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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 8:41 am   #41
Baggrus
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Selling a Cossor 373 for £10 in 1980 at the tender age of 14 while looking after the second hand shop doing my duty running the place while the boss was out on a church fete or something. Found out when he returned that he would have been very happy with £2

Worst crime.. leaving an Industrial Magnetics wartime scope behind when moving house in 2001... along with my tea chest of valves.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 9:34 am   #42
John M0GLN
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Threw a Mullard 5-10 amp' on the tip complete with valves and a almost new Partridge Ultra Linear output transformer when I built my first transistor amp in the '60s, quite a few years later, probably early '80s, I was given an Avo Transistor Analyser in virtually new condition, didn't think I'd ever use it so I took all the innards out, threw them away and used the case as a toolbox.

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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 11:56 am   #43
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We shouldn't forget that it's precisely these heinous crimes that make the remaining pieces of equipment the valuable collectors' items that they are. If we kept everything then it would be just a load of old junk and no-one would be interested in it. So I guess that indirectly, destroying all those radios and TVs in my youth was a service to the hobby after all. Still wish I had them though
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 12:01 pm   #44
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skywave View Post
So, in conclusion, I submit that we are all simple victims of our own psychological composition; something we had - and continue to have - no choice about.

Anyway, that's my excuse. Yours?

Al. [Skywave]

I think you are right Al .... it is about intelligence. If you have ever owned a dog as a pet you may have noticed that the most playful are usually the most intelligent .

Mike
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 2:12 pm   #45
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Finding out why wire ended neon lamps need series resistors when connected across the mains. BANG!! Then hurriedly trying to erase the splat marks from the extension socket and replacing fuse, before parents found out what I had been doing.

Got given a vintage bakelite multimeter of some description as a present. A few days later I blew it up. Was trying to measure the mains voltage, but what I had actually done was measure the internal resistance of the local substation. BANG!!!

Oh yes plenty of valve destruction as well. This seems to have been a common past time with members of the VR forums.

Last edited by G0MEM Michael; 3rd Jan 2011 at 2:21 pm.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 3:33 pm   #46
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Oh yes plenty of valve destruction as well. This seems to have been a common past time with members of the VR forums.
Oh yes!! Hangs head in shame.....when I was about 11 there used to be some waste ground just oposite where I lived when some Victorian houses had been demolished. It was a haven for us kids in those days before 'elf and safety' destroyed everybody's fun. It also became a dumping ground for old TV's and radio's so the first thing was to find the biggest valve and throw it against a wall. I dread to think how many good valves and probably rare one's now that I had a hand in destroying. Strange how things change. I'm reluctant to throw duff one's out now.......


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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 4:01 pm   #47
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Hi,
I learned about the importance of a series resistor in exactly the same way as Michael G0MEM. In fact I think I've still got that MK plug with copper plating on the inside. I just connected the wire lead-outs to the terminals in the plug, needless to say there was a 13amp fuse in there too!
Of course, it's all relative. I mean, at the moment I've got no qualms at all about smashing up old solid state gear with a big hammer, especially if it's got ICs in it. It's surprising how much better one can feel afterwards . I also have no problem stripping transistorised stuff for bits. One day, forty years from now, these components may themselves become extremely rare and we shall be called to confession once again
Cheers, Pete
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 4:04 pm   #48
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Sounds like a good few owned air rifles as teenagers, I didn’t but my best friend did. His mother used to do a weekly local car boot sale most summers with stock donated from a local house clearer, any non working portables, radios ect were given to us to “tinker” with. We did have some success with a few, but most were hung on the wire fence at the end of his garden and executed!
To my shame I definitely remember a TR82 being unceremoniously turned to Swiss cheese when it refused to work!
Fast forward twenty years and I’m the proud owner of a TR82-97, (the copy) I’m yet to find an electrical appliance in the house that doesn’t interfere with it, that’s of course if it stays tuned to a station long enough....

Anyone still got a rifle? I suddenly feel quite nostalgic....

Regards,

Chris.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 4:11 pm   #49
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I think if I am called to confession again in 40 years time, It will either be in direct communication with St Peter or down stairs where they burn Bakelite Cabinets!
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 4:31 pm   #50
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OK, see you there We can start up another forum!
Cheers, Pete
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 4:44 pm   #51
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tractorfan View Post
. . . at the moment I've got no qualms at all about smashing up old solid state gear with a big hammer, especially if it's got ICs in it. It's surprising how much better one can feel afterwards . I also have no problem stripping transistorised stuff for bits. . . .
Pete
Quote:
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. . . is it not completely out of the question to suggest that our youthful mis-deeds were simply the result of our psychological make-up; that during those youthful years it simply had to find an outlet - in the way that it did?
So, in conclusion, I submit that we are all simple victims of our own psychological composition; something we had - and continue to have - no choice about.
Al. [Skywave]
I submit case proven. Mind you, it's good to see that you've retained your youthful zest for life, Pete!

