MOTM

a) You NEVER EVER NEVER throw away old magazines or data books. Reason: "You never know when you
might need something in there." This includes complete sets of QST and CQ from the 1970s.

b) your garage has no cars in it: that's your "storage" area (see #1 above). If married over 15
years, wife gets 1 side of garage. You grumble at the waste of good space.

c) your car has more than 2 antennas

d) your attic has over 5000' of wire you found on the side of the road, removed from old
equipment or found in a dumpster. You have wire over 20 years old. Your prized wire is 50pr
telephone cable.

e) ANYTHING must be repaired before a new purchase. This includes items that can be bought for <
$10, but you want to spend 5 hours 'fixing' it because you can make it 'better than new'.

f) Besides MOTM, you NEVER spend over $500 on anything that plugs into an AC outlet. Garage sales
are your friend. You look at eBay occasionally, but scowl at the over-inflated prices morons pay
for 'junk'.

g) You will gleefully pay $20 for a 120lb. 19" rack mounted, 30" deep 1972 HP frequency counter
that consumes 1000W and "needs some work" but think spending $89 for a new, really good DVM is "a
waste of money".

h) your 'rig' has 23 different components, 3 different antennas and has a combined cost of over
$7,000 and 2000 man-hours invested to make the equivalent of a 10 cents/minute phone call.

Paul S.
not a HAM, but been around them :)

Paul-

I am really surprised at you!  You completely forgot to mention that 
a person will know if they're a ham if they show BUTT CLEAVAGE!!!  

Chub- with fully covered posterior! 


--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@a...> wrote:
> a) You NEVER EVER NEVER throw away old magazines or data books. 
Reason: "You never know when you
> might need something in there." This includes complete sets of QST 
and CQ from the 1970s.
> 
> b) your garage has no cars in it: that's your "storage" area (see 
#1 above). If married over 15
> years, wife gets 1 side of garage. You grumble at the waste of good 
space.
> 
> c) your car has more than 2 antennas
> 
> d) your attic has over 5000' of wire you found on the side of the 
road, removed from old
> equipment or found in a dumpster. You have wire over 20 years old. 
Your prized wire is 50pr
> telephone cable.
> 
> e) ANYTHING must be repaired before a new purchase. This includes 
items that can be bought for <
> $10, but you want to spend 5 hours 'fixing' it because you can make 
it 'better than new'.
> 
> f) Besides MOTM, you NEVER spend over $500 on anything that plugs 
into an AC outlet. Garage sales
> are your friend. You look at eBay occasionally, but scowl at the 
over-inflated prices morons pay
> for 'junk'.
> 
> g) You will gleefully pay $20 for a 120lb. 19" rack mounted, 30" 
deep 1972 HP frequency counter
> that consumes 1000W and "needs some work" but think spending $89 
for a new, really good DVM is "a
> waste of money".
> 
> h) your 'rig' has 23 different components, 3 different antennas and 
has a combined cost of over
> $7,000 and 2000 man-hours invested to make the equivalent of a 10 
cents/minute phone call.

> 
> Paul S.
> not a HAM, but been around them :)

>a) You NEVER EVER NEVER throw away old magazines or data books. Reason:
>"You never know when you
>might need something in there." This includes complete sets of QST and CQ
>from the 1970s.

Forget ham magazines, it's the databooks I can't live without. I do still
have all my old issues of BYTE, Model Railroader, etc.


>b) your garage has no cars in it: that's your "storage" area (see #1
>above). If married over 15
>years, wife gets 1 side of garage. You grumble at the waste of good space.

I've been informed that when the 1954 F-100 restoration is complete that
it's getting one side of the garage. I guess the KISS pinball--and all the
junk piled on it--will have to move...


>c) your car has more than 2 antennas

Actually, I'd like to get a black Crown Victoria and put half a dozen bogus
antennas on it, then watch the brake lights come on as I'm going down the
interstate...


>d) your attic has over 5000' of wire you found on the side of the road,
>removed from old
>equipment or found in a dumpster. You have wire over 20 years old. Your
>prized wire is 50pr
>telephone cable.

The last piece of that I got was BOGUS. Super slippery insulation and wire
so fine my stripper wouldn't work. So what you really want IS the older
telephone wire...


>e) ANYTHING must be repaired before a new purchase. This includes items
>that can be bought for <
>$10, but you want to spend 5 hours 'fixing' it because you can make it
>'better than new'.

Tempting, but too much trouble.


>f) Besides MOTM, you NEVER spend over $500 on anything that plugs into an
>AC outlet. Garage sales
>are your friend. You look at eBay occasionally, but scowl at the
>over-inflated prices morons pay
>for 'junk'.

Well, I've seen some rare Xmas lights that might go for that on ebay but I
can't afford it and besides I wouldn't hit it with 120V anyway. I use a
variac I found in someone's trash for powering up my old lamps...


>g) You will gleefully pay $20 for a 120lb. 19" rack mounted, 30" deep 1972
>HP frequency counter
>that consumes 1000W and "needs some work" but think spending $89 for a
>new, really good DVM is "a
>waste of money".

Does it have Nixie tubes??? I rest my case...


>h) your 'rig' has 23 different components, 3 different antennas and has a
>combined cost of over
>$7,000 and 2000 man-hours invested to make the equivalent of a 10
>cents/minute phone call.

Fortunately my ticket has run out.

Heh, you should cross post this to synth-DIY and see if it starts a big
argument as usual.
-- 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

>Forget ham magazines, it's the databooks I can't live without. I do 
still have all my old issues of BYTE, Model Railroader, etc.<

Me too, though I didn't hold onto my issues of Model Railroader. 
Still have my trains (not set up) some of which were old when I 
received them as a kid in the early 60s. Also have two huge boxes of 
Lionel track, accessories, etc. that haven't been opened in 30 years. 
One of these days...

Went to the first (and only?) BYTE convention in San Diego when the 
Altair 8800 was king! Big draw at the show was an ASCII "terminal" 
that featured a B/W TV on a pole. Price was something like $2,000.

As for old electronics magazines, I still have a Radio Electronics 
mag with Bob Moog's theremin design in it and the Popular Electronics 
with Craig Anderton's first article (I believe). I once read a very 
interesting article that stated the reason guys hang on to magazines 
such as Popular Electronics for years and years is because of the joy 
of *mentally* building the kits.  "Some day I'm gonna build this here 
[fill in blank]."  It also stated that when technology makes a big 
change, readership often drops off.  For example, people who had the 
enjoyment of mentally building tube projects could no longer do so 
when transistors took over.  By the same token, when the move was 
made to microprocessors, people who enjoyed mentally building 
transistor projects were left out (that's pretty much when I 
stopped). Of course, some are able to go with the flow!  :-)

johnm