Saturday, November 8, 2014

Saturday Relaxation

Did all the yard work yesterday, except for trimming the tree in the backyard. The damn thing grows like a weed, and I'm going to have to rent a chipper to grind up what I'm going to lop off it.

Wife has a friend staying with us, so I also cleaned house Thursday and Friday. Had to put the dog outside while I ran "Mr. Kirby", or she goes nutso chasing it around.

So today I'm just kicking back tinkering on some radio gear that's been waiting to get on the bench so I can clean it up, check it out, and sell it on eBay. Over the last 5 years or so I've been grabbing radios at good prices, and stashing them in the garage, bagged up so they don't get all critterfied. I've got about 35 out there, with a total investment (so far) of bout $1800. Add another couple of hundred bucks for parts they might need (tubes and electrolytic/paper capacitor replacements) and I've got about $2k in them.  Considering their total worth once I'm done with them is about $10k, it's a nice way to pick up some additional cash to support my hobbies.

Project for the next few weeks is to get the garage cleaned up and sorted out so I have enough room to get the Supra in there for the winter.

I really don't want to leave a rust-free 1980's Toyota outside for the rainy season. They have a tendency to want to return to Mother Earth if they start getting soaking wet for long periods of time!

7 comments:

  1. Yes they do! They still require care in the garage too!

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  2. The prime motive to get her in the garage is so I can get her up on jackstands, and work on her in the evenings, as well as during the day.

    Cleaning up the garage is going to be a multi-week task in itself, though!

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  3. Not likely I'll be throwing money at a radio any time soon -- too many other things wanting an input of that stuff right now. But I do look around on QRZ at used gear now and then.The Icom IC-706 pops up there sometimes, and I'd spring for one of those in a hearbeat if I had the extra coin laying around. Don't know if any of those rigs you have will be low-cost, but I'm not on e-bay either.

    If you're on QRZ ...
    Kilo Delta Zero
    Yankee Mike Golf

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    Replies
    1. It's mostly older, tube-type stuff.

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    2. Ah well, I don't mind tubes (particularly in a Marshall head) but I know some older stuff can have higher value, i.e. Collins and Drake, even Heathkit sometimes. I keep pondering an FT101ZD I see in one of the local listings. Old listing, but hasn't been taken down either.

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    3. Yep, got a pair of B-series Drake "4-Line", a Collins 75S-1, and a couple of older Heath receivers, an SB-310 tube unit that;s ready to go, and an SB-303 solid-state receiver that needs some cleaning and mechanical work as the main tuning knob just spins, and the dial pointer won't adjust.

      And I have an Icom IC-970 VHF/UHF all-mode satellite rig that needs to be be put back together, along with a Yeasu FT-726 2M/70cm all-mode that's on the bench right now.

      Delete

Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

 At 1700 local it's as described in the headline; 30*F, 88% RH, completely overcast, snowing like crazy (small flakes, but lots of them)...