I spent Friday and Saturday at the Orlando hamfest. There was a LARGE
turnout, bigger than I've seen in many years but there wasn't any classic
computers except for one Atari 400 and an Apple 2c with the optional
detachable CRT panel. The flat panel is rare and I thought about buying it
but I'm really not interested in Apple stuff. I did find a number of
interesting old databooks including a copy of 'The S-100 and other
Micro-buses' and a nice set of hard bound books from Analog Devices.
However a couple of days before the hamfest a guy contacted me about the
old Rubicon computer that I have. It turns out that he also had one but
knew nothing about it and didn't have any SW for it AND he lived in
Orlando. He was more interested in Kaypro stuff and I had just picked up a
couple of them so we arranged to meet at the hamfest and do some swapping.
So I did end up with another classic computer. I also bought a nice EPROM
programmer that also does PALs, Bipolar ROMs AND test TTL/CMOS ICs and
RAMS. Since it has a library of TTL ICs it can also test unknown ICs and
attempt to match them up to known ones. I saw one of these years ago and
I've been wanting one ever since.
There were a lot of sellers at the hamfest and LOTS of buyers but not
much really interesting stuff and a lot of the prices were way out of line.
Even higher than E-bay. (Tek 465 for $300!)
Joe
At 01:11 AM 2/14/05 -0500, you wrote:
>Got up before dawn and drove halfway across the state to the Mansfield
>Fairgrounds to
>the first (non-Dayton) hamfest I've been to in a few years... it was
>well attended and at
>least as large as I remember it was 10 years ago. I was shopping for
>specific items,
>and was largely not disappointed...
>
>I mangage to find the following (On and Off-topic items):
>
> 20x4 back-lit LCD text displays (for LCDproc - http://www.lcdproc.org)
> A double-fistful of C&K 7101 toggle switches w/mtg hdwr for 1802
>front panel projects
> Enough C&K pushbuttons for EF4/DMA-in switches for same ($0.65 each)
> A pair of 22-pin machine-pin sockets to refurb my Quest Elf with
>proper sockets
> Two rubberized (look outdoor-safe) 4x4 matrix keypads that look
>excellent for a hex-input keypad (via a 74C922) for an 1802 board ($1
>each!)
> Some oddly-numbered (not the standard one that Radio Shack used to sell)
> A pair of 0.6" 24-pin DIP header jumpers that look perfect to extend
>RCA 1861 PIXIE signals off-board for an LED dot-matrix-PIXIE-and-CRT
>emulator that's under discussion in the 'cosmacelf' Yahoo group
> Right-angle yellow RCA jacks for PIXIE video-out for Bob Armstrong's Elf2K
> A stack of 2x20 pin headers for my console emulator I/O board
>external connections
> A B&W Coleco-brand Pong game with 4 games (Tennis, Squash...) for all of
$3!
> "Loom" (I'm also deeply into adventure games)
> A "Pilot" docking station (so original, it's not a "Palm Pilot")
> A 6U wall-mount 19" rack for telecom/network gear with a 24-port
>Ethernet punchdown block mounted in the top
> Several CreativeLabs-brand PCI sound cards to go into Linux boxes
>since the old (pre-ALSA) sound libraries do *not* like Vortex 88x0
>chips ($2-$3 each)
>
>I did forget to go back and pick up some 27C256s I saw at one
>vendor... I'm usually looking for low-power EPROMS for some project or
>another (SBC6120, etc...)
>
>One thing I contemplated getting, but left behind, was a 1971
>electro-mechanical game
>that had a wooden frame, and interchangable 1/4" plexi overlay for
>different games
>(finance, yacht sailing...) equipped with the football overlay. Each
>player had a few
>buttons on their end of the box, and each player had a dial to crank a
>10-12 light/diode
>bar from end to end. It was in pretty good shape (box, rules, a
>chipped corner on the
>plexi), but I just decided that I'd had a good enough haul for the day
>(I might have
>gotten it anyway if it had come with more than one overlay)
>
>I was pleased to see a number of component vendors still coming out,
>and that modern
>PCs, while present, weren't the only thing one could find there. With
>the turning of
>the wheels of technology and the rise of eBay, I've been worried
>lately that Hamfests
>would be getting sparse for "interesting" goods.
>
>I had a great day finding specific things on my shopping list for the
>1802, one of my
>current fixations. It was a good enough day that I may have to see if
>the Findlay
>Hamfest is still around.
>
>-ethan
>
Received on Mon Feb 14 2005 - 16:58:44 GMT