[time-nuts] HP and other equipment failure - availability

[Kmec at aol.com]

Greetings Gentlemen!
 
 
I have been following the thread on HP equipment repair, as I have a  bunch 
of it and am waiting the inevitable day when something starts to smoke.  
That being said, I agree with the gentlemen that say fixing is better than  
junking and also about the diminishing supply. The supply of 70-80-90's HP 
gear  will shrink even more rapidly than you expect: This year at the Dayton  
Hamvention, a  friend of mine, who is a fairly large surplus equipment  
dealer, did not sell. Instead he came only to buy: All older HP gear. He ran  
around the Fest buying every 3586, old logic analyzer, even an 8510 Network  
analyzer, all to strip out the boards with the gold plated lands. He bought an 
 entire pickup truck worth, about $8000. and he assures me he will make 
money. In  fact, he said he can sell the 10811A reference oscillators on eBay 
and pay for  the individual piece, getting the gold scrap for free. He had 
numbers for gold  yield for each item, so much per pound of board etc. Now 
whether you agree about  the return on gold scrap doesn't matter. The thing is, 
he is making a dent in  the number of pieces available on the market. Stuff 
will get rarer.  
I once saw a surplus store crammed with wire- teflon, pvc, mil-spec,  
enamel, all gauges and colors, price was cheap, used rolls of 22 ga. teflon,  
500+ feet were $10-15. A few months later, I went again, ALL GONE! Store 
cleaned  out! When I asked Wolf, the owner what happened, he said " Price of 
copper went  up...."
Nothing lasts forever, which is why I pile stuff up for my own use. As  to 
surplus, I like to say I was at the party when the booze ran out....
 
73, Jeff Kruth WA3ZKR