The 2016 Eastern Connecticut Amateur Radio Club Flea Market is now history. It took place last Saturday, March 19. I wait all year for this one (see an earlier post about the 2013 event). It’s nearby (I made the drive in 45 minutes ), well attended and it usually has lots of old stuff that radio collectors like. The emphasis, of course, is on amateur radio equipment. I’m pretty well all set when it comes to ham radio. Unlike me, most of the attendees are looking for newer items. That’s good news because I have my pick of the old stuff.
I look for bargains. A nicely restored radio is not usually something that I will buy. I want something that I can work on and hopefully bring back to life with minimal work. Otherwise I am content to leave some radios as found so long as they look good. Well, I circled the church hall where the event takes place several times. Some restored portables were interesting but none of them were must-have items, so I concentrated on looking for parts.
One seller was disposing of some nice rigs (mostly Heathkit) and a variety of parts that once belonged to her recently deceased husband. The radios did not interest me much but the parts did. She had about 8 boxes of them. The deal was that you took a cardboard flat (the ones that hold beer) and filled it up for $5. If you filled three the price was $12 for all three. I was able to fill just two with the items that caught my interest. It’s amazing how many neat items you can find by sifting through all the junk. Just to prove my point I have inserted a little gallery of photos here to display what I took home. The photos do not cover everything, just some of the more interesting items. Have a look and then let me know if you think it was worth $10.
(Note: Click on any image to see an enlarged version. Comments welcome)
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- This Heathkit portable was in pieces and didn’t look like much. When I looked closer it appeared to be worth taking.
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- The batteries exploded in this radio; what a stench! It will clean up, though. Does anyone know what model this is?
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- So that’s where all those knobs go!f People leave them in boxes rather than putting them back on the radios. Possibly two complete and one partial set here. Love those bat knobs. Does anyone know what radios they come from?
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- I’ve seen porcelain lightning arresters before but this one (Bakelite?) beats them all.
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- This is a nice set of air variable capacitors. They all appear straight and they turn nicely.
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- This is one large grid cap. Look at the braided connection! It appears to be of brass plated steel.
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- This grid cap has the metal contacts inside the plastic housing. Can you read the manufacturer’s name on the top surface?
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- I got about 20 little packets of carbon resistors, all labeled with the resistance and the power handling capacity. All are new. There are also assorted diodes, relays, chokes, transformers, and dozens of crystals.
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- The tool in the center is used to straighten vacuum tube pins. Notice the two NOS tube bases flanking it.
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- I have a couple of Zenith H500’s and I think one has a cracked Wave-Magnet cover. Look at this nice replacement I found in a box of parts. (The other side is a filthy mess)
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- Here is the other side of the Wave-Magnet. Don’t look too closely .. I think those are cat hairs sticking to all the grease. It will all come clean though. Just another day enjoying radio archaeology.
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- A full bottle of mineral oil and a full tube of graphite, what a find! I don’t know if I will ever need the thermal paste but it’s a nice bonus.
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- I love the detail on old component boxes. Most people don’t realize that tubes were not the only parts that came in nice boxes. Check out the mint piece at the left.
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- I now have enough transistor radio IF transformers to last me 5 lifetimes. They even came with an insert that provides a complete radio schematic just in case you didn’t know why you bought them.
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- This coil is specific for the broadcast band (BC). It is brand new and in the box.
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- The parts include at least 50 unused electrolytic capacitors, all having a rating of 450 volts. That’s plenty adequate for most old radio applications. I tested several and they were all good.
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- It will take some work to clean those headphones. Even if I don’t use them the foot switch and microphone connector may work very nicely.
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- Plenty of wire to wind toroids or to patch up old time TRF tuning coils.
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- This transformer was never used. I believe it is the type found on many old speakers for the purpose of blocking 60 Hz hum.
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- These parts date back to the early days of radio, the 1920’s. Binding posts are on the left. The spider coil would be attached to a shaft and knob and rotate within another coil.
I took home other items too: one 01A tube (a dud but a nice space keeper), an eye tube, cables, brass shims, and even a special motor kit that actuates the landing gear on a RC airplane. Go figure!
Nice finds at the flea market!
Those bat-handled knobs with the shiny insert probably came from Heathkit “lunchbox” transceivers (the Tener, Sixer and Twoer as they were commonly known). The matching round knobs ditto.
The 3-terminal lightning arrester probably was for balanced open “ladder” transmission line.
Thanks for the information, Mark! I will have to check those knobs
since I have a couple of Twoer’s around here. It’s always nice to
know what you have spares to.
Arrester designs are always neat. I’ll have to match this one up with
some balanced line!
By the way, I love your TV Boxes Collection. I recommend that anyone interested in vintage TV check out Mark’s terrific site, tv-boxes.com