The AM Forum

One of the last great electronics junk heaps in America, Many photos:

http://www.xymox1.com/Apex/Apex.htm (http://www.xymox1.com/Apex/Apex.htm)

Cool place!  It reminds me of Nortex over in Ft. Worth, TX.  Thanks for the info.

Rick/K5IAR

Nortex where is it? missed that one. Apex yup a cool place.

Nortex Electronics is about 30 miles west of me in Fort Worth, Texas.  Follow the link below, cool stuff, nice folks!

http://www.montagar.com/~patj/nortex.htm (http://www.montagar.com/~patj/nortex.htm)

Rick/K5IAR

Amazing. Looks like you could spend a couple of weeks there just digging for treasure.

After seeing the teetering boxes almost cascading out of the shelving I suppose we can get off of Vortex Joe's case a bit.

crap I stayed down town FW many times in the fancy place near Tandy HQ and ate in a great Mexican place across the street.

OVER THE YEARS THERE HAVE BEEN MANY SURPLUS GREATS THAT HAVE COME AND GONE. UNFORTUNATELY THE GOING HAS EXCEEDED THE COMING. ONE FACTOR IS THE VALUE OF METAL SCRAP, AND THE OTHER IS THE EVOLUTION OF COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE VALUES. I HAVE BEEN IN 2 SURPLUS ESTABLISHMENTS THIS YEAR AND HAVE OVERHEARD CONVERSATIONS ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY THEY HAVE BEEN GETTING FOR TRANSFORMERS--AS SCRAP. IT HAS EVEN MADE ME THINK, AS I AM SITTING ON OVER 3 TONS OF TRANSFORMERS. SHOULD I SCRAP ALL OF THAT 5 KW IRON I HAVE?
I MIGHT GET ENOUGH OUT OF IT TO BUY A NEW RICEBOX!! HOW SHALL I SORT THIS STUFF
WHAT SAY?

We got  3 good ones in New Mexico, in Albuquerque there's Electronic Surplus on Central (Rt. 66), and Surplus City, just east of there on Central. Skeeter at Electronic Surplus has some real nice pieces, tubes, broadcast gear and racks, transformers, test equip., etc, but its so deep and close in there that its hard to move through safely. He only allows the public in on appointment anymore, and sells a lot of epay. Surplus City, on the other hand, has acres of stuff outside like the photos of APEX, plus a more orderly interior. Up at Los Alamos, we have Ed Grothus and his Black Hole junkyard. If you haven't heard about him, he's been the subject of articles in Esquire magazine, a documentary, and Wall Street Journal over the years. He's sort of crazy and deaf, used to work for the national lab, and then went anti-nuke, so to speak. Thats where he got his notoriety. But he does have lots of classic parts and materials, if you know how to find it there, and bring a flashlight and a frying pan (to kill the varmits). I usually walk away from his first price, and then start negotiating if I really want it. He has acres of stuff, in many buildings, including an old supermarket. I got several tube testers, signal generators, a full rack, scopes, and big iron (HV and mod) from Ed's over the years.

A really good house for parts is OEM Parts in Colorado Springs, CO. I don't know if he still does, but Jim WA0LSB, would give 15% off to hams. Lots of iron and everything else you could think of, all nicely shelved and organized.

Nice picture, John.

(http://amfone.net/w5omr/jpb/Picture%20005.jpg)

Don't know if you (or anyone else) had see the finished (for a couple of years, now) 250TH modulator...

As far as Electronic Surplus (and I'm surprised Rick didn't mention it) there's always Tanners, in Carrollton, TX (just south of Arlington, TX).  Not only do they have -lots o' stuff-, they've got some pretty downright decent prices.

They've got a website, but basically not much more than directions, and confirming the fact they -are- a surplus place.

Doggone, I did fail to mention Jim Tanner's place, Geoff.  Not only does he have a lot of stuff at good prices, but he's one heck of a nice fellow who knows his stuff.  Not a ham, but very knowledgeable.  Family owned and operated for many years.

By the way, I talked to the Ed out there at The Black Hole in New Mexico several times.  Nice fellow, kind of strange, but who isn't.   ;D

Rick/K5IAR

I need to get back up there again, and go through the bins... they had a bunch of speakers the last time I was there.  I'll vouch for prices.  While the 'ham stores' are selling the 13-pin din plugs that goes in the back of some Kenwood radios for as much as $1.oo per pin (or more) ($13 ~ $15) Tanner had 'em, for $1.95 or some such price.  4-pin plugs for power-connectors for the same Kenwood.. the -made-up-cable- and plug at Ham Stores for near $20, for that same price, you can make 10 of your own, with the parts bought at Tanners in Carrollton, TX.

And, if they don't have it, they can -get- it.


I'm lost, Rick.

Ed?  New Mexico?

Are you talking about Charles, KA5... I forget the rest of it... he had a BC-610 at one time, and a homebrew 250TH transmitter.  Brought the 610 down to a Belton swapfest, fired up a generator and had it transmitting 350w into a dummy load, on-site.

Check'em out, Geoff..  cool place.

http://members.aol.com/blkholela/home/A_BH_HOME.htm (http://members.aol.com/blkholela/home/A_BH_HOME.htm)

I got over to ESS in Manchester NH at lunchtime and they finally blew out the back wall doubling their showroom space. Lots of racks and bigger items that they were not able to sell before. They had a good selection of power resistors and disk caps for 2 dollars a bag.
http://stores.ebay.com/Electronic-Surplus-Services

http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&output=search&q=900+Candia+Rd+Manchester,+NH+03109&Point=b&Point.latitude_e6=42984759&Point.longitude_e6=-71412874&Point.iconid=15&Point=e&oi=manybox&ct=14&cd=1&resnum=1

Mike WU2D