Dumpster Diving

[Bill, KD0HG]

What was the best electronics find any of you scored by digging in the trash somewhere?

I've found a perfect set of the RCA HB-3 tube manuals in a dumpster behind an old-time Denver TV repair shop on Lincoln Avenue. Later, I found a complete 50s Fisher hi-fi amp (pair of 6L6s in P-P) in a dumpster near a place I used to work. Beautiful iron in the thing.  Both times, I was out wandering around at lunchtime on nice days and just happened to look into the trash..Maybe I have radar..

[Carl WA1KPD]

1973- HQ-129 in perfect shape and working condition. Found it in the local dump in the days when you could "dump pick". Also found a 55 gsl drum of NOS stsp switches individually wrapped  in plastic. Filled my pockets.
Now they send all the cool stuff off to be burnt

[WA3VJB]

RCA BA-6A tossed in a radio station's Dumpster because its tubes made it a fire hazard, according to the source.

What is it?



http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/articles/fletch/part2.shtml

The RCA BA-6A is another serious favorite. I have no idea how it accomplishes this, but anything run through it gets ten times larger than when it went in. They are also amazing mic amps--they have enough gain so you can plug a mic directly into the input and go straight to tape.

They can put out as much as 95 volts at the output, so when using it on line-level sources I generally find the need to pad the input and output 20 dB each. This seems to get you closer to the optimal operating range for the unit.


RCA BA-6A
      

These are not low-maintenance units; they require careful care and feeding. This should not be performed by anyone not intimately familiar with the unit. The folks at RCA seemed to be aware of this and incorporated a tube tester in the unit. The setup is critical, or you might find yourself spending many hours dealing with a loud hum.

[WA1GFZ]

One Saturday morning I was leaving work. The back parking lot was full of all kinds of surplus stuff we used to donate to the local schools. There was a bucket loader heading to the area. I drove over to a test equipment pile blocking the bucket loader. I jumped out and asked if I could have some of the stuff. The mifwic said go ahead we are just going to trash it. I filled my truck with counters, DVM and Wavetek signal generators. I hauled them home and cleaned them up and verified the stuff worked. I saved the best stuff for myself then sold the rest cheap at hostraders. I made a grand and provided a bunch guys some clean tested stuff cheap. I did miss out on a new compressor worth a grand by seconds. It did have a dented electrical junction box though. My best find was a HP3325 function generator that makes a beautiful SBE VFO if i ever need one.

[kf6pqt]

Ok, this is all one score:

Heathkit DX60, Sixer, two scopes, vtvm, keyer, gdo, Q-multiplier... National NC155 and 300, Eico 753 w ps and two 720's, Swan 500cx, SBE 300, Gonset Comm 2, gonset vhf linear amp w/4x150a, gutted Drake TR3 and a gutted hallicrafters xceiver who's number escapes me, three KW tuners, a tube tester, a box of parts that had a bugcatcher coil, several antenna relays and mechanical filters, some MFJ stuff, 2m/70cm alinco, and a few misc power power supplies.


 

-Jason kf6pqt

[W1DAN]

Hi all:

A KW-1 and 75A4!

(Just Kidding!)

I got a Zenith Transoceanic Royal 3000 in the trash. Also a cheap Lafayette tube SW rx. And a QST collection when I was 10 years old, which started me in the hobby!

73
Dan
W1DAN

[k7yoo]

Collins 21E that is now serving as the K7YOO entertainment center

[W1RKW]

This is more audio related than radio related:  About 15 or so years ago I was driving through town and it was town clean up week where everyone would put whatever crap they wanted to get rid of out on the curb and the town trash haulers would haul it away.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught what I thought was a McIntosh monoblock audio amp.  When I pulled up to the pile of trash sure enough it was what I thought it was along with its twin brother  a pair of MC60's.  I grabbed both of them and brought them home. Cleaned them up and put new tubes in them and sold them for a couple of hundred dollars not knowing what I had.  That was then. I wish I had them now.  Could have sold them for a couple of thousand dollars each. 

[k4kyv]

I've  been dumpster diving for so many years I  couldn't say what my best find ever would be.  For a while when I lived in Cambridge, MA I used to cut across the Harvard campus to catch the MBTA to work.  On the way home one evening I noticed a huge pile of electronic stuff piled on the pavement near a dumpster behind one of the buildings.  Picked up loads of goodies there.  Just a few months ago at work, they cleared out a long unused electronics lab at a local school to make use of the classroom.  I made about 4 car trips lugging home some of the stuff they said they were going to throw out.  When I  lived in the Boston area I used to  regularly prowl the streets the night before trash pickup day.  It was amazing some of the stuff that people put out on the kerb.  That's where I got the outboard hifi amp I use with my 75A4.  Also once found some 1930's vintage scrap from the old National Company in Malden MA.

