UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > General Vintage Technology Discussions

Notices

General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 9th Jun 2017, 3:40 pm   #21
avocollector
Heptode
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Wellington, New Zealand.
Posts: 653
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

My way into this obsession was a bit different from those described above - I always liked to have a 'spare' item - so a spare mower or line trimmer for the lawn so I can finish the job on hand and repair the unusable one at my leisure. Only trouble was the 'spare' radio did not work so . . . LOL.
avocollector is offline  
Old 9th Jun 2017, 3:43 pm   #22
avocollector
Heptode
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Wellington, New Zealand.
Posts: 653
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

What I do think is very valuable advice for those 'thisaway' inclined is get a LARGE shed(s) asap and avoid the wife's outrage - I'm onto shed no 4 (3m square).
avocollector is offline  
Old 9th Jun 2017, 6:04 pm   #23
Biggles
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

I would say that I am a confirmed hoarder but I don't really care what the "conformists" in this life think. They can do their thing, I will do mine thank you very much!
Alan.
Biggles is offline  
Old 10th Jun 2017, 3:31 pm   #24
G4_Pete
Hexode
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 419
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

It seems perfectly normal behavior to me!
Pete
G4_Pete is offline  
Old 10th Jun 2017, 4:07 pm   #25
Guest
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

I go to museums a lot now, things to look at with no chance of buying! It has almost worked, in the kitchen I can see about 15 radios and they all work.
 
Old 10th Jun 2017, 4:31 pm   #26
Phil G4SPZ
Dekatron
 
Phil G4SPZ's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Bewdley, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 4,736
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

There must be a radio version of Parkinson's Law ("Work expands to fit the time available"), something along the lines of "A radio collection expands to fit the space available". The only answer is, probably, to limit the space available.

I have a 10' x 10' shed. Quite often it gets so full that I can't actually do any work in there, at which point something has to go.

It's absolutely true that restoring something adds to its perceived value, proportional to the amount and difficulty of the work done, but totally out of proportion to its monetary worth. Some people I know manage to sell quite a lot of stuff when they've finished restoring it. I haven't trained myself to do that yet!
__________________
Phil

Optimist [n]: One who is not in possession of the full facts

Last edited by Phil G4SPZ; 10th Jun 2017 at 4:32 pm. Reason: Grammar
Phil G4SPZ is offline  
Old 10th Jun 2017, 6:05 pm   #27
Guest
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Quote:
but totally out of proportion to its monetary worth.
I would rather give it away, I have had my fun and the recipient will (with a bit of luck) appreciate it.
 
Old 10th Jun 2017, 10:50 pm   #28
Lloyd 1985
Nonode
 
Lloyd 1985's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Coningsby, Lincolnshire, UK.
Posts: 2,814
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ View Post
There must be a radio version of Parkinson's Law ("Work expands to fit the time available"), something along the lines of "A radio collection expands to fit the space available". The only answer is, probably, to limit the space available.
It's like expanding foam filler, you think you have put just enough in, then next time you look at it, it's expanded out of the hole you were filling, and has begun crawling down the side of the building...

Regards,
Lloyd
Lloyd 1985 is online now  
Old 10th Jun 2017, 11:43 pm   #29
Boater Sam
Banned
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Middlewich, Cheshire, UK. & Winter in the Philippines.
Posts: 3,897
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

I thought I had plenty of space when I started "collecting", only meant to repair a few for fun.
Soon had no space at all so bought 7 tall shelving units.
Now they are all full, the bench under and over is full.
The floor space has console sets cluttering up the walkways.
The walls are full of things hanging up.
The shelf over the bench for test equipment is full of sets and bending under the weight.

Considering the above, it seems illogical that this month I have sold the monster Decca radiogram, 3 large Bushes ( 2 AC11s, and a PB22 ), a Pye P76A, and an Ekco U245, a few hundred semiconductors, a complete CB set up and a load of copper tube but there seems to be LESS space than before!

I think they breed when we are not looking. I certainly can't remember where I bought them all.

I stopped giving them away when I found that some had been dumped shortly after. If someone will pay a bit, they value it more.

