A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Fri Jun 16 04:49:31 2000

On June 15, R. D. Davis wrote:
> > I would add to this another pet dislike I have for E-bilk (much better
> > name, BTW). To my eyes, they are in large part (sheer unmitigated greed
> > makes up the other part) responsible for the decline in quality and
> > quantity of equipment that used to show up at hamfests and other
> > electronic-oriented swap meets.
>
> You've noticed this decline as well? :-( Interesting hackish things
> seem to be getting more and more difficult to find a hamfests. The
> last one I went to had very little, and most I've been to, I've seen

  ...but this has been going on for years! I've always attributed it
to the unfortunate proliferation of PCs. Most of the good hamfests
have turned into new-windoze-hardwarefests.

  I don't know about you...but when I go to a hamfest, I want to see
rows and rows of 70-year-old guys selling cool old
Heathkit/Collins/Hallicrafters transceivers, HUGE RF power
amplifiers, and commercial-quality (but homebrewed) yagi
antennas...not row after row of taiwanese folks selling new, cheap-ass
windoze hardware that would better be sold via mail-order...which is all I
see at hamfests nowadays.

  I, for one, absolutely LOVE eBay. That's where I find all the radio
gear I'm looking for that doesn't show up at hamfests anymore because
of the damned windoze lemmings!!

              -Dave McGuire
Received on Fri Jun 16 2000 - 04:49:31 BST