Today's flea market score!

[EWBrown]

Upcoming major winter restoration project:





Hammarlund Super Pro SP-400-X, in amazingly good condition, especially considering that it is about 65 years old!.

Got it in exchange for fifty "AA5" NOS and used / tested tubes, from an old-timey radio repairman. He had no real interest in the radio, he thought it was a "ham transmitter" but wasn't sure.
BTW the 50 tubes I traded for it were mostly from the "plinker pile" and cost me nothing, except for some effort...

I'd been looking for one of these babies for, oh, about the last 40 years...

Tomorrow I go see the doctor, to get my back disks and hernias checked out ;)

And, next week, he is supposed to bring me its separate power supply, just has to ecavete his storage building a bit deeper.

After that, a careful inspection, check all the paper and electrolytic caps, look for out of spec resistors, etc, long before actually applying AC line voltage...


/edB

[nyazzip]

love the meters and the chicken head knobs!
some related wiki-leaks for those interested:
"From 1946 to 1948, Hammarlund produced the SP-400 Super Pro for the amateur radio market....All the models are 18-tube (16 in the receiver, 2 in the separate power supply), single conversion superhets with 2 RF stages and 3 IF stages operating at 465 kHz. In addition to a 5 position single-crystal filter with variable phasing, the IF selectivity is continuously variable between 3 and 16 kHz. The radios are equipped with full bandspread on all except the 0.1 to 0.4 MHz bands, variable BFO, diode noise limiter, and 14 watts of audio output power. Claimed sensitivity is 1.0 to 1.7 microvolts on the LF and HF ranges. The main dial calibration is 1/2 of 1 percent of the highest frequency on each band. Total power consumption is about 180 watts. Initially, two versions were manufactured. One tuned from the low end of the broadcast band to 20 MHz, and the other started at 1250 kHz and went up to 40 MHz.
SP-400 Super ProThe SP-400 Super Pros were very similar to the SP-200's with the differences being mainly cosmetic. They were only made from 1946 to 1948 and had outboard power supplies like the earlier Super Pros. There were two of them, the SP-400-X which tuned from .54 to 30 MHz, and the SP-400-SX which tuned from 1.25 -40 MHz"

[Geek]

Awsome score!!!!!!!

I apparently have a HQ170 coming my way soon.

[soundbrigade]

Weighs 10 tons and need a Harrisburg to be operating ....

Cool stuff!

[20to20]

WOWWWZaaaa! That's not a boat anchor, that's a ship anchor.

Ditto on all the chicken heads! It was worth all the AA5ers just for the knobs.

[EWBrown]

Receiver unit is 73 pounds, power supply is 50-60 pounds. "Old Ben" forgot to bring the power supply, he should have it for me next Tuesday.

Otherwise, I can tap into this, nice compact power unit:



And something useful to monitor the line current:



It looks as if it were very well stored, virtually no rust,corrosion, musty odors, absolutely no dead bugs or stinky mouseturds. Just a little dust, and a whispy cobweb or two, but nothing floating around inside.

In the past couple months, he gave me a 20 MHz Hitachi o-scope, which works perfectly, also in nearly "mint condition", just some dust..


Also a Zenith Transoceanic, which needs work, complete, but it has broken dial string, and doesn't have the optional AC "battery eliminator", for dirt cheap. Very clean condition, also well-stored, minor scuffing of the black "leather paper" covering.



Whilst I'm waiting for the power supply, I think I'll go and take a little cruise around the lake...




/ed B

[20to20]

Ed,

Don't be making all of us out east of you have to stay indoors over Labor Day to avoid the fallout. If western NC, (and Cherokee Co.) goes dark and we hear it blamed on a mysterious chunk of charcoal hanging from the ends of some jumper cables with tow chain hooks dangling from the nuke plant lines, we'll know it was you. RIP.

[Geek]

Whilst I'm waiting for the power supply, I think I'll go and take a little cruise around the lake...

You goin' a ridin' on tha Akin cam-paign boat? WHOOOEEEE!

[EWBrown]

Oh, fooey! I thought I was over on the snake oil topic





/ed B

[Shannon Parks]

WOWWWZaaaa! That's not a boat anchor, that's a ship anchor.

LOL! How true. Now I'm getting excited for the Peoria Hamfest next month.

Shannon

[20to20]

WOWWWZaaaa! That's not a boat anchor, that's a ship anchor.

