- 2024
- May
- 19
Hamvention 2024 - Saturday’s Stuff I Didn’t Need (mom it followed me home!)
Saturday was a good day at the Hamvention. It was warm, things were drying out, and everything was open. A few vendors appeared to have left, but there’s always some that only attend Friday, expecting it to be the big day.
The mix of products has changed over the years. Gone are the big stacks of old test equipment, piles of old radios and televisions, and the endless sea of Watkins-Johnson equipment. CBs have faded as well from their peak a few years ago, and computer equipment is all but gone save for a few “classic” machines and newer hard drives that got replaced in the never-ending “moar stoarage!” quest. Hobby gear from the 60s seems to be common right now, with big radio gear still being common but lessening.
I picked up a few things Saturday:
I picked up this Eico power supply. It’s designed for tube work, providing 400VDC and 150VDC for plate and biasing. There was a second one, not working, and I was going to offer on both but the dead one sold first. Probably for the same thing I was going to use it for - parts.
The little Heathkit meter is AC only, but the meter goes to the middle when it’s turned on. Something leaky or shot, most likely. It was last calibrated in 1995, was used by Southwestern Bell, and the cal house was in Dayton. Kind of a cool thing.
A manual for both items is in order before use.
This Squeezebox Touch was in a box of random devices. Logitech used to have this awesome music player system that you ran on a server at your house, and you could connect multiple music players to it that played streams or your local library. They discontinued it because I guess you can’t sell ads in a service you run yourself. Regardless, the players still work fine and this clean example of one of the touchscreen models was cheap. I need to try it out, if it’s dead then oh well.
The other items are AC line testers. Unlike most, these have 120, 220, 380, and 440 lamps. At a buck each, I bought 3 and will toss them in the toolbag.
That’s all for Saturday, I was planning to (and did) go back on Sunday. I picked up a few more items to take home because vendors were willing to deal so they didn’t take it home. Stay tuned!
Links to all the things I drug home this year:
Friday https://wereboar.com … d-in-my-car-i-swear/
Saturday https://wereboar.com … it-followed-me-home/
Sunday https://wereboar.com … t-because-its-cheap/