[Boatanchors] Reality Comes Knocking.

[Donald Chester]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2022 at 11:22 AM Lawrence Godek <lawrenceg94 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have shelves...    Years
> and years of old QST's in their binders along with some more recent
> stuff (from the 70's, 80's etc) on, a nice big stack of 73, Ham Radio
> and CQ magazines, years and years of old handbooks and lots of small
> parts.  Boxes of receiving tubes and meters... Will the maybe be a day 
> in the future when someone will be
> saying "I wonder where i can find one of those things?" It will all be
> in the dump, buried by tons of other garbage... Yeah, i think about it 
> and wonder what i can do to keep this from > happening.  

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:09:53 -0600 Bob Groh <bob.groh at gmail.com wrote:

> Larry, here are some suggestions:
> The magazines and paper are goners - just pitch them.

BAD ADVICE!!!!!!

DON'T throw out those old magazines and Handbooks, at least not ones printed before about 1970 or 1980 (I don't strongly disagree with Bob regarding ones published after about 1980). Knowledge of old technology is becoming as unobtanium and rare as the parts and tubes required to build and repair it.  Look through those old magazines and handbooks and make a quick list - it doesn't have to be anything time consuming or extensive - AND POST IT on this and similar websites; give it away free of charge if you just want to get rid of it. It would be a  shame to let it be destroyed.  I'm sure you would find takers willing to come by and pick them up if within reasonable travelling distance IF ONLY THEY KNEW IT WAS THERE.

That reminds me of a story from a ham I worked on the air several years ago.  He told me about another him in his same town who threw out a complete collection of QSTs from Issue #1 up through sometime in the eighties, some in binders.  He happened to pass by the ham's QTH and noticed them piled in the trash bins waiting for the rubbish collector to come by on pick-up day.  Problem was, it had rained that night, the barrels were uncovered, and the whole collection of magazines were submerged in water, totally ruined!!  He asked the guy why he threw out all  those old magazines, and he replied there was "no need to keep them; you can get them on CD now". Many of us much prefer looking over a paper book or magazine, than gazing at a computer screen.  Those old publications are valuable.

Many collectors and people simply interested in the history of radio would have paid good money for that collection.  Worse still, ARRL has now discontinued selling complete CD archives of early QSTs.

Where will the newly initiated, in the near future, who will be interested in traditional old-style, non-plug 'n play amateur radio, find the information they would need to instruct themselves on the topic and maybe even build a homebrew transmitter out of vintage parts, if all the old handbooks and magazines that describe the technology are "gone"?

Don k4kyv