LOL! How true. Now I'm getting excited for the Peoria Hamfest next month.

Shannon

Shannon,

This weekend is the Shelby/Dallas HF near Charlotte NC. I and Wife went last year for the first time and found enough bargains to make up for the tix, gas and food. This year I'm taking a NOS Sylvania 833a I bought for $1 at a flea market, to try to sell or trade. That may just pay for the tix, gas, food, too.

I will NOT be using Ed's highly refined scavenging technique...

Good luck in Peoria, if it ain't there, you didn't need it to start with.

20

[Shannon Parks]

I'm as giddy as a kid before Christmas - and have to wait three more weeks.

20, have fun and good hunting at the Shelby Hamfest!

Shannon

[20to20]

I'm as giddy as a kid before Christmas - and have to wait three more weeks.

20, have fun and good hunting at the Shelby Hamfest!

Shannon

Definitely a successful trip this year. Made a pretty good haul, yesterday. The one thing I wanted to get out of the way first was to find the tube guy I spoke with last year about trading that big ol' 833a. He "remembered" me. I started at $50. He went to $20. I went to $35 and he started talking about the weather and hunger in China... I suggested a barter deal and he came back to the table... I swung down his row of tables ( about 50' x 3' of just tubes), got down to the end where all of the odds and ends were and there all sweet and clean was this beauty PA-060 marked $40 and 2 polished up C-354's marked $15 ea. We made the trade for the 3 pieces for my 833a and $10.

Originally, I wanted to build a display for the 833 but came to the conclusion that was a distant prospect, so considering I only paid a buck for it, it had to go.

Other highlights...

(4) 12ax7 @ $3 ea. confirmed good. 4 of 4. Picked from a loose box.

(4) 6GK6 @ $1 ea. confirmed good. 4 of 4. That's a miracle.

(2) 12AY7 @ $1 ea. confirmed good. 2 of 2

1 dud 6EA8 @ $1. Can't win 'em all.

1 Fat Boy 6CA7 for $45... sweat drips from multiple orifices... GOOD.

Various NOS resistor packs for .25 ea.

Some 450v caps just under AES retail.

Some real nice 9 pin sockets $2 ea.

Panel mount ma. meters. $4-$5 ea.

Fist fulls of 600v. Sprague OD coupling caps were $1 per fist. I'll take 2, sir.


One observation that's kind of spooky is that I think we should consider buying stock in the company that makes those mobility chairs. Don't know if more hams are getting out with the help of those or more hams are just needing them. Probably both. It seems the writing is on the wall.

20

[20to20]

I'm as giddy as a kid before Christmas - and have to wait three more weeks.

20, have fun and good hunting at the Shelby Hamfest!

Shannon

Shannon,

I'm sure you've been busy with the new PA website, which is looking well formatted. My FF browser has some small difficulties with the "info window" sizes and some of the text gets chopped near the bottoms. May have to do with my text sizing default minimums, but all else looking great!

Need Hamfest report! Ham, Ham, Ham,

[Shannon Parks]

My FF browser has some small difficulties with the "info window" sizes and some of the text gets chopped near the bottoms. May have to do with my text sizing default minimums, but all else looking great!

Thanks for this feedback. I'll look into it.

Need Hamfest report! Ham, Ham, Ham,

I got thirteen UX7 sockets for 1625 projects - they're old chassis hole style with the clip. Got those for $10, and I've been looking for them for years. Nice thing about them is that I can drill out the centers of V2 & V3 on my Clem and retrofit these babies in. Thermion and I have about a hundred tested JAN RCA 1625s now, so I really need to start using them - LOL! Grabbed several NOS 6BZ7s from the same guy for 25 cents each.

A few tables down from that guy, I scored a real nice BK Precision 1822 Frequency Counter for $5 - decent condition with manual and works. I've calibrated it to our reference standard at work. It's a little gem. It's funny, as getting a nice little freq counter was my main goal and I picked it up about ten minutes in.

I bought three Genrad 1346 Microvolters - http://conradhoffman.com/GR1346.htm - for $10 total. Initial test showed less distortion on low level signals from my Boonton (say 10mV and less). I plan to use this for testing my phono preamp. I got three to build a nice one (missing knobs, etc.).

I did pick up some LPs - some early Sun Record's Johnny Cash and Cream's Disraeli Gears (which I didn't have and really wanted). That's about it. It was a good time as usual.

Shannon