Radio gear from the dump

[KL7OF]

Dateline: Naknek ,Alaska

My son took the trash to the dump the other day and came back with a pile of radio gear "cause he knows his old man likes the stuff."..A cool Bendix Boat radio for the 2 mhz AM band...a Hickock 527a tube tester..A 110-135 Mhz AM transmitter from the FAA, a couple scopes ,a pile of transformers, and 3 relay racks that have been stripped of their contents except for a couple 28 volt Dow Key relays and some blank panels....and 2 Gas boxes full of tubes, a lot of them are still in the original (moldy) boxes....I haven't really had time to look closely at the stuff but I though you guys might find it entertaining....There might be something elese buried in the pile as well, When I have time I'll take a better look.....

[kb3ouk]

looks like there may be a bunch of goodies in there. the old massey-harris in the second picture is nice too, what model is it?

[Opcom]

Nice looking radar set. X-band model I think. I have one like it, sans cable and don't have the radome presently but the guy is supposed to be getting it to me. I think it's 5KW peak. Are you going to fire it up? Don't get within about 15FT of the antenna.

The FAA stuff is heavy but very well built. Perhaps a good project could be made of it.

[AJ1G]

Can't say I ever have brought home ham gear from the Stonington dump, but I did snag a complete Dynaco stereo system - ST120 amp, matching preamp and tuner, along with a set of big studio monitor type speakers.

We have a "free reusable shed" for people to drop off stuff that they can't bear to toss in the trash.  In the last year of so, they have been putting big palleted boxes out for electronics recycling.  They are are usually 90 percent full of old TVs and monitors, but I did snag a nice Apelco VHF marine radio a few weeks back, along with a 12VDC  5A power supply that's perfect for powering a small QRP rig like a K1.  Always lots of RCA audio cables and 3 wire power cords in there as well.

Lots of good books are always showing up at the "Stonington Free Library" as well.

Best ham related dumpster dive snag for me was a NIB GE 211, a Gen Rad lab standard variable capacitor in an oak case, dozens of RCA and BNC connectered coax cables and a dozen or so 6Y6s son Dave pulled from a dumpster outside the UCONN Storrs Physics building during its renovation when he was a freshman in the fall of 1997.

[KL7OF]

looks like there may be a bunch of goodies in there. the old massey-harris in the second picture is nice too, what model is it?

That Massey Harris came out of the dump as well...It is a 44G with a continental 6 cyl gas flathead engine....It was a sweeper tractor at the King Salmon Air Force Base...It had a hydraulically powered street sweeping brush mounted under the belly..Hardly used ,very low hours on the Tach...All the tin work was hammered and beat when I got it out of the dump but it was in such good shape otherwise that I decided to restore it..It was Air force yellow...I painted it massey red..Powerful machine...and I'm a sucker for tractors...

[W2PFY]

Up here at the camp I remind my neighbors when they go to lawn sales or an auction to be on the lookout fer electronic items. So far, one mint Heathkit scope minus the knobs. One Dynaco solid state amp for two dollars, sold for $120.00.

Haven't seen any KW-1's or Desk KW's. This area is near the old Plattsburg AFB. I don't see any treasures from that base that closed in the 70's.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Ah the dump... one mans junque, another mans treasure.  I have pulled some O-scopes, sterios and vacuum tube TV's out of the pile here.  The thing is to find the time to restore it or salvage whats needed. 

One of the Old TV set power transformers is going to be my screen grid modulation tranny for my 2x 4-400 rig some day....

[k4kyv]

That dumpster haul looks better than a lot of hamfest hauls I have made, hundreds of dollars later.

Something that really pisses me off is dump administrators that try to enforce a policy that "anything that comes in here stays" and jealously guard everything inside the dumpsters against "theft" until it can be buried by the bulldozers under tons of clay. Yet they give lip-service to "recycling" while the local government charges every household in the city or county a monthly "close-out fee", allegedly to be set aside in a special fund to pay for processing the landfill the day it is finally filled to capacity (yeah, right).

[KL7OF]

That dumpster haul looks better than a lot of hamfest hauls I have made, hundreds of dollars later.

Something that really pisses me off is dump administrators that try to enforce a policy that "anything that comes in here stays" and jealously guard everything inside the dumpsters against "theft" until it can be buried by the bulldozers under tons of clay. Yet they give lip-service to "recycling" while the local government charges every household in the city or county a monthly "close-out fee", allegedly to be set aside in a special fund to pay for processing the landfill the day it is finally filled to capacity (yeah, right).

