[Test-Equipment] OT: Sad story

[Rasputin Novgorod]

Sorry for this off topic subject, but I had to tell 
someone. Yesterday I got a call from a friend. He was
cleaning out his 84 yr old (dead) father's estate and wondered
if I wanted some old radio gear there.

His father was a ham and owned the local Music/radio/repair
store in town, before it closed in the 80's. The father was
also had a reputation an avid photographer and was 
quite a bit of an excentric hoarder. He was also frugal, 
and didn't believe in wasting money on things like a new roof.

It appears that when they closed the store, everything that
didn't sell was moved to their garage, where it now sits.
But the roof decayed years ago, soaking and ruining everything.
There were dozens of old tube radios, parts, inventory, a couple
of tube testers, and boxes of gear, CB radios, military radios
amplifers, intercoms, TV picture tubes, some TV/radio test gear;
a whole garage of it, mostly rusted & ruined. I nearly cried...
I guess as the old man aged, he refused to change anything,
fix anything or sell anything. The last five years of his life
he lived with his son, while the homestead fell to ruin.

I pulled as many used tubes as I could, perhaps 30-40, plus I found
about 50 more tubes, new in original (wet) boxes which I grabbed and
am now drying (including boxes). There was so much more that
was buried behind other things.

I also found the father's photographic slide collection, soaked 
and ruined. The house roof also leaked, but I found a nice Heathkit
Ham 1.5 kW power meter and a 100 watt(!) CB transceiver.

This has filled one large dumpster and will fill another. It's
very sad, and the waste of good stuff bothers me. But it has also
made me start to re-evaluate all the stuff I'm hoarding and
will never use. Time for a house/shop cleaning!

Sincerely,


		
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