I have heard stories of 75A4's, but I suspect those may be urban legends.

I have also heard a few real tear jerkers about people finding, about a week too late, about some real treasures being hauled the dump because the people handling some SK's estate didn't know what it was and it looked like "old junk" to them.

One example was a complete, hardbound set of QST's from issue #1 up to when the ham died in the 1970's.  The widow told the person who had inquired after waiting a respectful few weeks after his death, "Oh, I wish I had known you wanted that stuff.  I just had it all hauled to the dump about a week ago."

At a local university, I once procrastinated too long and a beautiful auto-tune Collins military rig, that resembled a KW-1 and used a pair of 813's modulated by a pair of 805's, was buried in the rubble of a demolished building because no-one wanted to haul it out of the basement before the building was razed.

All the more reason, regardless of your age and health, to make sure you have left clear instructions to someone how to properly dispose of your radio stuff in the event of your unexpected demise.

Then of course, the wives of some hams hate radio so much that they almost literally call in someone first to haul the radio stuff to the dump, and once it is safely out of the house, then call the undertaker to come remove the body.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Hi all:

A KW-1 and 75A4!

(Just Kidding!)

Ha! Truth is stranger than fiction! It doesn't count in the dumpster dive category, but one step away: I did get my KW-1 and first 75A-4 out of an antique shop back in 1988 by following up a tip from a friend. Also got a Central Electronics 200V, Collins 30L-1, Multi-Elmac station and a box of other trinkets. Asking price was $1000 or best offer, I called the guy and we settled on $350 mainly because:

a.) I had no idea what half of it was, having only gone to get the amp to go with my KWM-2A

b.) he had no idea if any of it worked

c.) was making $6/hr and only had $350 to my name! (had to bum gas money for the week from my dad)

d.) he wanted it GONE, so did his friend who owned the shop

Speaking with the guy on the phone brought a couple things to my attention. First, none of it had been used in many years, his uncle left it behind and no one wanted it. Second, he was going to toss it all out, but the 'big one' (only the manual was at the shop when I was there, it had to be dropped off the next weekend) was going to cost too much to have hauled off, so he figured he try to sell it all to get some money and let someone else haul it off. He was pleased to have "someone young and enthusiastic" get it, and I had no clue what a KW-1 was or even how big it was. In the book it looked about 3 feet tall, at most. It's great to be young and foolish. 

As far as the dumpster part, I did bean someone inside the dumpster at Deerfield one year when I heaved an old Aerotron portable over the side. Normally you can hear people thrashing around as they go through stuff, but this guy was apparently reading a tag or schematic and wasn't making a sound. Hope that wasn't you, Frank!

Moral of the stories: always follow up every tip, and make your presence known when rummaging inside a dumpster.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Once a year, when I works at the Labs, we had a building wide cleanup. Large dumpsters were positioned on every floor of each building. Whatever purchased material, that was no longer needed for a project, generally was tossed. I have a life-time supply of all types of coaxial connectors, adapters, resistors, capacitors, inductors, mini-boxes, metal boxes, semiconductors of all shapes and forms, stainless steel nuts, bolts, washers, and even a few W. E. tubes.

In the early 90's, the C. E. 100V I currently use on the air was found at the curb waiting for heavy metal trash pickup. Two years later in a different town, a policeman driving by a heavy metal trash pile on the side of a street  (there were no sidewalks) picked up a SX-88 and gave me a call to come pick it up.

[w1guh]

"The widow told the person who had inquired after waiting a respectful few weeks after his death, 'Oh, I wish I had known you wanted that stuff.  I just had it all hauled to the dump about a week ago.'"

Yea, if there's no one handling the estate, a widow will probably welcome someone knowledgable who will get rid of the "junk." 

[N0WVA]

Best stuff I ever found "dumpster diving" was old All American Five radios. To this day, if I see one at a yard sale for a couple bucks, I wont pass it by.

