I’d never been to this show, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Turned out to be a good local, a long row of vendors with some more in a building. We ended up wandering around for a couple hours, looking at everything twice. A few odds ‘n ends went home, including some freebies, so it turned out to be a good trip.
Prices at this show were variable - some were selling things for more than new, others had what I could consider to be accurate prices. Unfortunately, the down in the dirt prices of a few years ago seem to be gone. Hope you got what you wanted then!
This is what I saw at the show:
A clear cased counter. Quite cool.
Obligatory Heathkit equipment, getting rarer.
Multimeters, multimeters everywhere.
Some military piece.
A really good condition late model 260.
This guy had a couple of good looking radios.
Do you need your performance checked?
Benny looks a bit high.
The radio on the top was given to me with a “Do something with it.”
The pencil tube in a radiosonde.
A couple of antique radiosondes.
These were decent enough speakers.
The name of the former owner is engraved deeply.
What we go to shows for.
cin25-tekscopes-wereboar.jpp.jpg
A very nice tube tester and some radios.
This guy was selling Weston lab meters cheap.
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This will probably be a show I go to if there’s time, seeing as it’s about 2 hours away. Next show is the Findlay hamfest, which is always a good show (assuming no rain!)
I’ve never been to this show, so I can’t really say what it’s like - but it’s not that far so I’ll take a trip and see. If there’s anything good, I’ll have a lot of pictures for you. It’s at the Clermont County Fairgrounds in Owensville, which is a suburb somewhat to the east of Cincy proper.
Cincinatti Hamfest
Clermont County Fairgrounds
1000 Locust Street
Owensville, OH 45160
August 9
8A - 2P
Admission: $10 (you can pre-order tickets)
https://cincinnatihamfest.org/
See you there!
8/11 Update - I did make it to the show, it was a little one but I still saw some good stuff. Pictures coming ASAP.
The show in Columbus, Ohio is always a surprisingly good one. Other than the few years that it threatened rain, it’s always presented a very good selection of things to see, and a lot of vendors. This year was no different. Prices at this show were what I would consider more reasonable, so it was easy to spend a few bucks.
I limited myself to a few small items and some books, but there was plenty for everyone. Here’s what I saw at the show:
Some big boatanchor.
This guy was selling a lot of good books cheap.
The random things we go to shows for.
A Hallicrafters “Super Defiant” w/speaker.
I think it launches the missiles.
A random Hallicrafters and some stuff.
Something homemade, covered with screen.
A portable explosion inna box.
A RCA multi-tap isolation transformer.
Probably deaf as a post when it was new.
Lots of meters. I didn't buy a voltmeter.
Another one of those monitor scopes.
A Sencore Mighty Mite tube tester.
columbus25-moresupply-wereboar.jpg
The Weston meter was lovely.
Just don't take the guy's table.
I took the Olson transistor supply home.
One of GenRad's many specialty devices.
A Pan American “Tropical” receiver.
An interesting Heathkit supply.
Another deaf as a post radio.
The Hamfest Special table.
A few better grade radios.
And some better better radios.
columbus25-randoms-wereboar.jpg
A big, ancient lighting rheostat.
And a couple of these.
You need to see at least one of these.
Some small scopes.
A couple of small speakers from the 'shack.
Just a bunch of stuff.
A station-station telephone setup.
One of Heath's “Lunchbox” testers.
A tiny Tek scope.
A power supply for tube devices.
A meter in a rotor housing.
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The next show (this coming weekend) is Cincinnati. I’ve never been to that one, so it will be interesting to see what it’s like.
The Shriner’s Hamfest in Columbus, Ohio is happening August 2nd. This is a small, local show, but it’s always been good for something decent - be it a project device or simply something unique. Since it’s my local show, I always make a point to attend. As always, I’ll have pictures shortly after the show.
Columbus (OH) Hamfest
Aladdin Shrine Center
1801 Gateway Cir
Grove City, OH 43123
August 2
8A - 1PMish https://aladdinshrine.org/hamfest/
For the most part, I’ve only brought home parts (or parts units) this year - prices on equipment has really gone up and it’s moving things into the “I’d like that, but not at that price” territory, with some of the stuff being so far out of budget that there’s no way you could negotiate it down.