The dump here in the village is run by the borough and they encourage the "recycling of items" as in "take that home with you please"  The usable items are kept for a while inside the building so people can go thru them and take home items they can use...Cans of paint, we have a lot of usuable batteries as well because the boat owners replace them while the old ones still have life in them...The gubmit... FAA, USAF, Nat'l wx service, Fish and game, etc all have a strong presence here and contribute lots of items to the dump...We are not on the road system here so everything comes in and out by barge or plane...Gubmit surplus goes to the dump as the cost of shipping is very high..

[W2PFY]

Our dump " Exchange Station" has a 100 percent return policy! If you don't like something that you picked there you can bring it back for a 100 percent credit for the next item you want to bring home and try to fix

The present manager will work with you if HE likes you. If your on his sh#t list, forget about it!

[KC4ALF]

Our dump is now guarded by the county trash nazi, no removal of anything! Ah the goodies I used to get... My best haul was a 1939 Southbend Lathe with a load of accs. and a 1951 Dodge 6cyl 230 CID engine in pretty good condition. Only radio gear were assortments of vintage broadcast gear in various states of decay.

[AJ1G]

That reminds me- I have gotten many decent deep cycle marine batteries from our town dump - there is a pallet and a shed for battery/florescent bulb recycling.  Lots of deep cycle batts, often in pairs or quads, show up in the spring when the local boaters put in new ones for the new season.  Have run many of my dynamotor powered mil BAs over the years.

[WA3VJB]

Our county has a "dump Nazi" too, but I halfway agree with the policy.

Turns out people were taking scrap metal and selling it themselves, depriving the county of revenue it planned to make off the same metal.  That's different than locking the place against the retrieval of pieces of equipment and other secondhand goods that may still provide some service. But they do that too, as a blanket policy. Nothing can leave.

A big loss around here was the closing of a state agency for surplus property, now a couple years ago.  Man, the stuff the state offices threw out. This place would sell them, usually for about 10 percent of value, and it was like a hamfest sometimes with some of the gear that came through there. I had been going there since college and watched as it passed from shelves full of surplus IBM correcting Selectrics, to various 486, to CDR instead of floppies, and so on.

Governor said the payroll and the inefficiency of the sale made the place not viable, so he shut it down. The offices now are supposed to hang on to the stuff and list it on a third party, commercial website auction.

I bet they're more inclined to toss it in the Dumpster and be done with it.

[k4kyv]

Usually the dump nazi is an old fart, but he can't monitor every dumpster at the same time. So just wait till he is not looking and grab the 75A-4 or the 4-1000.  Sometimes bribing material (a six-pack or a pint of Jack Daniels works too). I have a hook, made out of 1/4" steel rod, that I carry in the back of the van, just for pulling stuff out of dumpsters. At the local dump here, they freak out if they see you climbing inside a dumpster.

I suspect the "nothing leaves" policy is based on some nationwide standard model, like the standard "no antenna" clause in HOA rules. They have their own unions!

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Our dump has a "No Scavenging" rule posted. Rarely enforced... plus I tend to be quick, doing a drive by review on my way to dump brush or such.  Then quick snatch & Grab if it's worth it on the way out.   I think they sell the stuff to some recycling outfit, and so the guards.

[Jim, W5JO]

e...and I'm a sucker for tractors...

Does your wife think your tractor is sexy?

[k4kyv]

Our dump has a "No Scavenging" rule posted. Rarely enforced... plus I tend to be quick, doing a drive by review on my way to dump brush or such.  Then quick snatch & Grab if it's worth it on the way out.   I think they sell the stuff to some recycling outfit, and so the guards.

Problem is, the recycling outfit likely wouldn't have a clue of the value of the stuff some imbeciles throw away. So the box full of 4-1000s the deceased's wife threw in the dump would most likely be crushed in the crusher.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

So true Don... so true.   When the Digital TV thing when through, the place was Flooded with TV's of every descriptions, because people thought they had to switch I guess, and they just used bucket loaders and forklifts to stuff them into trucks & dumpsters...  I bet most of them were fine too..

[WU2D]

Our "Dump" here in Hooksett NH as it is still referred to is like most, a recycling and transfer station now. We do make money enough to run it and the equipment, pat for the transfers and for three salaries mostly on metal and cardboard. The commodities like plastic and glass are 100% recycled but are losers right now because of the market. We have no bottle law. You only have to pay for a few items you ditch like monitors and such. We also make you pay for some items like construction and E waste but only a little compared to most operations. I paid 45 dollars in an upstate NY transfer station for what we would have charged 5-10 dollars for.