The world beyond Jameco, Digi-Key and Mouser

That's not really a subsidiary. Folks in Europe tell me that the handling charges are quite prohibitive for hobbyists.

They have come a long ways. I recently bought a scope there, via Newark. Transfer and customs processing from EU to the US was $15, shipping was free :-)

The US used to have an immense amount of military surplus gear, for sale very cheap by mail or from local junk stores. Fair Radio Sales, still in business in Ohio, was one big outlet. They once sold an under-wing radar pod for $70, and I used to buy cockpit CRT displays for, as I recall, about $6, a nice cast enclosure with some tubes and a square-screen 4FP7 inside; I still have one on my bookshelf, and it glows nicely for a while after I turn out the lights.

There are still a few surplus places in Silicon Valley, although the price of real estate has killed most of them. They have mostly PC junk nowadays, but still occasionally have interesting componenys and test gear. You don't see many kids in these places.

If I were a hobbyist, I'd probably be buying mostly from Digikey and Mouser these days. The possibilities are astounding.

John

Ken Burn's documentary on WWII starts on Sunday. I wouldn't miss that, and I'm going to tape it, too, to join my "Victory At Sea" tapes. His Civil War thing was magnificent.

There's some good stuff on tv, almost all on PBS: Bertie and Jeeves, the occasional british mystery, Masterpiece Theater, the occasional Nova, maybe an hour or so per week on average, which is not enough to rot your brain.

John

What IS it about that movie that thrills you so?

...Jim Thompson

The music by Enio Morricone, for one. Then the theme, the actors, and the great detail in the scenes. Best Western of all times, IMHO. I think this winter will be viewing #14 or so.

A couple months ago I stood in line at a pharmacy. Cell phones rang here and there, nobody minded. Then one rang with the intro tunes to this movie and literally everyone turned around, one guy saying "Wow, cool, gave me the goose bumps!".

Usually you can sign the "we missed you" note and they will go ahead and deliver. I'm lucky being in a small town, I know the FedEX guy, and USP and DHL ...

We're actually in the middle of another surplus bonanza: all the manually-controlled and analogue instruments in the world are being dumped. You can put together a nice home lab for a song just now.

Cheers.

Phil Hobbs

"Outlaw Josey Wales" gets my vote for best Western. After Clint made a series of movies in which his character became more and more invincible, literally supernatural and unkillable, he did a flic where the hero not only picks up a band of women, indians, cows, and dogs, he gets shot and bleeds a lot, too.

If you're ever in Carmel, go to his bar and burger joint, The Hog's Breath Inn. Good burgers.

John

Yeah, the stuff on ebay is amazing. Actually, I think that ebay killed a lot of the surplus stores and electronic flea markets. I must have a dozen 11801's, and 30 or so sampling heads, by now, theoretically worth half a megabuck or so.

John

Do you have some favorite traders on there you trust or do you guys just go for it?

It's a big "usually". The package I got specifically excluded that option ("signature required"). I was on the phone for eons and couldn't get them to budge.

Le Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:30:42 -0700, John Larkin a écrit:

A dozen? When I decide I need a 1180x scope, I'll email you so that we don't bid against each other :-)

Still better than the UPS guy who dropped off a $1600 DSO at our doorstep, sans signature. Didn't even ring the bell. If it wasn't for our dogs I wouldn't have found it until late in the evening.

I use Allied all the time - both for individual components and for process-control modules - and they ship fast and reasonably cheap for stuff in stock. On the web you can quickly tell what's in stock and what's not. That's a huge improvement over the days when you had to call the salespeople just to see if something in the catalog was really in stock.

Don't know about minimum order amounts, I've never made an order small enough to matter :-).

I really like page 1703 on their current catalog, not that I've ordered that kind of stuff from Allied since decades ago, but it's nice to see it there!

Tim.

Most major metropolitan/industrial areas still have a shop or two that cater towards electronic repair tradespeople and have a real parts counter as well as a small showroom filled with tools and test equipment. The numbers have dwindled over the past twenty years but they're there.

I don't know if this is what Conrad is in Europe.

Tim.

Oh, beautiful! I still have a 4CX1000A laying around. Thanks!

Jon

Yes, the F54 and F57 are pretty much I/O only. And demand something external for an oscillator. And don't include nanoPower. And no BOR. And... Well, it is cheap if what you need is bit banging I/O.

Jon

the

I just look for somebody who has a good history, lots of transactions for a few years, and good feedback. I've only been really shafted a couple of times, and neither was for a serious amount of money.

I assume that "untested" or "as-is" means broken.

No regular trader wants negative feedback, and the threat of same is very effective.

John

I have so many I've forced myself to stop bidding, although I'll occasionally nab another head if it's a good deal.

But I know a trick: email me.

John