The AM Forum

Dunno what was the scoop but this is the pits

http://shop.ebay.com/xdbi63/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

This guy is selling the guts of a SP600

Gotta love the wiring harness.  'Rotsa ruck figuring out how to reinstall it.

It is NOT the pits for someone looking for hard to find parts for another SP600.  Think of it as an organ donar.  Maybe the thing was dropped and the case all bashed in or something.

Maybe the guy strips cars for a living and wants to branch out.

Over the years I've seen a number of SP-600 parts from gutted receivers, show up on ebay and other lists. Same can be said for lots of other receiver and transmitter parts that find their way to ebay and other lists.

Maybe UPS shipped it.  And those parts are all that is recognizable.

If he's got the time to sell components he will probably make more money than selling it complete as a beater.

Maybe the guy hates the radio's guts enough to take it apart.

Could happen.

Looks like something my dogs did.

Most radios are worth more as parts, than a complete unit.

Even newer rice-boxes....

It's almost like "added-value" to strip them down.

Hi Al..yup does seem a shame to see a rig no matter what canibalized..but on the other hand as Bruce mentioned they ARE sometimes worth more torn apart..sure looks that way as E-Pay has been posting quite a few rigs both old and new torn apart..I suppose it probably suffered from bad transformer blues or sumptin as drastic or cosmetic..ya know a gud dose of rust and corrosion all over..John-o-phonic has it right..a damn gud source of non-available parts for other owners..on the one hand I hate to see that but on the other I tolerate it......73 de DAVE

Very seldom, if ever, is that really true. Like assuming someone who buys an estate and sells the stuff is making a ton of money, it doesn't take into account the time involved with disassembling, testing if needed, listing on ebay in this case, packing, and shipping. Though I'll guess that pulling cards out of a plastic Yaecomwood or a board from a Class E HB rig is not a time-consuming or difficult job, you could strip the radio in 15 minutes.

Biggest problem is the older receivers is that so few of the parts sell. Transformers, chokes, knobs, maybe dials and a few of the more common cosmetic parts. Often things like the chassis, tube sockets, minor components and other left overs get tossed.

Though I agree with the 'organ donor' approach (bad packing and poor handling add to this pile daily) and with a person's right to do with their equipment as they see fit, it's always a bit sad to see a known-good set torn down and sold as parts. Some will recall that Martyn a.k.a. radio-mart on ebay got his start this way. He was notorious for listing a complete SP-600 with a big reserve, then stripping and trying to sell parts a week or two after it didn't sell. I recall a lot of comments on the email lists and news groups from people who wanted to dismantle him.

If anyone ever dismantles Martyn I'd like a chance to bid on some of the pieces.

I don't see it as an ultimate insult. It's just a radio. Further, it's that guy's radio. He can do with it as he wishes. Would you want someone questioning your use of your radios?

Todd, you're right.  There's big competition out there and we don't get any free lunches. To market a parts radio, we would have to invest a lot of time to tear it down, photograph the parts, list each one, collect the funds, ship them out one by one, etc. Then we have left over parts that do not sell.  Compare this to listing just one radio and selling it whole.

I know that cars parted out do VERY well. The reason is that most guys needing just one part are willing to pay a premium for it vs: paying big money for the whole car they don't need. Same for parts radios.

Personally, I look at it like the airplane bone yard out west. Sometimes we need to be unemotional and let these old noble airships provide one last service - as parts to extend others' lives. I have no problem with seeing a rig parted out. If it wasn't a viable method, it wouldn't be done cuz the guys would be losing money doing it. Somebody obviously needs parts out there. This is a good thang. In 1000 years everything we know now will be dust anyway... ;D

Heck, I will be the recipient of an FT-1000D PA unit and low pass filter board soon. My friend's FT-1000D blew out its main local control CPU with no replacements available. Now here's a $1200 radio that will be parted out and will make a lot of radios whole again, probably netting  most if not all of his money back. No one would pay that for a whole junker but will if they need parts like I do..  

T

Ummmm..Kinda like the kidneys, hearts, & lungs eTc that keep some of us around for another hamfest or two.

