It is my regret that I have very little in the way of valve (tube for the
Yanks)
equipment, despite having had the seeds of interest sown 54 years ago at age
11.

It saddens me when I think of the valved RXs that I once had and then let
go, R210, R1475, HRO,
R1155, RA17 and for TX, KW Vanguard, FT101E (twice), Codar AT5, Sommerkamp
747.

Still, tomorrow I hope to go a little way to correcting the bias by picking
up an FT200
and an Eddystone 640!

I do havve sitting on the shelf a Trio 830s, though, although hidden behind
thepile of QRP rigs.

On Fri, 22 Jan 2016, gareth wrote:

It is my regret that I have very little in the way of valve (tube for the
Yanks)
equipment, despite having had the seeds of interest sown 54 years ago at age
11.

It saddens me when I think of the valved RXs that I once had and then let
go, R210, R1475, HRO,
R1155, RA17 and for TX, KW Vanguard, FT101E (twice), Codar AT5, Sommerkamp
747.

But in the seventies, at least around here, nobody wanted that stuff. I
remember getting some at a radio club auction, or just given to me, I'd
play with it a bit, then trade it off for something that at the time
seemed more interesting. Most of it wasn't in great shape, but that PMR-8
mobile receiver was. I should have kept that.

Nobody wanted it because it was tubes, and it was AM. So this was "junk".
SO it was easy to get.

Then later, attrition worked it's ways, and people had regret for getting
rid of the stuff, or wanted the stuff they lusted after when younger, and
it became valuable. Since there was less of it, the price went up, too,
to meet demand.

Same thing happened with antique radios. Virtually nobody was collecting
them in the sixties or early seventies, then slowly it became a hobby in
itself. I'm talking about broadcast radios. Home computers too, though
I'm not sure we've really hit the prime point for that. There too, at one
point it was easy to get ahold of "junk" computers, too simple to be
useful, but nobody much yet having the foresight to start collecting.

Michael


Still, tomorrow I hope to go a little way to correcting the bias by picking
up an FT200
and an Eddystone 640!

I do havve sitting on the shelf a Trio 830s, though, although hidden behind
thepile of QRP rigs.

On 22/01/2016 22:54, gareth wrote:
It is my regret that I have very little in the way of valve (tube for the
Yanks)
equipment, despite having had the seeds of interest sown 54 years ago at age
11.

It saddens me when I think of the valved RXs that I once had and then let
go, R210, R1475, HRO,
R1155, RA17 and for TX, KW Vanguard, FT101E (twice), Codar AT5, Sommerkamp
747.

Still, tomorrow I hope to go a little way to correcting the bias by picking
up an FT200
and an Eddystone 640!

I do havve sitting on the shelf a Trio 830s, though, although hidden behind
thepile of QRP rigs.




s640 was my first rx....still got one ....

--
Cheat your way through life, join the Freemasons
DIGITAL just doesn't work properly most of the time
Hammy Mens are not Radio Amateurs

In message , Jim GM4DHJ ...
writes
On 22/01/2016 22:54, gareth wrote:
It is my regret that I have very little in the way of valve (tube for the
Yanks)
equipment, despite having had the seeds of interest sown 54 years ago at age
11.

It saddens me when I think of the valved RXs that I once had and then let
go, R210, R1475, HRO,
R1155, RA17 and for TX, KW Vanguard, FT101E (twice), Codar AT5, Sommerkamp
747.

Still, tomorrow I hope to go a little way to correcting the bias by picking
up an FT200
and an Eddystone 640!

I do havve sitting on the shelf a Trio 830s, though, although hidden behind
thepile of QRP rigs.




s640 was my first rx....still got one ....

The R107 was my first RX - bought in 1958 for 13 pounds 10 shillings,
plus 1 pound 10 shillings carriage. I remember the evening it arrived.
I've still got it - on the desk, about 3 ' away from me. [Well, I have
to use something to keep the desk from floating in the air.]


--
Ian

On 23/01/2016 08:31, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Jim GM4DHJ ...
writes
On 22/01/2016 22:54, gareth wrote:
It is my regret that I have very little in the way of valve (tube for
the
Yanks)
equipment, despite having had the seeds of interest sown 54 years ago
at age
11.

It saddens me when I think of the valved RXs that I once had and then
let
go, R210, R1475, HRO,
R1155, RA17 and for TX, KW Vanguard, FT101E (twice), Codar AT5,
Sommerkamp
747.

Still, tomorrow I hope to go a little way to correcting the bias by
picking
up an FT200
and an Eddystone 640!

I do havve sitting on the shelf a Trio 830s, though, although hidden
behind
thepile of QRP rigs.




s640 was my first rx....still got one ....

The R107 was my first RX - bought in 1958 for 13 pounds 10 shillings,
plus 1 pound 10 shillings carriage. I remember the evening it arrived.
I've still got it - on the desk, about 3 ' away from me. [Well, I have
to use something to keep the desk from floating in the air.]


that would bring a tear to a glass eye ....

--
Cheat your way through life, join the Freemasons
DIGITAL just doesn't work properly most of the time
Hammy Mens are not Radio Amateurs

On 23/01/2016 08:31, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Jim GM4DHJ ...
writes
On 22/01/2016 22:54, gareth wrote:
It is my regret that I have very little in the way of valve (tube for
the
Yanks)
equipment, despite having had the seeds of interest sown 54 years ago
at age
11.

