[mikewarot]

I'd love to see what shows up at a Silicon Valley hamfest. Having it outdoors cuts way down on Covid risks, so that's a big time plus. Does anyone have any good stories about unusual finds at past events?

Unfortunately, I'm 2000+ miles East of there.

[tverbeure]

This year, I bought an HP 5334A universal counter for $60 at the flea market. A week later, I bought an HP 5384A frequency counter through Craigslist from a local in Los Altos.

When I told him about the 5334A purchase, he replied “Oh yeah, I was the project lead for that one.”

You can see the loot here: https://tomverbeure.github.io/2023/06/16/Frequency-Counting-.... I bought another HP counter today in Monterey… It’s like bicycles: the perfect amount to own is +1.

[mikewarot]

I have a friend whose bucket list included owning an Atomic Clock. We ended up repairing several HP 5061Bs along the way. We did the X/Y axis oscilloscope comparison of two clocks, it was a diagonal line when we went to lunch, and the same diagonal line when we got back... amazing stuff.

I think that makes me a qualified Quantum Mechanic. ;-)

[tverbeure]

Do my Rubidium references (yes, plural) count? They're not quite as stable as a Cesium-based 5061, but I believe they use the same principle so they’re technically also atomic clocks.

[mikewarot]

Yes they count, but they use a completely different principle of operation.

The Cesium beam clock actually has a stream of atoms flowing through it, which is finite, leading to tube lifetimes of a decade or less.

The rubidium clock has a number of cells of rubidium gas, one of which is a light source, the other of which gets hit with RF, and if the frequency is just right, it absorbes about 1% of the light before it hits the detector.

A much smaller physics package, to be sure. They do drift, though, a tiny bit.

[notbeuller]

I’d been going since the mid 80s when it was “the foothill flea market” colloquially. I can’t say I’ve ever found any “wow, this is unique” things - honestly, most of the time it’s “neat” things that come home with me, get played with for a few years, and then I’ll buffer everything collected up and sell at the next flea market. In this way the hobby can be mostly self supporting - but it’s also very satisfying to return home with an empty station wagon.

It’s also a great way to reunite with coworkers from times past, although I have really a bad memory for faces.

[tubetime]

a whole bunch of stuff over the years. one unusual find was an original Williams tube memory from an IBM computer. https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1441865304427036675

[shrubble]

There are the VCF swap meets, vcfed.org (corrected URL) ; might be one close to you.

[HankB99]

https://vcfed.org/vcf-swap-meet/

[mikewarot]

I was able to attend VCF Midwest back in 2022, and it was overwhelming, and I didn't have any money to spend. I hope to correct this situation in 2024.