Your latest purchase

I decided to buy some spare vacuum tubes for my Kenwood TS-520S ham radio transceiver (70s vintage, a beauty) before all the known NOS (New Old Stock) disappear from the planet. This, the driver tube, was the easy one to find. The final output tubes (a pair of 6146B or 6146W) are a little harder to find in tested NOS state and are of course more costly. The radio also uses several dual input mosfet transistors that can be difficult/impossible to find, but they don't wear out like the tubes do. This radio uses +700vdc for it's output finals, 100 watts of RF output to the antenna. Hams call that operating 'barefoot', as legal limit here in the states for most bands is 1,500 watts PEP output.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/250948734435?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Lefty

I got:

AFX - FX-90 Helmet (Blue)

And TourMaster Quest pants

Waiting for my credit card to clear my available credit so I can buy the rainsuit and gloves and I'll have all my riding gear

Today I found at Goodwill (50 percent off day, too!):

  1. 6 X-10 wireless camera modules (one with pan/tilt unit), plus assorted other X-10 goodies (two firecrackers, and a PIR sensor)
  2. A CueCat (I don't hoard real cats - only CueCats)
  3. An old 8 and 16 mm movie splicer device (I have some old 8mm films that I might do something with someday)

Plus I got in the mail via Ebay a tripod and dart belt for my Nerf EBF-25 Vulcan (which I also found at Goodwill for $3.00 a couple of weeks ago); it works fine - I plan on getting a few more belts, more darts, and maybe mod it to shoot farther/faster...

I plan on getting a few more belts, more darts, and maybe mod it to shoot farther/faster...

LOL, I first read that as "more darts to shot mods faster/farther". Our forum mods here aren't ALL bad, they just have a nasty job. :wink:

Lefty

Today I found at Goodwill (50 percent off day, too!):

yea if I were to report my goodwill findings it would be 47 George Foreman grills and some crappy clock radios for durn new prices... I hate our goodwills

I have better luck at the Habitat for Humanity store, which normally doesnt carry anything else but building supplies, but I snagged a Imagewriter II, TI99 joysticks (man they suck but like new for 25 cents) and a TRS model 100 ... bag (sigh no computer)

anyone want a pair of practically brand new TI994A joysticks? they use closed cell foam for springs and plastic membrane switches, its much squishier than it sounds

yea if I were to report my goodwill findings it would be 47 George Foreman grills and some crappy clock radios for durn new prices... I hate our goodwills

Yea, I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Goodwill stores. About 15 years ago I spend a lot of time searching for those high quality brands and models of vintage 70s hi-fi stereo equipment and LP records. Seemed at the time a lot of people were replacing their top of the line 70s stereo stuff with the then new black plastic 5 channel crap systems. I would keep the best for myself and flip the rest on E-bay, usually at a X10 mark-up as those things are actively collected and treasured by many. Now mostly I would go in and there wouldn't be a thing so I would check out the 50 cent LP record albums. I stopped actively shopping there as the 70s stuff soon dried up as more and more people learned of the value of the better brands and models made in the 70s. Now maybe once a month at only the local store, maybe.

IF I NEVER SEEN ANOTHER HERB ALBERT AND THE TEQUANA BRASS BAND ALBUM, I WILL DIE A HAPPY MAN.

Lefty

hee hee I have one if you want it!

How about Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66?

retrolefty:
IF I NEVER SEEN ANOTHER HERB ALBERT AND THE TEQUANA BRASS BAND ALBUM, I WILL DIE A HAPPY MAN.

You don't like whipped cream? The Dating Game? Mazda's Great Little Car?

I haven't bought any electronics stuff lately, but I did get a pair of roller skates at Goodwill, to use the bearings in a ball mill. Might be an arduino in that project at some point. Generally, I avoid Goodwill though.

I do have several boxes of old LPs I got at thrift stores and garage sales. Don't know yet what gems await me there -- perhaps some Herb. I did find an original Singing Nun in one of the ones I've looked through. :grin:

Great! So rip that into a joint-stereo at 256K sampling rate and post it for us 8)

CrossRoads:
Great! So rip that into a joint-stereo at 256K sampling rate and post it for us 8)

If you mean Dominique, well, it's a monaural recording, and my Dual is out of service anyway. But I'm sure you can find it on YouTube. :astonished:

retrolefty:
Yea, I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Goodwill stores. About 15 years ago I spend a lot of time searching for those high quality brands and models of vintage 70s hi-fi stereo equipment and LP records.

I guess maybe the Goodwills here in the Phoenix area are just better (now if only we could fix our daft state legislature and county sheriff, things would be perfect).

Rarely do I go into a Goodwill and leave empty handed (to the chagrin of my wife); the find of the X-10 cameras was unexpected - they were all in a plastic tub they were shelf-stocking from. I saw them, pulled out one bag after another (each bagged separately), and decided on the whole lot. Some other guy came up to me and handed me some more (which was weird - he was a customer, too).

I've found strange computers (media-box type machines, and once a small embedded PC board custom-made BSD firewall), as well as built my Playstation 2 system from Goodwill castoffs (which I hardly play!). Recently I got a complete GameCube system set up (our Goodwills seem to be great places for older gaming systems).

Tons of great toy RC cars to be had (I once found an MGA Tarantula for $25.00); I also find many Robosapians and other Wowee 'bots. On occasion you can even run across some good vintage 70's audio gear (I found a real nice 1970's AKAI turntable for my component stereo at Goodwill about a year or so ago); I've recently seen a few 1/4" reel-to-reel players that were in decent shape (I already have my dad's, and don't need another).

@justjed, I was actually Sally Fields, The Flying Nun, but Dominique is much better. I think I may actually have copy already, have to check my hard drive o'music that I udpate my Neuros Audio MP3 player with occasionally.

Second-hand Rubidium Frequency Standard:

Cost: $80 on eBay.

Measured:

As described by Dave Jones:

1 Like

Oh yes, and this came in the parcel, strangely enough:

A small bear and a 7805 voltage regulator.

your frequency meter looks pretty accurate too
so how do you tell if the frequency meter or the frequency standard is off?
or do you assume the standard is good and adjust the meter?

mmcp42:
your frequency meter looks pretty accurate too
so how do you tell if the frequency meter or the frequency standard is off?
or do you assume the standard is good and adjust the meter?

Yes, any calibration/validation procedure is based on some 'standard' or 'reference' you have avalible to you. The better the standard the more accurate your procedure will be. The old rule of thumb is that your standards or references need to be 10 times the accuracy specification of the thing you are attempting to calibrate.

Of all the electrical measurements possible, frequency is the one that has the best standards and accuracy avalible. That Rubidium Frequency Standard requires no adjustment, it's based on a fixed property of the wavelength of Rubidium, thus making it a very desirable frequency standard.

Lefty

Offering alternatives on ways to cope with unregulated power?

mmcp42:
your frequency meter looks pretty accurate too
so how do you tell if the frequency meter or the frequency standard is off?

Well this was interesting. I put the output from my signal generator (also nominally 10 MHz if required) into the same counter, and it gave the same results (10000.046). That's nice, I thought, my signal generator is correct. But putting both signals into the scope it was obvious they weren't the same frequency at all. In fact, compared to the Rubidium standard the signal generator kept changing (speeding up, I think), no doubt as it warmed up.

That's nice, I thought, my signal generator is correct ...

I was impressed by your frequency meter with three decimals precision. Putting it to test and finding it is less precise than expected kind of ruins your day. :relaxed:

The saying, "A man with one clock knows what time it is. A man with two clocks is never sure." seems to apply here as well.