Where do you purchace your test equiptment these days?

In article , snipped-for-privacy@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com (known to some as John Larkin) scribed...

I beg to differ. I've had excellent results, both buying and selling, with the former Foothill swap (now dubbed DeAnza). My trip in

Any swap meet is going to be highly variable, year-to-year, month- to-month, or however often they're held. You never know when someone's going to show up that's going to have a great deal more than just "junky stuff."

I would also point out that one person's "junky stuff" is often another's gold. Besides the Fluke meter on last year's trip, I also got hold of a Cisco Catalyst 5000 network switch. Doesn't have a lot to do with ham radio or electronics tinkering, true, but it certainly solved a big problem for me in terms of replacing a pair of ailing-and-ancient Bay Networks switches in my LAN.

The only thing that I think would cause such events to truly die is if some overzealous government regulators decide that such events don't constitute "proper recycling," and subsequently try to legislate them out of business. If they're going to do that, then they may as well outlaw garage and yard sales as well.

Keep the peace(es).

Seems that EE is done in similar fashion. Many of the fresh grads I have met over the last year were in essence SPICE jockeys. They could not wield a solder iron, didn't know how to increase the bandwidth of a one-transistor stage (one of my classic questions early in an interview) and typically don't grok my module specs while older non-EEs understand them perfectly well.

I haven't been there since it moved, but it was already dumpy compared to the good old days. The decent test gear had almost disappeared, and there were tables covered with PC junk, CDs, rusty mechanical stuff, and even homewares and laundry detergent. Gone are the days when some old HP guy would die and his kids would show up with a pickup truck full of his stuff.

Is it any better now?

We used to show up at 5:30, in the rain, with flashlights, to get a good parking spot and nab the best gear. Ebay is better.

Of course, you don't meet Bob Pease or Jim Williams or Peter Alfke on ebay.

John

I've bought things from Metric Test for work, but I usually stick with eBay for home.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

On 3/3/2007 2:47 AM, The digits of Dr. Anton T. Squeegee's hands composed the following:

Ah to live in a place where there are lots of people doing this kind of work. You are correct every time I am in the North West I find lots of people who not only understand that - no Electronic Design is not the same thing Computer Programing but I can actually go into a Fry's and get a TQFP-100 clip or some such.

I live in the South East, Western North Caro-Lacky to be precise. beautiful mountains and great culture but not a technically minded person in sight. Our largest and best Ham Fest is in Shelby NC and once upon a time I got great stuff there. Now it is mostly a junk unloading show. Even the computer folks left a few years ago. I think there is just not enough hobbiests and real designers left. When the internet bubble burst the only real engineering area of the area (RTP - Research Triangle Park) pretty much emptied out of engineers with any budget and manufacture.

Hawker