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

[Mark C. Stephens]

Oh that is so sad, Trying to track down parts to find that some scrap metal merchant has melted it down.
And to think a surplus dealer would knowingly scrap HP test equipment is just plain sacrilege.
All those custom IC's and PROMS  m e l t e d . .

God help us down under if any of the scrappers hear this.
It's hard enough to find bits here without competing with scrap metal merchants.



-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On Behalf Of Kmec at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, 16 June 2013 10:34 AM
To: time-nuts at febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] HP and other equipment failure - availability

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
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