Ham Radio woes

[veedub565]

Oh it's been one of those days. Went to a radio rally Sunday, bought some stuff.

Bought a 2m/70cm mobile antenna for £20 (they are £18 on ebay) it did come with a manky old magmount though, complete with missing rubber and a dirty old connector. I only had it on a day before it flew off, bounced off the car, bounced along the road snapping the antenna. So that went in the bin.

Bought 6 nixies which I thought might be nice to maker a nixie clock with. It's only when I got home I found they aren't all quite the same. 3 of one model, 2 of a different model, and 1 of another. All very similar.. but not the same enough to make a nice 6 digit clock with. I haven't binned those, they might come in for something at some point.

I picked up a few connectors, they are always useful. Buying them online is expensive with shipping, vat, handling fees, import duty, tax... whatever else the supplier/local governmant can screw out of you for a £0.50 part.  Anyway, I'm regretting this a bit now since none of these are branded connectors like Amphenol or anything. I've been bitten by cheap connectors before, causing all sorts of problems with SWR. Was hoping I might be able to pick up some decent ones at a rally, but i'm not sure they are.

What else did I pick up..... oh yeah a 3 way antenna switch, I only paid £4 for this (£18 new when I looked them up) .... thinking about it though it would be more useful to have bought one that automatically switches over to the antenna when you key up on any of the inputs. This one is just a manual one. I'm not sure what happens to the rig if you forget to switch it over and key up into an open load ?

Oh an I needed a replacement high impedance earpiece for a Skanti TRP8255 handset. I bought one that possibly might fit.... but no, slightly too big to fit. 


So, I've got a antenna/magmount that broke, some nixies that won't do what I wanted them for, and an antenna switch that.. isn';t really that useful.  It's a lesson really, to check before you buy. And not get carried away buying stuff.

[MagicSmokeGuy]

Look on the bright side...

At the time you thought you had grabbed a few bargains and had a jolly good time at the rally.

[HB9EVI]

well, now you have the chance to sell all that crap at the next rally to another ham; that's the way life goes

very little stuff on such a rally is a keeper, this is why I don't go, because I'm a notorious hoarder and the lab is full already anyway

[bob91343]

We seldom realize that the experience of itself is worth something.  We become wiser and it pays off in the next round.

I love getting new stuff, useful or no.  I love negotiating even for something for which I have no use.

I love spending money as long as it doesn't have a negative impact on my life.

My station has three coaxial switches, all manual.  Two are used to select antennas since I have more antennas than switch positions, and one switch position simply cuts in the other switch so that two six-position switches give me 11 selections.  One position is called TEST so I can connect the rig(s) to anything else, including a sig gen or dummy load or whatever.

The third switch selects radios so that whichever antenna is selected goes to that radio.  One position is dedicated as TEST so I can switch to a signal generator or antenna analyzer.

[HB9EVI]

I love getting new stuff, useful or no.  I love negotiating even for something for which I have no use.

I love spending money as long as it doesn't have a negative impact on my life.

well, mostly we may think we need those things, but in the end it turns out to just stuck in a corner, although I just cannot recall what might me in my lab stucking in the corner unused for a long time.
I guess it's not that those things are going to ruin us, but they need space, and every 3-dimensional room has a maximal occupancy, doesn't it 

[veedub565]

Yes it's all experience. I did have a good day at the time! it was a bit of a downer though when the magmount flew off and snapped the new antenna.

My lab is full too, and the spare room, and the kitchen table is currently doubling up as a second workbench. I'm terrible for hoarding stuff and "saving" it from the skip.

[CaptDon]

I had bought a 4 bay tektronix transport module with three modules in it for $100.00 at the
Dayton hamfest. To good to be true, one module was an FG504, very expensive by itself. Turns
out the TM had a shorted pass transistor and obviously the guy tried every module in the bad
slot because every module had its negative power rail damaged. Of course he assured me that
everything worked 100%!!! Well, a saturday of my time and a few parts later I have probably
$500.00 worth of functioning Tek stuff including the FG504, DC503A and DM502A as well as the
Transport Module (TM504?). I got the last laugh. Anything I buy at a hamfest (rally) for over about
$20.00 you better plug it in and prove to me it works!!! I do the same when I sell stuff. If I can
prove it works and let the buyer try it out I can get 1.5 to 2 times the price of "the guy down the
row has one cheaper" fellow who knows his crap doesn't work right.

[veedub565]

I had bought a 4 bay tektronix transport module with three modules in

I've got one of those, a TM5006 and two FG504 function generators (one is dead but the other appears to work ok)

[bd139]

If it’s any consolation I drove 50 odd miles to a rally a couple of weeks and bought bugger all.

Sometimes you make some real wins. I have managed to bag a lot of decent stuff before that is working perfectly well.

But really when you buy stuff always think: is it worth it for the parts if it doesn’t work. If not walk on.

Sometimes I buy stuff just for the parts!

[m3vuv]

Think my dest deal was at newark uk radio rally about 5yrs ago,brought a hp rectum paralyser for £30,used it to align the bandpass filters on an old ts-430 and sold it a couple of years later for £180 on flea bay,nearly gave myself a double hernia tho carrying it to the van from the stall,it weighed a ton.

[bd139]

I was offered one of them the other day for 50 quid and didn’t fancy the battle ironically 

Best one was the £2 Tektronix 475 which someone couldn’t work out how to fix. Took me 20 minutes.

[MarkKn]

Its not unusual for people to think their old junk is worth lots more than it is, and I have seen that at hamfests and especially used computers. I think its best to look for a deal that seems to good to be true, as its probably actually a fair deal.

[xrunner]

Beware the following response from hamfest sellers -

You: "Does this _____ (fill in the blank) work?

Seller: "It did last time I used it"

[bob91343]

Right - the last time you used it, it obviously worked.  How about the last time you tried to use it?

I just picked up an impedance bridge for a low price.  The guy said it worked.  I took it home and discovered that indeed it did work.  In fact, I played with it all day and had more fun for the money than I could have expected.

Now I will pack it up and take it to the next swap meet.

[n5al]

Its not unusual for people to think their old junk is worth lots more than it is, and I have seen that at hamfests and especially used computers. I think its best to look for a deal that seems to good to be true, as its probably actually a fair deal.

There's always the hamfest seller with a table of overpriced junk.  He never sells anything, but that's just fine with him, because it means that he'll still have something to offer at the next hamfest! 

[CJay]

There's also "I just want to get back what I paid for it" to excuse overpriced crap.

The question at that point should always be "What did you pay for it?"