General > General Technical Chat
When to part out perfectly functional boat anchors?
octillion:
--- Quote from: bob91343 on May 10, 2022, 03:30:11 am ---I certainly have my share of boat anchors I will never use. Anyone interested in such stuff, PM me.
--- End quote ---
One man's boat anchor is another man's... bounty of test capabilities.
--- Quote from: Stray Electron on May 10, 2022, 12:40:18 pm --- The problem with "parting out" the boat anchors is that, often, there's no demand for the parts either. :-( Theboat anchors often contain few neat looking parts such as the fancy knobs, meters and light pilots but how much demand is there for any of those these days?
--- End quote ---
In my case I actually have a use for the large variable capacitors (I have no intent to sell parts), in addition to my desire to clear out large stuff I'm not using. Similar capacitors don't go for cheap. Killing two birds (or one boat anchor).
bob91343:
I am in Los Angeles. Sorry, I should have said that.
Cubdriver:
I was just out that way. Managed to hit the TRW swap meet for the first time since early 2020, in the before times. Grabbed a baby Tek scope and an HP comb generator; both currently enroute home.
-Pat
bob91343:
Frankly, I am still collecting. I have several things to unload but would rather trade than sell. I am a sucker for HP, GR, and several other old standby company products.
coppercone2:
I would say never, market demands change and who knows when the next youtube video that makes random stuff will be popular. If its something thats built well I would just keep it in storage and do checks for sale once in a while.
Every time a HAM shack goes up, and someone wants to fill it up with stuff that works and has no real concern for space, this stuff gets sold. Some guy doing low frequency transmission does not care too much about 'outdated', the concern is gonna be reliability and ease of use, not specifications. And coolness factor.
Are tubes and low bandwidths gonna bother some guy setting up a antenna in the boonies in the barn with old barbed wire? no way. Mouse resistance maybe. I consider that audio gen good shit, so long you have some space for it. That stuff is popular anyway, look at Mr Carlsons laboratory. He even restores consumer cheapo radios, let alone high value HP test equipment.,.and that community is huge.
And restoring this instruments is fun and it gets electronics to people that have good mechanical skills with little finesse required for modern parts. There is a consumer market for people that think " i can keep that thing running with WD40 and not worry about the latest analog devices nanochip changing software configuration tree and shitty cooling fans'. And there is also the robustness factor, no worry about ESD, survive ugly loads, survive miswiring, quick replacement of tubes without soldering iron and cleaning and so forth. If you have a tube shelf and a automatic screw driver you can get a broke old test equipment running in like 1 minute in the freezing cold and dark with no other tools or tests or inspections. And its robust in rural areas with poor electrical systems that do crazy shit, can survive misbehaving generators, good with lightning, etc. Try replacing some screws with thumbscrews and you don't need a screw driver even.
Infinitely better then "submit quote RFQ" for 80's parts. :-\
I love getting cracked-in-half esoteric processors from island nations embedded in styrofoam packing peanuts for 'moderner' equipment after 4 week delay and at least 4 emails and 2 phone conversations. Starts to feel like you need a legal department for the god damn hobby. DIP40's from Samoa are NOT the answer.
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