Best deal I ever came across was when I went to a sale a widow of a SK was having. She had a list of stuff with prices on it that a local ham had compiled for her. When I got there, most of the stuff on the list was gone, but there was a KWM2 with matching PS and MIC which was not on the list, and also sitting in the corner out of the way was a Johnson KW matcbox. I really didnt know at the time how much a Collins was worth, when she said $150 , I hesitated, but then bought it, hoping to try out a different piece of ham equipment.  I bought the matchbox for $75. WHen I got the Collins home, I decided it was the biggest piece of junk I ever owned, then sold it on a trader net for $250, mic, ps and all. I also, stupidly, sold the matchbox 2 years later when I thought I wanted to go college.

If I has only known about EBAY at the time, I probablt could have raked it in on the prestine KWMII.

[W2JBL]

Hallicrafters S40 (two over the years) MANY S38's. Heath DX60B and HR10B. Univox Les Paul guitar, custom made Brazillian nylon string guitar,many guitar amps. Sony 100 watt per channel receiver,and a similar Marantz. all the furniture in my apartment,Sony
Trinitron 19" TV, Fisher CD player, Fisher amp- stereo four 7591's or such. two nice Bogen 100 watt PA amps. every computer i ever had, Drake TR4CW (Paul W2BP rescued and gave me) ,ARC-5 stuff. the list is endless- i'd be typing all night! two days ago an old Wurlitzer electronic organ gave me 80 12AU7's, a nice 6L6 push pull amp, 10" and 15" speakers. Millen Exciter 6L6-807 (KB3AHE has it now). 90% of my stuff is from the curb waiting heavy trash pickup. lasnt night a MINT "Radio Flyer" kid's wagon. great Ebay fodder! gun stuff: ammo, slings, holsters, rifle stocks, clips, reloading supplies.

      personally i don't like to climb into dumpsters. around here the homeless use them for cheap housing, and are also very possesive of the contents. this can get you hurt or killed. i favor the stuff outside homes in affluent neighborhoods.
another hot spot: the stuff piled up in front of the Salvation Army or other donation receptacles at your local super market. the sign on the box clearly states "do not leave any donations outside the box". i keep the area clean by grabbing the good stuff!

[AB3L]

I think this will qualify,.........I beat the dumpster by a week.

I work at a college and it at one time it had lots of old labs with tons of old gear. I was lucky enough to frequent the area around one lab. I had been out af radio for some time but something caught my eye after a few trips past the rack that stood discarded in the hallway. It took me back to the old QST's that my elmer had given me. In particular, the radio store adds in the rear of the magazine that showed stacks of radio's.
The front panel was the ugliest metalic brown color and the knob labeling had been done with rub on stencil. The thing that got me was that black "V" shaped Collins dial escution. I asked for it and was given the OK. It turned out to be a R-388 receiver. I did some research on line and somehow a few months later, it was in the carefull hands of HM. It's a beauty now.

That lab was gutted and "prettied up" for the students. I was told that they gotta see new equipment.

[Bill, KD0HG]

You guys are really bumming me out!

[W2XR]

Guys,

I don't know if this counts, but in November of 1986, WSL in Brentwood, Long Island, NY went off the air. It was at one time an 1100 acre HF transmitting facility that was originally owned by Mackay Radio, and later ITT World Communications. All of their domestic and international HF traffic had transitioned over to satelllite, and as such, the plant was shut down. The site was literally right across the street from the company where I worked at the time.

I secured permission to go onto the premises; the new owner of the facility (who had bought it exclusively for the very valuable real estate) said help yourself to anything you want before the facility was to be demolished. He was incredibly cool; no issues with insurance liability, etc.

I immediately got the word out to Eric, WB2CAU; Jerry, WA2FNQ; Joe, WA2PJP; George, W2KRM; and Dick, K2RIW, et al, and we literally pirated the place. I went in there every day during lunch and after work until it got dark; remember this was November. We spent two full weekends carting stuff away. An absolute dream if you were a ham; you'd think you had died and went to radio transmitter heaven! If we took 0.005% of the stuff that was there, that was a lot. Most of the approximately 30+ transmitters there operated from 4 to 24 Mhz, and were typically 30 to 50KW output. Some of the older XMTRs were water cooled. The transmitters were too large to move, so we stripped what we could for parts.

You name it, it was there; vacuum variable capacitors, transmitting tubes, air variables, turns counters, massive roller inductors, E.F. Johnson 833A tube sockets, filament and plate transfomers, filter chokes, Simpson meters, ceramic insulators of every kind, antenna wire, parts, parts, parts, the list goes on and on. And the stuff was not only pulls from the rigs, but NOS and NIB spare parts for the rigs as well. I literally filled my basement with parts and small rigs from the place.

