, of 541 18th Street in Oakland, CA. Imagine if Elmer had heard 6NW instead of 6JG on that fateful day, then ended up with the first call letters he ever heard! Early call letters were frequently reassigned. Since the first digit represented the area of the country, there were only two letters available for the call sign in each of nine districts. California was "6." There are 676 combinations of the 26 letters in the alphabet (26 x 26). However, the letters X, Y and Z were not used as the first letter, limiting the number to 598. The number of stations quickly exceeded that amount and a third letter was added in the 1920s. 6NW became W6NW sometime between 1928 and 1929. Three letter combinations beginning with the letters K, N, W, X, Y and Z were not used, as well as "SOS" and "PRB." Also not used were calls beginning with "QR" or "QS," as well as anything determined to be vulgar or objectionable. This still left over 10,000 call signs per district.

Elmer wrote that the Amateur Radio guys wanted him to set up a station in his shop, but he refused because the shop would always be full of loiterers and no work would get done. He said that calling "CQ" far into the night would be a waste of time that could be put to other uses. "Running a radio shop took all your time if you wanted to stay in business."
 

This was a time of unprecedented prosperity and innovation in the United States. What a great time to get married! In addition to the booming radio business, the Osterhoudt's could look forward to a life of new inventions; everything from an electric washing machine, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner to sliced bread and Penicillin, and even a personal Kodak motion picture camera. The most exciting news was that Television had evolved from a system of motors and spinning disks to an electronic version invented by Philo T. Farnsworth. Soon, everyone would be able to "see by wireless" in their own homes, and The Manchester Radio Electric Shop could add the word "Television" to its name. The future must have appeared very promising.

Two weeks after they were married the stock market crashed, followed by the Great Depression. Sales of clothing, cars and radios collapsed. Industrial production fell by 47% and nearly 25% of American households did not have a single employed wage earner.

Advertisements in The Oakland Tribune for the Manchester Radio Shop ceased in December of 1929. Business became so bad Elmer decided to go back to sea. He spent a month at Pacific Radio School brushing up on his code. but when he tried to get a job at RCA on a ship, the Chief Radio Operator laughed. There were 150 guys on a list waiting for the same job.

The US Census shows that in April, 1930, Cyril and Leona still lived at 510 28th Street in Oakland with two of Leona's brothers (The address is now a parking lot.) Cyril is listed as employed as a Radio Mechanic in a radio shop, but he was not working at the time of the census. Later in 1930 Cyril and Leona moved back to Los Angeles, to 8019½ Crockett Boulevard, where Elmer and Cyril's father, stepmother, uncle John, and four brothers and sisters lived. On June 18, 1930, John Osterhoudt passed away. Cyril and Leona were officially married on August 23, 1930. On December 3, 1930, Elmer's father Wilbert passed away.

Mabel's mother passed away on April 1, 1930. She was 52.
 

	Alma Anderson Smith - Mabel's mother.

Elmer kept the radio shop open but moved it from Foothill Boulevard to 1508 23rd Avenue, much closer to where they lived. No longer named "Manchester Radio Electric Shop," the new store was named Modern Radio Laboratories. In January of 1932 he began the mail order business after he "invented" the celluloid plug-in coil and the No.1 and No.2 crystal sets. The trademarks for MRL and Modern Radio Laboratories were granted on December 15, 1932.