Here's a break from the drab, dreary ..slow-death-dirge of the bloody Orange Disaster-in-Chief
Matchbox ambulance restoration
Art! is exactly where you stumble-into-it AND TOO realize just what 'TLC' means. I wot.
(I once did 'at-toothbrush-level' the cleanup of an oscilloscope (Tektronix 453) which was not battered but grungy as a boot left in a back room and peed on by (something.) It came out pretty-close to pristine. These, then were peddling for ~$60 --> 125 on ePay depending on appearance and ... whether seller gave pix proving performance (like say, "Tr == rise-time" as proves the BW spec. I always showed that; made a few bucks way-back before shipping-alone rose exponentially.
THIS One however, broke the $record (researched as carefully as the unavailability of numbers there ..after sale times) One site kept track of Tek $sold stats, then!
A bidding war--Heh..Heh! Something over $425. Then buyer's remorse; I took pity on the guy--he was a novice looking for a first scope ... could happen to anyone, so said "'s alright; #2 on list will be happy to fill-in; no complaints to Big-eBay-enforcers.." Told him he could get a cheaper one which would teach quite as well, pretty or not.
But, a few minutes later ... e-mailed back: NOooo, I gotta have it! I double-boxed the sucker and like all my own shipments it did arrive, calibrated to a fare-thee-well. Dunno if he put it in his liveing room? ..or followed up learning What It's For.. ya never find out these things.
But like the Matchbox above, ya gets endorphins 'restoring to pristine' ..just about any damn thing, y'know?
(But not 'learning electronics at home ..now); Heathkit died long ago as the proles went for Biz-courses/'lectronics is Too Hard--like much else in real-Life. Their loss. As we see IS all intertwined-with this nearing-fatal Orangeness all around. 'Da Capo' == return-to-^Top^.
Digression 1
PS: Mentioned this way-back: found under a wood platform at neighbor's shed: a tiny radio transceiver, olive drab, obv. military; Googled its Model/found exact schematic! even. It uses subminiature vacuum tubes as-in hearing aids way-back (forgot its mfg. date, but likely ~Vietnam-years. Via this you could [downed air-man] talk to rescue copters and like that. Inside it looks pristine/just off the assembly line, coated in anti-fungus/moisture for the ages.
..I dare not fire-it up sans a Faraday cage! because, most likely those frequencies remain Auditioned 24/7. {{sigh}} Maybe someday, a roll of copper screen will appear and I can SEE the xmitter waveforms! on a real analog near-GHz scope. Call it Scrabble-fer-gearheads, eh?
OK, some of us Are satisfied with rather simple 'things'.. amidst a world of increasingly-surreal/(often actually useless) Techno-for-Corp-Dollars mendacity. So then ..some rainy winter evening maybe--will let ya know if the box squawks Mayday! Mayday! ... though I don't ever get to find out if anyone's Listening. Oh well.
Art! is exactly where you stumble-into-it AND TOO realize just what 'TLC' means. I wot.
(I once did 'at-toothbrush-level' the cleanup of an oscilloscope (Tektronix 453) which was not battered but grungy as a boot left in a back room and peed on by (something.) It came out pretty-close to pristine. These, then were peddling for ~$60 --> 125 on ePay depending on appearance and ... whether seller gave pix proving performance (like say, "Tr == rise-time" as proves the BW spec. I always showed that; made a few bucks way-back before shipping-alone rose exponentially.
THIS One however, broke the $record (researched as carefully as the unavailability of numbers there ..after sale times) One site kept track of Tek $sold stats, then!
A bidding war--Heh..Heh! Something over $425. Then buyer's remorse; I took pity on the guy--he was a novice looking for a first scope ... could happen to anyone, so said "'s alright; #2 on list will be happy to fill-in; no complaints to Big-eBay-enforcers.." Told him he could get a cheaper one which would teach quite as well, pretty or not.
But, a few minutes later ... e-mailed back: NOooo, I gotta have it! I double-boxed the sucker and like all my own shipments it did arrive, calibrated to a fare-thee-well. Dunno if he put it in his liveing room? ..or followed up learning What It's For.. ya never find out these things.
But like the Matchbox above, ya gets endorphins 'restoring to pristine' ..just about any damn thing, y'know?
(But not 'learning electronics at home ..now); Heathkit died long ago as the proles went for Biz-courses/'lectronics is Too Hard--like much else in real-Life. Their loss. As we see IS all intertwined-with this nearing-fatal Orangeness all around. 'Da Capo' == return-to-^Top^.
Digression 1
PS: Mentioned this way-back: found under a wood platform at neighbor's shed: a tiny radio transceiver, olive drab, obv. military; Googled its Model/found exact schematic! even. It uses subminiature vacuum tubes as-in hearing aids way-back (forgot its mfg. date, but likely ~Vietnam-years. Via this you could [downed air-man] talk to rescue copters and like that. Inside it looks pristine/just off the assembly line, coated in anti-fungus/moisture for the ages.
..I dare not fire-it up sans a Faraday cage! because, most likely those frequencies remain Auditioned 24/7. {{sigh}} Maybe someday, a roll of copper screen will appear and I can SEE the xmitter waveforms! on a real analog near-GHz scope. Call it Scrabble-fer-gearheads, eh?
OK, some of us Are satisfied with rather simple 'things'.. amidst a world of increasingly-surreal/(often actually useless) Techno-for-Corp-Dollars mendacity. So then ..some rainy winter evening maybe--will let ya know if the box squawks Mayday! Mayday! ... though I don't ever get to find out if anyone's Listening. Oh well.