In the basement, they had a pile of probably 25 SP-600s. I took three of them. I also got a TMC SBE-9 ISB/SSB exciter with VOX master oscillator, etc. from an TMC GPT-40K This was the small stuff that was manageable and easily transportable.

I am still using the parts I got from there to this day, and not surprisingly, many have ended up in the homebrew 2X 4-400As by 833As rig. A lot of the items were traded for other stuff. It was an incredible experience to go in there and help yourself to radio parts from a transmitting facility that I had known about and listened to on HF since I was a kid, but never had been inside while it was on the air.

There is a modern industial complex there now. All vestiges of ITT World Communications are long gone. Truly the end of an era..........

73,

Bruce, W2XR

[wb1aij]

My Halicrafters BC-610 was sitting at the side of the road in front of an old MARS operators house back in the 80s.and thanks to Larry, WA1LGQ, I was notified and rescued it. Except for the pair of 2A3 tubes that drive the 100th modulator tubes it was complete with 2 of each oscillator plug in modules & tank circuit coils. I picked up the antenna tuner a year later at a flea market for $95.00. Still have it and if  I ever decide I don't want it anymore (like that is going to happen) I will probably donate it to the antique radio & communications museum in Windsor Ct. for their club station. I like to think it will live on for many many years.

[KB2WIG]

I will not read this post anymore... I am getting sick ....  klc

[k4kyv]

I will not read this post anymore... I am getting sick ....  klc

Well at least be glad the stuff didn't end up in a landfill.

[WBear2GCR]

Ya know, I have been dumpster diving for a long time now...
Can't say that I have ever hit the MOTHER LOAD BONANZA, or the once-in-a-lifetime BIG SCORE.

Have gotten the usual TVs, odds-n-ends electronic gear & parts, computer parts... some audio stuff, test gear, never any real Ham gear... 

Proably the best out of a real dumpster was some Tek Transistor Curve Tracers (university dumpster). They work, and are still doing work.

When I worked at that University, I was given a chance to look over a lab that was being "closed" - I think the prof was SK or retired. Saw a hammertone box on a shelf, two of them... on closer inspection it was a McIntosh 50-W-2. Nice. Still on my bench as the test amp.

Was probably providence that sent it, as I had soldl my MC-30 to make cash... and regreted losing it. Being rugged, and having a 600ohm winding on the output!

Gotta love those widows... how many years living with the guy, and still NO CLUE what that stuff is??
Geez...

When I think of what is in the dumps, and what gets thrown out by industry, educational institutions, and the military it makes me sick.

          _-_-WBear2GCR

[W2XR]

I also heard this one from a buddy of mine who lives in Northern New Jersey. It actually happened, and is not the stuff of urban legend;

He was out walking the dog one evening about 15 years ago when he came across a Macintosh MC-275 2x 75 watt vacuum tube stereo amplifier, the one with the sexy chrome plated top deck, satin black bottom cover, and four KT-88 audio output tubes. It was abandoned in front of a neighbors house, curbside, awaiting pick-up probably the next day by the garbage collector. He ran back to his house to get his car to take it home; those suckers are heavy, and as he was loading it into the trunk of his car, the owner who was chucking it walked out of his house and asked him if he wanted the matching Macintosh tube preamplifier as well!!!

Those Macintosh MC-275 power amplifiers were going for around $3500.00 on e-Bay at one time; I have no idea what their current value is or what the preamp goes for. Really classic American tube audio gear, among the best this country has ever built.

He is still using these units to this day. They were in close to mint condition when he found them, and a little car wax and TLC brought them back to near-new appearance.

You never know. Just goes to prove the classic addage, "one man's trash is another man's treasure". How very, very true!!!

73,

Bruce, W2XR

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Collins 21E that is now serving as the K7YOO entertainment center

      Dumpster Diving really pays off when the object is bigger than the dumpster itself!

      Way to Go Skip!
                           Joe N3IBX

[WA3VJB]

Yeah Joe you NEED to find a back door treasure like this that won't fit in the Dumpster.

Talked with Skip last night on 75m, he says he will light the filaments and apply E_p Saturday or Sunday, and has pushed ahead with work to make his 21E a tri-bander, 160-75-40.

Can't wait to hear Wynona on with THAT kind of footprint, whee !

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I found a 57 Chevy in a dumpster one time.