It shouldn’t be said that there aren’t bargains around, because there are. I did pick up some interesting things because I they were unusual or cheap.
First is this device. You’ve seen it before, since I had a post on it earlier. It’s a “tube tester” - aka “filament checker” for tubes. It’s some little device a company packed up with a RCA tube manual - in this case, the manual doesn’t look like it’s ever been cracked open. That’s the primary reason I purchased this, but the gadget was cool as well. It looks to have been used maybe one or two times - probably right up until the original owner realized you could just check the filaments with a meter instead!
Next up is a signal tracer! Yay! Well, not really. There’s nothing special about a signal tracer save this one is one of Precision’s devices (aka PACO) and is somewhat unusual. You see more of PACO’s signal generators and other devices - I believe this ST-22 is the first tracer from that manufacturer I’ve seen. It’s in very dirty shape and missing a knob, but it works. I did some cleanup on it and borrowed a knob from a PACO G-30, and it will probably be able to get put into service with a filter change. Stay tuned for a post on that in the future.
An Eico 902 Harmonic Distortion Analyzer is next up - this is a fairly late item for Eico, and as such, has very little wax paper capacitors to go bad. That’s good, because this is a fairly complex device under the hood. Providing some of the same measurements as the AA-1 and IM-48, this device could do both AC VTVM measurements as well as provide harmonic distortion measurements for audio amplifiers. While I don’t do a whole lot of audio work, this device was so cheap I really couldn’t pass it up. Next year, this will probably be back to 3 figures, so I picked it up now. There will be some posts on this one later as well.
Last, are some rather banal parts. These CSC (Continental Specialties Corporation) proto-boards match standard breadboard layout. You’ll probably recognize these - everyone from Radio Shack to no-name Chinese vendors sold a board with this exact same layout. Since I use these at times, and you can’t get them from the rats at the shack anymore, I picked these up for a few bucks. The 1970s packaging is just a bonus.
That takes care of finds from the first part of the year. Next show(s) are Columbus and Cincinnati in August, with a few more in September and November. Stay tuned for pictures of the goodies that show up!
Unlike last year, this year was promising rain - we could see it coming on the RADAR feed, but thought it would hold off for a few hours.
…but it didn’t hold off for long. We got about an hour before it started raining. Not hard, just a summer shower, but it wasn’t going to let up. We headed out.
The threat of rain kept a lot of vendors away, as the outdoor part of the market was less than half of last year’s crowd. That’s just the way this works - sometimes it rains. Still, there was a decent amount of things to see and the indoor portion of the show was full. Prices on some of the things was kind of high, with a few of the things I saw being just crazy - they were stopgap hobby things when new, and they aren’t aging well. Still, if someone is willing to pay it then more power to the people selling.
I did pick up a nice metered GenRad variac for $10, and some old Rat Shack style protoboards for a couple bucks each. I was offered some other things really cheap, but the “I don’t need more of this stuff” mentality kicked in.
Here’s what I saw at the show:
A lot of progessional audio gear
Some old protoboard like rat shack sold. I took these home.
An old, complex, impedance bridge.
Some cool old clock radios.
A couple of Conar (NRI) radios.
A signal generator in a truck bed.
I don't understand the prices on some of this stuff.
Was Hello Kitty on everything?
An old HP1200A scope.
This guy had a collection of meters for sale.
My friend loved this but said he couldn't afford it just to play Mario Bros.
A cool old Panasonic table radio.
Some radios, at a radio show…
Lots of random things.
This show has a lot of tables of things.
And even more random items.
What was this from?
An official Ma Bell teleprinter repair manual.
A tube tester and stuff.
Random radio gear.
It was a dollar because there were no tubes.
Tube testers are expensive.
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This finishes shows for the first half of the year, as there aren’t any I’m going to attend in July. Next is the Aladdin Shrine Audio Unit show in Columbus, Ohio, followed by the Cincinnati Hamfest in (obviously?) Cincinnati, Ohio.