It saddens me when I think of the valved RXs that I once had and then
let
go, R210, R1475, HRO,
R1155, RA17 and for TX, KW Vanguard, FT101E (twice), Codar AT5,
Sommerkamp
747.

Still, tomorrow I hope to go a little way to correcting the bias by
picking
up an FT200
and an Eddystone 640!

I do havve sitting on the shelf a Trio 830s, though, although hidden
behind
thepile of QRP rigs.




s640 was my first rx....still got one ....

The R107 was my first RX - bought in 1958 for 13 pounds 10 shillings,
plus 1 pound 10 shillings carriage. I remember the evening it arrived.
I've still got it - on the desk, about 3 ' away from me. [Well, I have
to use something to keep the desk from floating in the air.]


I got my s640 replacement at a rally in Norfolk? ....much better than
the one I had .....

https://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?..._id=3198435528

--
Cheat your way through life, join the Freemasons
DIGITAL just doesn't work properly most of the time
Hammy Mens are not Radio Amateurs

On 23/01/2016 08:31, Ian Jackson wrote:
writes

S640 was my first RX....still got one ....

The R107 was my first RX - bought in 1958 for 13 pounds 10 shillings,
plus 1 pound 10 shillings carriage. I remember the evening it arrived.
I've still got it - on the desk, about 3 ' away from me. [Well, I have
to use something to keep the desk from floating in the air.]

My first RX was an R208, which I had in time to enjoy the massive
propagation year of 1957[1]. Had to tun it from a 6V battery at first as
at that time there wasn't electricity in the shed/greenhouse I shared
with my dad. AFAIK the R208 was the receiver part of an AA
regiment-level comms system, it must have been a nice quiet background
on the higher band. The WS17 was used for AA battery comms, but I never
had one of those.

[1] Never been a sunspot max like it since, and not likely to be. US AM
stations were wall-to-wall on 10m, and I enjoyed listening to RSA on
25.800 Mc/s.

--
Spike

"They thought that because they had power, they had wisdom"

- with apologies to Stephen Vincent Benet

Michael Black wrote:
But in the seventies, at least around here, nobody wanted that stuff. I
remember getting some at a radio club auction, or just given to me, I'd
play with it a bit, then trade it off for something that at the time
seemed more interesting. Most of it wasn't in great shape, but that
PMR-8 mobile receiver was. I should have kept that.

Nobody wanted it because it was tubes, and it was AM. So this was "junk".
SO it was easy to get.

Then later, attrition worked it's ways, and people had regret for getting
rid of the stuff, or wanted the stuff they lusted after when younger, and
it became valuable. Since there was less of it, the price went up, too, to meet demand.

Same thing happened with antique radios. Virtually nobody was collecting
them in the sixties or early seventies, then slowly it became a hobby in
itself. I'm talking about broadcast radios. Home computers too, though
I'm not sure we've really hit the prime point for that. There too, at
one point it was easy to get ahold of "junk" computers, too simple to be
useful, but nobody much yet having the foresight to start collecting.


We've definitely not seen peak market for vintage computers. Amiga
equipment has been rising in value for the last decade, with demand
snowballing. Likewise vintage Apple equipment, although that's less
"fevered" than the Amiga collecting market, but stuff perceived as
"desirable" is achieving sillier and sillier prices. Console collecting has
gone crazy, too.

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Spike wrote:

On 23/01/2016 08:31, Ian Jackson wrote:
writes

S640 was my first RX....still got one ....

The R107 was my first RX - bought in 1958 for 13 pounds 10 shillings,
plus 1 pound 10 shillings carriage. I remember the evening it arrived.
I've still got it - on the desk, about 3 ' away from me. [Well, I have
to use something to keep the desk from floating in the air.]

My first RX was an R208, which I had in time to enjoy the massive propagation
year of 1957[1]. Had to tun it from a 6V battery at first as at that time
there wasn't electricity in the shed/greenhouse I shared with my dad. AFAIK
the R208 was the receiver part of an AA regiment-level comms system, it must
have been a nice quiet background on the higher band. The WS17 was used for
AA battery comms, but I never had one of those.

[1] Never been a sunspot max like it since, and not likely to be. US AM
stations were wall-to-wall on 10m, and I enjoyed listening to RSA on 25.800
Mc/s.

And coincidentlaly, mid-1957 through mid-1958 was "International
Geophysical Year", which included study of the ionosphere.

Michael

On 23/01/2016 16:16, Michael Black wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jan 2016, Spike wrote:

[1] Never been a sunspot max like it since, and not likely to be. US
AM stations were wall-to-wall on 10m, and I enjoyed listening to RSA
on 25.800 Mc/s.

And coincidentally, mid-1957 through mid-1958 was "International
Geophysical Year", which included study of the ionosphere.

Pure fantasy, of course, but it seems like having had its parameters
scrutinised as never before, it went into a sulk from which it has yet
to recover!


--
Spike

"They thought that because they had power, they had wisdom"

- with apologies to Stephen Vincent Benet