[Milsurplus] surplus and end of life decisions

[Ralph Cameron]

Comments from Hue miller and Mike Duff caught my attention and although 
I posed a question to Hue, he answered it in a later posting.

Mike, in general, I think you're right about those pieces of archaic 
"junk" that get warm when you plug them in. I have disposed of several 
"estates" consisting of loaded basements. Slowly over the past 5 years 
prices have gotten lower and lower but for the real collector, he'll pay 
top dollar for equipment that hasn't been abused. Most of my effort now 
is directed to disposing of equipment with proceeds going to either our 
national amateur radio organization or the Diefenbunker which is the 
only surviving underground bunker - 4 storeys deep and capable of 
housing 525 personnel during the Cold War period. The "bunker" ham 
station relies on equipment and monetary donations to survive.

The Diefenbunker runs a "Spy school" for kids 7-14 years old during 
summer recess and winter break and I teach introductory Morse Code for 
one class. I can only say they get excited to be able to send their own 
name, so I say the spark is there - you just have to ban them from using 
their iPods, iPads, computers and get them off their backsides to get an 
interest in some of the stuff we played with. I have some practice inked 
paper tapes that came out of Canada's Camp X. In translating them, it 
appears to be embassy type traffic, just the stuff intercept operators 
used to copy and to be fair one each tape is in French and the other 
English. All these little tidbits of trivia that come to light are still 
hidden away in garages and basements. I wish I had another 20 years to 
play with this "stuff".

Ralph
VE3BBM

-- 
EMC=electromagnetic compatibility means your consumer equipment should 
function in
the existing enviroment in the manner for which it was designed.If you 
hear shortwave or broadcast signals while listening to a DVD- what does 
that tell you?