[Boatanchors] Scope "Gifts"

[John Flood]

HI Pete and all,

Last month at the MIT flea in Cambridge, MA I dragged out a box of pretty much 
usless Thryatrons, some rather large.  The MIT kids scooped them up for a buck 
or two each and it paid my way in for the day.  However they all wanted to use 
them as decorations!  I told them what they were and what they did.  Thay said 
interesting but I don't care much about that, All I know is they look cool!  Now 
as they gaze into the silicon encased vacuum and ponder the mysteries of the 
whachamacallits inside, will it inspire a few new BA guys or gals?  Only time 
will tell............

Now back to my pet tube project, useless tubes glued to plastic boxes heaters 
lit by surplus wall warts, 2-3 bucks in parts $19.95 on the shelf.  Hmmmm.....   
Tell the audiophools that if they put 'em on top of the computer the 1's and 0's 
will align better on the HD....  Make that price $399.95 plus shipping

John Flood
KB1FQG 



----- Original Message ----
> From: Pete Lancashire <xyzzypdx at gmail.com>
> To: Michael D. Harmon <mharmon at att.net>
> Cc: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Sent: Tue, July 13, 2010 9:28:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Scope "Gifts"
> 
> I just suddenly got a lot older ....
> 
> I was going to reply as to how someone who gave me a 'scope when I was 12
> but I got interrrupted.
> 
> The college student room mate of the ripe old age of 23 came in to the
> kitchen as I was packing up 4 tubes to send to someone from all the old
> test equipment I've been scrapping.
> 
> He picked one up and had that 'what the heck is this' look. Yep he did not 
know
> what a vacuum tube is.
> 
> sigh ...
> 
> -pete
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 4:32 PM, Michael D. Harmon <mharmon at att.net> wrote:
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > The story about giving the scope to the kid made me think of something I
> > did a couple of years ago.
> >
> > Back in 2000-2005 (when they were dirt-cheap on E-Pay), I "adopted" a
> > lot of Tektronix scopes and related test equipment orphans.  I was
> > really into 453A's and 454A's for a while.  Back then, you could buy
> > questionable 454A's for $30 or so.  I must have bought a half dozen or
> > more of them.  Most of them I fixed up and got working again by using a
> > couple of the really rough ones for parts donors.  Anyway, there was a
> > college kid working at the local electronics emporium between semesters
> > of EE school.  He was a bright kid and knew I rescued "orphans", so one
> > day he asked me if I knew of anyplace he could find a decent scope to
> > take back to school with him.  I had a couple of working 454A's that I
> > wasn't using (my main scope is a Tek 7904A plugin scope), so I took one
> > of them over to the store and told him Merry Christmas.  He asked me how
> > much, and when I told him it was his, you should have seen the look on
> > his face!  Sometime later, he told me some of his friends and classmates
> > had cheap Taiwanese plastic scopes, but everyone always compared their
> > results to his.
> >
> > Sometimes it's just a blast helping a bright kid out!  Made my whole day!
> >
> > 73,
> > Mike, WB0LDJ
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