RCT Swap Report (Long)

From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin_at_bluefeathertech.com>
Date: Sun Sep 10 11:58:53 2000

        This year's Radio Club of Tacoma (WA) swap was both a miracle and a
disappointment. It's rare that the two go together, I know, but it did in
fact happen that way this year. I claim "appropriate posting" to the list
for this because what I brought back is over ten years old, and can most
definitely be used to troubleshoot computer systems.

        The miracle: Every so often, someone will show up with one or more pieces
of hardware or test gear that are incredibly useful, are either working
(but may be out of cal) or have only minor problems, are priced to move
rather than at "E-pay average," and where the seller has little knowledge
of just what it is they're moving.

        Such was the case yesterday morning, and the fact that I had gotten seller
space this year, and was as a result able to walk around the place before
they let the general public in, is the key reason I think I scored the
following for all of $250.

        Two Tektronix digital scope mainframes: An 11401 and its GHz-capable
counterpart, an 11402. Along with said mainframes came a total of four
11A32 plug-ins (two-channel vertical, 400 MHz official spec, but you know
Tek always rates conservative), an 11A72 (up to 1 GHz two-channel vertical,
50 ohm inputs), and a big operator's manual about 2.5 inches thick.

        After I picked up my jaw off the floor, and wrote the guy a hasty check, I
found, in the operator's manual, a postage-paid reply card from Tektronix
that offered a free service manual for the whole works simply by filling it
out and feeding it to the nearest USPS drop box.

        The 11401 mainframe had only one minor problem: It failed it's self-test
at the A/D converter section. Said problem was completely cured by the
simple expedient of disassembling the unit, vacuuming out the dust, and
reseating the few socketed chips on the analog board.

        As for the '402, I'll try the same tactics on it 'cause I don't think
anyone's tried it as yet. It's fine for the first hour or so. After that,
if you power-cycle it, you get a failure in the timebase section for the 20
MHz clock. If you let it cool down a while, the failure goes away.

        I wager 1,000 Quatloos that this is another case of 'press the chips back
down and vacuum.' Even if it's not, it still sounds like a minor part. As
for the plug-ins, two of the four 11A32's fail their self-test with gain
calibration errors for Channel 1. I'm not sure what's causing this, but I
hope it's minor.

        My only other complaint: The '402 has some light screen burn. Fortunately,
the CRT is nothing really special: Just a mono-green tube made by
Mitsubishi. Bet I could even find a generic replacement.

        And now, the disappointment(s): The event was supposed to go until 15:00
local, but by 13:15 or so, everyone but the commercial sellers had cleared
out. Also, the event itself was not well attended. I'd be surprised if we
broke 1,000 people the entire day.

        As for variety of stuff, that worked out pretty well, but even here in the
NW I'm starting to see less of people that want to tinker, and more of
people that just want to 'plug-and-play.' I base this on the fact that I
saw a LOT of "interesting" items in terms of older test gear, but
practically none of it sold even though the prices seemed pretty reasonable
(to my eyes).

        There was more than adequate seller space (three buildings worth), but the
buildings were separated by several hundred feet of distance, and required
considerable walking to cover. While the walking itself was not a problem,
I found it annoying that everything was not all in one place, as it is with
most other swaps.

        Finally, I think the club's timing was bad. There was a major computer
swap meet (the AM Northwest people) held in Kent the same morning as the
RCT event. They even started at the same time. I'm sure this was a drain on
attendance because I've been to the AM-NW events, and they definitely run
all day and are often quite packed.

        I'll be forwarding feedback to RCT on the above, along with suggestions
for better timing and some other minor improvements.

        'Til next time...


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies
http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin_at_bluefeathertech.com
Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 (Extra class as of June-2K)
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our
own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Received on Sun Sep 10 2000 - 11:58:53 BST

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