The AM Forum

Good lord... looking at this stash makes me tired.

There is a decent looking KW-1 lurking in the corner in one of the album pics, and not one, but TWO TMC GPT-10K transmitters.

Tons and tons of vacuum variables, etc.  Anyone know whose this was?

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/estate-sale-huge-lot-miami-200-pics-on-links.598979/

Wow - now that guy was a ham's ham!  Loved QRO and building.  We're all hoarders to some degree, I suppose.

There was once a time when I would have considered renting a big truck and loading that stuff up.

The thought comes to mind:  "Ya can't take it with you."

T

Those pictures are the reason I don't go to hamfests.  25 years since the last one I was at.

Tom, one of those GPT-10Ks has your name on it...  the intermediate PA looks like that PAL-500 you have.

That guy certainly had a thing for rotary coils and vacuum variables!  Having taken care of two ham estates of close friends who became silent keys, I believe that the market has peaked for high power RF components, as well as many of the great classic radios.  The top of the curve for the old goats who are interested in building strapping amplifiers has passed us and we seem to be on the down side.  I've had a bear of a time even getting interest in these things, having had to discount them to sell.
Those rice box radios were cool in their day but, if you want a rice box, there are many more capable brand new rigs out there for not much money, to say nothing of the eminently amazing SDR radios.  Advances in technology are wonderful, but the old radios are mostly left on the nostalgia shelf.
The point is, if you have these things on the shelf, with the idea of cashing them out some day, then today is the day and not tomorrow. Either get the dust blown out and use them on the air, or move them out.  And that brings up a pet campaign of mine, which is to arrange with one or two trusted friends to have them liquidate your radio estate, for the benefit of your family, when the times comes that you go beyond the ionosphere.  When my friend Joe K1RQG died, his wife was contacted by a couple flipper thieves who tried to talk her into a lowball offer for "everything".  We had a plan in place at least a decade before, and she was well taken care of.  And Joe didn't need to spin in the grave.
That being said, I'm glad that I'm way far away from Miami.  There's some serious temptation in those pictures.

Naw, you couldn't give me that monster for free, John... :-)    

Those pictures remind me of the scene in Scrooge where those old women stole his bed curtains and sold them to the merchant... :-)  

TTT is right - we are seeing the backside of the price move for ham parts and boat anchor stuff.   More supply than demand.

Yep, as sterile as it seems, an SDR and a big Mo-Fo solid state amp with Pure Signal is all ya need these days to be big and clean. (with less back pain)


T

Modern operating practices such as creeping channelization, having to be on exact frequency, etc. also limits interest in older gear. Not as necessary in AM qso’s but we’re in the minority.  And then if you want to actually use older gear you’re into recapping electrolytics, obtaning parts and maintenance mind set.

It’ll be fun to see what the stash goes for.
I have a gorgeous, new 100 to 200 watt variable coil with turns counter I’d been saving thinking it was becoming rare. Now I know why. The Hunt Bros. Of hams bought up the market.  Would’ve been great hanging on a pair of 6146’s Or a 4D32, ...sigh.

Yep too Tom, I guess high voltage LDMOS is the way to go now, so if you still get a charge out of some assembly in your shack:

http://rf-kit.de/en/slideshow.php

If interested, Better buy one of these direct from Germany soon.  I’ve heard a couple of big US distributors are hot on making a deal with Reinhard by summer probably with an extra $1k or more markup.

I would surely love a GPT-10.

They are lotsa fun

 and almost bullet proof.....almost....

One hundred how many tubes Steve?

Tubes and vac variables have been purchased.
A BUNCH of yc156/179 and similar in the lot.

--Shane
KD6VXI

Shane..   e=mail me  Steve KL7OF

Email sent, Steve.

--Shane
KD6VXI

That is quite a pile of stuff. That SK did like coils and caps. Good for him! You can never have enough of those. I, too, have a collection of big transmitter coils and meat-slicer capacitors. Not so many vac variables though. There is a downside to QRO components like these, as the people who use them (us) are an aged bunch. Then again, if you have the space, store that stuff. You never know who might want it, or if you want it someday down the road. If the bottom falls out and its all scrap metal, so be it! Just don't pay a lot of it in the first place. And when you finally kick the bucket, your XYL (if she survives you) gets to deal with it and throw it away. Give her some other ham's phone numbers so that she can ask around. Then that stuff gets moved again.....
I think I have at least 3-4 collections of parts that I gathered from SK's estates around the west in the past decade. A lot of big cool stuff, that I probably will never get around to using. Retirement from building high power RF amplifiers and systems is coming, in 2 years. Hooray! Then I might figure out what to do with my shed full, once I am not doing it daily for a living.