Orlando hamfest was: Mansfield Hamfest haul

From: Philip Pemberton <philpem_at_dsl.pipex.com>
Date: Mon Feb 14 18:19:42 2005

In message <3.0.6.32.20050214175844.009269b0_at_pop-server.cfl.rr.com>
          "Joe R." <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com> wrote:

> 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!)

I went to the Northern Cross Radio Rally up in Wakefield on Sunday. The
prices for most things were quite high - I did, however, get a pair of Compaq
li-ion laptop batteries for ?8, which leaves me with sixteen 3.6V 2AH Li-ion
cells. Perfect for those fun little projects where the self-discharge of
NiMHes is a major disadvantage.
Also picked up five Samsung mobile phone batteries - one was totally dead
(1.5V - I'm not going to charge it when the terminal voltage is that low),
another read 2.79V and recovered after a full charge on a bench PSU (with
current limit at 250mA), one still needs recharging (2.7V again) and the
other two were quite well-charged.
Being the curious little thing I am, I also bought three laser pointers.. The
idea of building a scanning laser display sounds like fun. Managed to smash
the diode on one of them by squeezing it too tightly in a vice. One is still
packaged up, the other came apart fairly easily after cutting the metal
casing open with a hacksaw (fx: evil grin). Still need to find some stepper
motors for that though...

The things I did want, however - copies of some *really* old Maplin
"Electronics" magazines and LCDs - were not on sale. Oh well, there's still
the Great Northern Hamfest in November, I guess. I'd love to go to the
Drayton Manor hamfest, but the chances of that happening rate somewhere
between "slim" and "nonexistent".

Later.
-- 
Phil.                              | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem_at_philpem.me.uk              | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.me.uk/          | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... If you want something done properly, kill Baldrick first.
Received on Mon Feb 14 2005 - 18:19:42 GMT

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