73DG

Around here it woud be from FedWrex.

As I found out to my chagrin, the ultimate insult appears to be removing one turn off a 51J-4 endpoint adjust coil in order to make it usable.

A friend parted out a ratty SX-16; he needed the knobs for his.  He passed it to me, and I stole some coils out of it to restore an otherwise very nice SX-16 whose top band had been hammy hamboned.  I've helped out a bunch of guys with trimmers, coils, the crystal, the dial, etc.  I'm betting this one sad SX-16 has gotten a dozen more operational and off the shelf.

There were a bazillion SP-600s made, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.

For shame for shame! Spoiling that pure Collins originality. Bailiff! Whack his....

I've got an equally-or-worse ratty 75A-2 sitting up north purchased at Hosstraders years ago for $75, mainly to get the 4:1 tuning knob someone had installed. They also added a few tube sockets, switches, an International product detector kit and a few other 'improvements'. So far it's donated its BFO can, knobs, escutcheon, some iron, and other goodies. Another one I have isn't as bad, but its panel will be going to Slab the next time I'm up there to grab it.


I've seen this time after time in simply cleaning up, repairing, or otherwise trying to upgrade the condition of a piece of gear I want to sell. 9 times out of 10, it sells for no more money or I end up cutting an already low price just to move it. Evidenced recently at Richmond with a very clean transmitter for sale.

It's easier just to send it down the road as-is, otherwise the investment of time, new tubes, and whatever else eats up any perceived profits or negates the perceived benefit of having done so.

I heard the story of that friend's radio. Tragic, indeed. :'(  Glad to hear some of the pieces will be coming your way, and also glad that it's a newer radio where stripping involves popping out some boards and sending them down the road. Hopefully he'll break even at least on the deal. Or perhaps he'll be able to employ his method for reselling spools of copper wire, in which case he could retire comfortably.  ;D

I assume Yaesu has "discontinued" replacement CPUs.  Funny how manufacturers have a knack for discontinuing replacement parts just about the time the product is getting old enough that it might need replacement parts.

Not sure how old the FT-1000D is, but I remember it was the top of their line not that long ago. Something to think about next time you even contemplate the idea of spending big bucks on one of the more expensive plastic appliances: how many of them will still be operational and in use 60, 70, 80, or for that matter even 15 years from now? Yet we hear 1930s, 1940s and 1950s era transmitters running AM every night, and reports of receivers of the same era receiving it.

Makes ya wonder if they engineered the gear to break at a certain time, don't it, Don?

Not hardly. Most FT-1000s are 20 years old and working fine. Their resale price remains high for a reason.

My Kenwood Twins and TS-830S from the late 70's are still working fine.

Old rig longevity is related to a simple bell curve.  At one end we have rigs that crap out right away. At the fat middle, most run for an "average" lifetime. At the other extreme end we have rigs that last for many, many decades. "[Rigs] are like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get."

Just hope we have no rig accidents, bad parts, poor ventilation or other problems that shorten life. It's much akin to human life spans.   The genes (rig quality)  have the most effect, but how well the body (rig) is cared for matters too.

In a recent case, I know of an HPSDR receiver that had 200W injected into its front end. The doctor called today and said a small operation will fix it. Accidents do happen... ;)

T

You guys make it sound like hours and hours of work to take apart a radio!  :D

Plastic radios take about 15 minutes to dismantle. As Todd said.
( I don't quite get the jab about taking a board out of an E-rig though.. geez..)

Another hour at most to photograph all the bits and list for sale.
Packing and shipping, another 5 minutes per piece.

One MIGHT have as much as 3 hours work total in stripping a radio, and shipping it.

Made some 'good' money doing this for a few years.
(not just amateur radio gear, but other "junk" too)
Once you have packing supplies supplied free of charge from the post office on hand,
it all goes very quick

Of course, I don't value my time like some of you guys do.
If I make $5-10 an hour, sitting home turning a screwdriver, it's all gravy!

