[R-390] More Bad News

[Barry Hauser]

Steve wrote:
> Hey, my calendar says April 1!


So does mine.  If it was an April Fool's joke, it was a cruel one -- I think 
I'm having chest pains <uuuurrrrp>  Nevermind.

Barry

> Message: 8
> Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:13:46 -0500
> From: "antipode" <antipode at comcast.net>
> Subject: [R-390] More Bad News
> To: <collins at listserve.com>, <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <DKENJMGGGIHHFLOPJECPMEDODDAA.antipode at comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> A couple of days ago I stopped by a seemingly uninteresting garage sale
> on
> my way home from work.  I left work early on Wednesday afternoon to take
> care of some personal business when I happened across the sale on a back
> street shortcut I sometimes take when the traffic is heavy.  As I drove
> by
> the place I remembered I had seen a tower with a beam behind this same
> house
> a few years earlier, but it had been taken down.  I never really knew
> the
> ham who lived there as he primarily was an experimenter from what I had
> heard.  As soon as I saw the garage sale sign, I decided to stop since I
> thought there may be some ham goodies if the guy still lived there.
> Sure
> enough when I walked into the garage there were several pieces of old
> gear
> lying around on some of the tables including an old beat up
> Hallicrafters
> SX-99 and an old Ham-M rotator and control box.  There was an elderly
> woman
> running the sale who introduced herself and explained that all this had
> been
> her husband's, but he had died about a month earlier due to poor health
> and
> now she was disposing of all his old radio equipment.  She said the sale
> was
> very slow that afternoon as it was a weekday and she expected this
> upcoming
> Saturday to be the day when all this stuff would be sold.
>
> After chit-chatting with her for a few minutes I looked around a bit
> more
> carefully and noticed a couple of Collins manuals near some old
> newspapers.
> One of the manuals was for a KW-1 and the other for a 51J-4.  Being a
> Collins collector myself, my interest was immediately piqued.  I
> inquired
> about the equipment which these manuals were for, and she said that
> equipment was way too heavy for her to move out into the garage so she
> had
> just left it in the house in her husband's study.  She took me into his
> "shack" and sure enough there it was.  The KW-1 was apparently used on
> CW
> only as I didn't see a mic but only an old bug on his operating desk.
> Also
> on the desk was what looked like a pristine 51J-4 in its original
> cabinet.
> When I inquired about buying the KW-1 and 51J-4 she said it was probably
> worth a lot of money but had no idea of its value.  Before I could come
> up
> with a reasonable offer, she volunteered that she would sell both pieces
> to
> me for $350.00 provided I would move it out by this Sunday.  Needless to
> say
> I nearly had a heart attack on the spot!  Without showing too much
> excitement, I casually accepted the offer and promised I'd be back today
> (Friday) as that would give me ample time to arrange a truck and a
> friend to
> help me load the gear.  My heart was about ready to explode!  I had just
> made the deal of the century!
>
> I took off work today to pick up my spectacular find, rented a good
> sized
> truck, and arranged for my buddy, who works only until 12 noon on
> Fridays,
> to help me move the gear out of the house and into the truck.  I picked
> him
> up and we zoomed over to the house.  When we arrived there was another
> car
> parked in the driveway and I had to park the truck on the street.  Going
> up
> to the front door to ask the woman if she could have the owner of the
> car
> move it so I could get the truck as close as possible for loading, a
> rather
> young man met me and asked what I wanted.  When I told him about the
> deal he
> laughed and said that the old radios his mother had arranged to sell me
> weren't worth anything, and he had just had it hauled off by a scrap
> dealer
> who paid him on the spot enough money to pay for fixing his mother's
> washing
> machine ($125)!  Needless to say when I heard all this I was angry and
> heartbroken.  To add insult to injury, the scrap dealer apparently had
> just
> "thrown" the 51J-4 into the back of his truck according to the lady's
> son,
> and then he and his helper hauled the KW-1 out into the front yard where
> they proceeded to cut it up with a cutting torch!  Laying in the front
> yard
> was a remnant of the KW-1's plastic kilocycle dial, the only remaining
> evidence of the deal that never was.  The young man was serious when he
> said
> he didn't want me to be "taken", as his mother was having severe mental
> problems and he would never have allowed her to make a deal like that
> had he
> been there.  This is NOT going to be a good weekend!
>
> How's that for "BAD NEWS"?
>
> W5IQJ
>