Al.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 6:49 pm   #52
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I remember in a previous job there was an old storeroom in the cellar full of test gear deemed obsolete. We were moving premises shortly and were told to order a skip and clear it all out. At the time I didn't really have much interest in keeping old test gear as I had the use of a whole range of new equipment upstairs in the workshop. Thing was, every time you carried another armful up the stairs to chuck in the skip, some items had already mysteriously disappeared from it. This was in a busy city, so I guess some enterprising person was darting in and out of a doorway and taking stuff while we were downstairs. A few years later I managed to purchase the contents of the new store room and some decent test gear for next to nothing from the same employer so I was happy.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 7:37 pm   #53
Malcolm G6ANZ
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I think the worst of my crimes was to leave a AVO valve tester in a old friens damp basement. I kept thinking that I should retreive it but never did. He has now passed away and the house sold. I wonder what happened to it? Apart from that the usual attempts at improvement and education as mentioned above. At one point I thought about making a video recorder! So I took a lead from a cathode on a TV22 to the line I/P on a Robuk tape deck. I didnt work.

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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 8:30 pm   #54
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When I was about 12 years old (1965) I was the owner of an 'as new' National HRO receiver with seven coil packs. Back then they were not regarded as classic or collectable in any way. I became fascinated by the turns-counting tuning dial, and took the receiver to bits just for the mech!
Oh dear....
If it counts toward my forgiveness, I did keep most of the bits.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 9:23 pm   #55
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Me too I'm afraid... Many donated early transistor sets met their ends driving multiple paralled speakers! Everything I owned ended in bits. I did however rescue a valve radiogram for 20 pence from a school auction in 1980 much to my parents horror. All was fine till I left my skylight open during a summer shower and that was that!
I also had a huge valve scope with 2kv pda and a spring delay line (can't remember the make) it also had a probe containing a seperate valve amplifier. This met it's end at the tip, it weighed almost as much as me in two units and I would love annother.
Regards,
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 9:46 pm   #56
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Default Re: Confess your heinous crimes!

Evening everyone.
I can only sympathise for all the “crime” confessions here. Now it’s my turn to confess! Knowing my interest in all things electrical, back in the early seventies when I was about ten, a neighbour donated to me a Radford pre amp and amplifier, a Truvox 4 track tape recorder and a professional Garrard record deck, he pushed them round to my house in a wheelbarrow. Unfortunately, I promptly set about dismantling the whole lot into component parts! I still have the instruction manual for the tape recorder though!
Never mind, live and learn!
Max.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 10:40 pm   #57
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Around 1961 smashing up a TV22 in my parents back garden on bonfire night. I had just managed to aquire a set with band 3 on and didn't see any point in keeping 'old junk' and wanted to see how hard it was to burn bakelite. It is very hard indeed to burn it.
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Old 3rd Jan 2011, 11:08 pm   #58
Phil G4SPZ
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...or down stairs where they burn Bakelite Cabinets...
The fires of hell are reputed to be very hot indeed. If you end up going down there, they make you smash up all your favourite restored woodies for firewood. With all the lovingly-applied lacquer, varnish, woodworm killer and Danish Oil, enough heat is generated to melt Bakelite easy-peasey
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 5:53 am   #59
G0MEM Michael
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Oh here is another crime of my youth that I can remember. Friend passed onto me a very good condition 1960/61 green Dansette Major record player, in about 1978. I felt it needed improving as it looked rather bland. So I painted the whole thing with blackboard paint inside and out, including the BSR autochanger, as I didn't really like green. Further improvements where added in the form of 4 neon panel lights fitted into the speaker grill.
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Old 4th Jan 2011, 9:40 am   #60
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Just remembered another act of destruction.....smashing up our Ferguson 941T when we got a Decca DM2C to replace it. The DM2C went the same way as the 941T when we replaced it with an Ekco T310. At least the T310 was sold on second-hand when we bought a Pye 11U for UHF reception. I have restored the 11U and still have it so perhaps this will be taken into consideration your honour........



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