Since I'm sitting home with the kids anyway....  :-)

Depending, of course, on the exact model... you can generally collect 10 to 30% more as individual parts ( boards etc), than selling it whole...
The exceptions are if the rig is in PERFECT shape, inside and out... and whether it's considered "collector quality"... then yeah.. better left whole.

Oh well... as usual, my opinion differs from the mainstream...

Know what?  I don't care!   ;D

I've seen this with classic motorcycles in good to excellent condition.  A nice bike goes out to bid. It's bought then a couple of weeks later you see the parts showing up.

PREACH IT BROTHER!  WHY I AM INTO VINTAGE GEAR  :D :D

You have an FT-1000 MP. Is that vintage now?   ;)

Haw haw I have a FT1000MP MK V!!!  ;D  But when the day comes and I can repair and restore boat anchors and build then I will KICK THE PLASTIC HABIT  ;D  ;D

Eh, get a 1000D. It's metal and weighs 51 pounds - that more than nearly every so-called boat anchor receiver from the 50's and 60s. The venerable 75A-4 weighs a mere 35 pounds, a lightweight!

I'd trade my FT-1000MP mark V for a FT-1000D any day.

The plasdick radios I play with today are the same age as the old tube rigs I played with 25 years ago.

Get on the air cheap.

Yep, the FT-1000D is still the best bang for the buck out there. Add a SoftRock to it and youse gots it all all ALL!

I know of a few corntesters who have stock-piled several as station backups.   Yaesu put 25,000 man hours into designing that radio. I think it's the peak in ham radio technology and construction for its era. (late 1980's-early 1990's)   I believe some late 1000D units were last made in the late 90's.

I got mine about 10 years ago and still get the "new rig" feeling when I use it on AM or ssb. Love that radio.

T

In my experience Bruce, talking about taking an old radio apart and actually doing it vary considerably in the actual time involved. There are always issues to hold you up: frozen knob screws and mismatched/damaged/frozen hardware are just a few that come to mind. Same with photographing, listing on ebay and any other number of factors. In theory, is sounds like it's pretty simple and straightforward. In practice, there's always something.


Geez.....you Class E guys sure are sensitive.  ;D

Consider that comment ignorance on my part, Bruce. Certainly not a jab, it would've been far more obvious. I based that comment on my remark about pulling apart a newer plastic radio and my recollections of guys first getting into Class E some years back who changed out boards they'd built for newer or the next latest, greatest kits or designs, then sold the other rig-on-a-board to someone else who was just starting out. IIRC, the power supply, case, etc could be retained for the new rig/board and it was off to the races.

So my comment was meant to reflect that simplicity only, nothing more. I admit, I didn't pay much attention to the details involved with the Class E scene and remain blissfully ignorant of digital gate drives, multiple FETs and all the rest. Just focusing on that old, inefficient, band-switching tube gear is enough to keep me occupied. ;)

You forgot the loads of clip leads. Those are easily recycled.

Just rememeber, the newer designs require more tuning. Even when operated on the same frequency day after day, tuning is required. It really livens up the conversation.  ;)

Maybe for some....

I don't seem to feel the need to constantly retune....Maybe should, but I don't...

At least if I do... I don't talk about it, as if it is an interesting thing.

Unlike some that "have to pull an INR", and give a play-by-play of what the meters say..   ;D


I STILL don't ow any clip-leads !  :o

No problem Todd...

It's just that there are only 3 small boards in a Class-e rig... and not much else...   :D

---
As far as tearing down any rig to resell...

Same as stripping cars..

There is very little care taken! After all... it's just parts.
Wires get clipped, screws remove ( broken if needed) etc.

Tubes and LCD displays are the exception...

Again... "worthwhile" is going to be decided by the individual.

I've seen several rigs I've sold over the years that were out for bid, show back up as a pile of parts. And fetch more money than was paid for it...

Sometimes you make out really really good... sometimes not..

And this is why I tend to stay away from tube rigs... Because I know absolutely nothing about most of them..
A few I've played with... like  the National NCX-5 ( actually the cabinet from the NCX-5 ended up housing my first E-Rig!)