Sam.
Boater Sam is offline  
Old 11th Jun 2017, 1:47 pm   #30
Mike-repairman
Heptode
 
Mike-repairman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 613
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Hi, can I join the club? I don't collect radios any more having had my own business for 30 years and done thousands, but I do collect and restore virtually anything else.

Namely electric guitars, too many to name, Geiger counters, almost anything electrical that measures things, thermometers, anything optical including telescopes and binoculars, old microphones, etc., etc.

I have an 8' x 16' garage with just an 18" gap to get from end to end, and a shed, 10' x 6' which only just manages to contain a push bike and two smallish mowers; the rest is filled up with what my wife calls junk. I call it valuable spares which I am unlikely to use up in this lifetime or the next LOL.

I'm afraid there is no hope for me; but I am happy.

Mike.

P.S. I can't bear to part with any of it.
Mike-repairman is offline  
Old 17th Jun 2017, 11:37 pm   #31
Biggles
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Sounds like you are a serious contender for the club Mike. As for the breeding Sam, it's like EF91's. You were sure you only put a couple of them in a box, then next time you look there's twenty of the darned things.
Alan.
Biggles is offline  
Old 18th Jun 2017, 12:21 am   #32
Reelman
Octode
 
Reelman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,701
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

When you have been collecting for some time it is easy to forget what you bought many years ago. The other day I received this email......

"Please forgive this approach from the blue but I have recently acquired one of these sets ( Gauers 6521) and came across your 1998 request via the Red Wave Radio web forum for information on the model."

At first I thought it was a joke or spam but no, I looked up my request from 1998 and I did ask and the page still exists! Even after thinking about it I can only vaguely remember the set. I must still have it somewhere in store but I literally haven't seen it since then.

I wonder what else I have hidden away and forgotten?

Peter
Reelman is offline  
Old 18th Jun 2017, 12:59 am   #33
Paul_RK
Dekatron
 
Paul_RK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 4,246
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Quote:
When you have been collecting for some time it is easy to forget what you bought many years ago...
It's, what, 49 years for me now - I started early - and usually I know whether in the course of them I've ever met or owned a particular model: whether or not it fell prey to one or other of my occasional attempts to clear the decks a little isn't always so easy to answer. And now it's a few years since I could boast ownership of even a poor apology for a place actually to work on anything, a less than satisfactory position to be in, and I'm in two minds whether it should be remedied by a drastic clearance of items or a move to a sprawling property. Either way, I'm sure I will encounter more than a few receivers etc. that I'm surprised still to have with me.

Paul
Paul_RK is offline  
Old 18th Jun 2017, 7:52 am   #34
Mike-repairman
Heptode
 
Mike-repairman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 613
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Quote:
I'm in two minds whether it should be remedied by a drastic clearance of items or a move to a sprawling property.
No point in moving to a larger place Paul; you'll find that will fill up too and you'll have to do it all over again.
Mike-repairman is offline  
Old 18th Jun 2017, 8:03 pm   #35
Paul_RK
Dekatron
 
Paul_RK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 4,246
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

Oh, I doubt it Never had a car, so as long as I'm reasonably far from an auctioneer who delivers I'm safe from larger items now. All the Hacker models are here and there are only a few more assorted world band portables I might be moved to accommodate. I'm sure the dozens of sets awaiting gentle restoration, from an A40C down, would keep me from much further mischief of that kind.
Paul_RK is offline  
Old 25th Jun 2017, 8:06 pm   #36
McMurdo
Dekatron
 
McMurdo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,263
Default Re: Digging out radios you've had for a while.

When I lived with the parents...20 odd years ago, my radio restoration became a sort of production line, gradually filling the sheds and spare rooms with restored radios. I would dig-out the odd one on a Saturday morning and listen to a comedy programme on R4 or similar. Leaving home to a rather more modest house, I had room for none! But after 20-odd years I'm filling the hall, spare room etc with them either bought recently or dragged out of the parental home. Many of those no longer work without attnetion; the usual problem of dirty volume controls, noisy wavechange switches and valveholders, and original capacitors so out of shape that they get hot. (never restuffed a single smoothing block while at home!). If they all worked first time, it'd be boring, right!??
__________________
Kevin
McMurdo is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:23 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.