As expected, this was a tiny show and had maybe a dozen vendors show up. I didn’t see a whole bunch of stuff I was interested in, mostly some nice radio gear and some electronics flea market stuff. Nothing really photo worthy except this interesting meter:
If it had been cheaper I would have bought it for the probe. $50 was just too much for something I wasn’t going to use much.
I did pick up a bunch of parts, so I’m happy with the trip.
Nothing wrong with stocking your parts bin with things.
This is a decent size local show that happens in Butler, PA at the Butler Farm Show event ground. I can usually spend 2-3 hours here, as they have several outdoor and indoor market spaces set up. It’s worth the trip if you’re in the surrounding area.
This is usually one of the first “Dayton Items without the Dayton Prices” shows that I’ll attend. See you there!
Saturday turned out to be a sunny, cool, and quite breezy day at the show. It looked like a few vendors left, and a few new ones showed up with stuff being unpacked throughout the day. We took a second tour of the flea market and looked inside one of the exhibit halls - things were just too packed in there to worry about.
I didn’t take home much this day - some parts and a couple of books.
Here’s what I saw on Saturday:
A giant box of selenium rectifiers.
A bit large for a porch lamp.
It has a giant tuning capacitor on top.
We've all needed this at times.
A portable inflatable atenna tower.
Solar cells for charging phones.
Lots of chickenband (CB) radios, not as many as previous years.
A random console radio.
Lots of CRT testers showed up this year.
The guy wanted $150 for this.
It's a converter. For your digitals.
Giant diodes.
Didn't see many of these this year.
Random stacks of equipment. Random show-goer not for sale.
Only the finest of turntables.
I didn't know GenRad made a frequency meter like this.
Lots of siggens. Some were a bit pricey.
Not a Bond movie, but a gold-plated protoboard.
It has the high sensitivities. No WiFis or GeeBees included.
A nice homebrew receiver device thingy.
Some high voltage storage media.
Varmints for your bench.
It measures the milliamperes.
One of many National receivers that showed up…
…and it was pretty inside.
This would explode some places I've worked.
A family member had one of these years ago.
The prices on the S-38C units went way up.
Just random equipment.
Not sure how this is supposed to be profitable, but hey.
It's a radio. I think.
A Heath speaker. Poor cabinet condition.
Stuff, and it's stacked.
Power supplies for your plates.
One of many tube testers at high prices.
W-J clones.
These really need shorting bars on them.
A Zenith Radio.
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I decided to skip out on Sunday, as I’d already seen everything twice and just didn’t feel like walking more.
Next up is SVARC in Piketon, and then Breezeshooters in Butler, PA. See you there!
Friday started out to be a nice day, quickly turned angry looking, and remained there for the rest of the day. It was threatening rain, but that all went to the south of the show during the day, and we had a relatively cool, slightly breezy afternoon for browsing the aisles.
This year was more of a “ham radio” year than previous. Yes, this is a radio show, but a lot more rigs and things seemed to show up. One of the vendors stated “Yes, that’s because everyone is dying,” and the older crowd we observed (myself included) seemed to indicate that more of the same would be happening. That’s probably where my stuff will end up in 30 years…
There was still a lot of good stuff to see, although I didn’t find what I was looking for. I did manage to drag a few things home, and overall had a good time.
This is what I saw on Friday:
I used to work for this toxic company.
Some big rackmount amps.
Somoe old Motorola comm analyzers.
A cool looking antenna controller.
A stack of audio gear.
A cool old blue B&H oscilloscope.
Lots of parts.
Stuff is just laid out on whatever.
It's chrome plated!
Lots of walkies.
A table full of consumer era radios.
One of those high-precision Regency counters.
Someone bought a box of CRTs and related materials.
A nice Heathkit decade box. Took this home.
A dirty Hallicrafters.
Not going to break this one.
Hard to believe it's only 1.7GB.
A giant dummy load. Dummy not included.
A nice Eico harmonic distortion analyzer. Went home as a project piece.
The accompanying Eico RF generator.
An Eico scope. Tempting, but I have too many scopes.