Not only that but the 75A4 is a quasi-slopbucket rx and doesn't have a rack cabinet  :P  ;) 

In order from most to least, what is the most plastic of the plastics?   I'd say Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu.  It would be Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, except Icom at one time make a rig with a CRT in it, thereby de-plasticising itself to some degree.

I would too.  Interestingly, there was a strange time (unless you are in advertising and therefore understand the agenda) about 10 years ago when Yaesu put out glossy color brochures that devoted 2 or 3 pages to the 1000MP Mk V then on the last page there was around 4 column inches on the 1000-D, but it was labelled "The Best of the Best."   In 2000 AES had it on closeout for almost $4000, about twice the price of the 1000MP Mk V, which Yaesu was trying to push as somehow better.  It seemed like the 1000-D in the end was too good for Yaesu's own good.

Yaesu did the same thing previously.  In 1983 I was a fairly new college grad and bought my first brand new rig, a Yaesu FT-980.  It was the first of the Yaesu CAT computer controllable rigs and was their high tech rig.  The somewhat older staid and more expensive FT-One was sold alongside it. 

The FT-980 and FT-One shared the same heatsink assembly for the power supply and final BUT the FT-One used a switching supply while the FT-980 had a traditional analog supply.  The heat sink wasn't large enough for the FT-980 analog pass transistors and after a few minutes of receive only the very noisy fan comes on to cool the supply.  Yaesu service in CA suggested cutting every other blade from the fan to quiet it.  I finally resorted to using an external Astron supply for the 12 volt bus and used the built in supply only for the 24.5 volt final supply.  Operating this way the rig ran cool and quiet but it was an irritant to have to use it this way.

A few years ago I picked up a mint and loaded FT-One and it is a very nice classic rig.

Throw in the 750 and u got a deal. (but you have to pay shipping haha) j/k

The thing I like about the 1000D is the overall feel of it. Even being a sand state rig, it's has that analog sound and performance. No nested menu's so there's one button or knob for each function. The controls don't feel like they are going to fall off anytime soon. Mine started out as a D, then I went through it with all the Inrad filters including the 73mhz "roofin" filter. That alone made a huge difference as I have an operator close to me that always runs a heavy strap. I can get as close as a few kc away and not hear him blabbing while this would wipe out my other rigs like the icom pro3, mkiig, ft-100d, icom 746pro junk, and a few others. When the economy was in better shape, I would see 1KD's upfitted like mine sell on ePay in the $3K+ range. (Just the Inrad filters alone added up to around a grand spent over a year or so)

If it's cpu or other unobtainium part ever takes a puke, I'll shove it back in it's box and shelf it until a parts rig or replacement part shows up. Otherwise every few months or so, I'll open it up and give it a dusting and a quick lookover. That's really the only maintenance it needs. Heat is a killer.

WHAT?!?? No CLIPLEADS?? And you're a Class E guy to boot? I thought that was a requirement? You some kinda commie, boy?? HMMM??   ;D ;D


Eh.....technically I s'pose you're right, Rob. But they did make a rack kit for them, basically rack ears that mount to the sides. If you have one, or next time you see one, look at the holes down the front sides. Kinda R@RE these days, wooooo!  They even made a similar kit for the speaker that went with the 51J. I've got the speaker, same holes down the side.

That's interesting Todd; I didn't know that.

Rob

Assuming you can figure out how to open the case. Maybe most ham appliances are not that way, but I have been known to take hammer and chisel to open the case of some piece of consumer electronics junk when I wanted to at least salvage some of the parts if I couldn't fix it. Only after I busted open the plastic case, was I able to find the hidden screws with little snap-on covers I could have easily pried open for access if I had only known they were there.   >:(

I think the method is 15 minutes to the nearest rural overpass where you stop, get out, and let it drop to the pavement below.  Then run down the embankment and gather up the parts before anyone drives by.

When my mac died and I wanted to get it open to put fans on it and cool it better I couldn't figure out how to get the case open.  I finally pried it open with a wood chisel.  Later an Apple repair tech told me the officially sanctioned Apple tool for opening the mac mini basically looked like my wood chisel.