Retrotech 2025 - Sunday 11th May

[Reelman]

A great day for sure! Sold plenty and bought a few interesting things.

Special thanks to Stuart_R for bringing over to my stall some more goodies from Lucien’s estate and Vinylspinner for the huge bag of capacitors. Gentlemen, I am very appreciative.

Just to say a very big thank-you to Greg and the team for setting up Retrotechuk and it’s smooth running and administration. We are extremely fortunate to have such hard working individuals prepared to spend so much time and effort on our behalf.

Finally, thanks to all my customers and those who just stopped by for a chat. Lovely to see you all!

Peter

[Lloyd 1985]

Yes it was another great day out! I too am knackered, and I was only visiting! I arrived late, due to my terrible sense of direction, but still got a good space in the main car park, met up with a few people I’d met before, and had a chat with people I’d not met before! I had a list of stuff to look for, I came back with nothing from the list!! Picked up a few nice bits, I’ll add a photo rather than list everything, but I have to say my star buy has to be a little Tektronix scope, £5, with a not working sticker on it, imagine my delight when I plugged it in expecting either a loud bang, or it to do nothing at all, for it to actually light up and pass its self test and display a trace! Sadly the screen is broken in one corner, but it still works enough to use! I’ll check the calibration later and see if it’s worth replacing the screen. My other favourite is a Clarkes Atlas radio, I’d seen one before, but didn’t buy it, so I was quite happy to see another, it’s worm ridden, but they’ll die, and the holes will fill! I also managed to move a couple of items on, one telly has gone to a new home, and a drone! There were a couple of items I’d have loved to buy, a PYE M78F, and the Philco Empire Automatic, sadly well out of my price range! It’s going to be a while before I get round to playing with everything, but I can’t wait!

Many thanks to everyone who makes this event possible every year

Regards,
Lloyd

[Phil G4SPZ]

Agreed, an excellent day! I like the idea of pre-selling wrist bands which resulted in a very speedy entry when the 10.30 doors opened. Donated some items to the Museum via the Bring & Buy, and came away having spent just a few pounds on two knobs and a book. Thanks to the organisers, volunteers and helpers who make it all possible.

[Hunts smoothing bomb]

What a great day this was! Met up and nattered with many TV friends alike, the weather was good to boot too!

I ran the BVWS bring and buy stall with Jon Beauchamp and I'm trying to find a lady who bought a rather nice aluminium flight case from us and asked us to put it by so that she could pick it up later.

Well, the end of the event came and went and the mystery lady never showed!

I have this item safe in my possession and will look after it for a limited time in the hope that this message can find the owner! Please see attached pictures.

I will be going to Royal Wootton Bassett in July and also Biggleswade in September where I will bring the flight case along.


Many thanks
Lee

[electronicskip]

Fantastic day , met 2 or 3 forum members , and thank you Wavey Dipole for bringing the Eddystone for me to collect, really enjoyed it , bought more than i should have hahaha
Thanks to all the organisers for a great day!

[Dave Moll]

I had an enjoyable day - having avoided the crack-of-dawn start by travelling down on Saturday and staying overnight with family members near Nuneaton - and came away with a couple of bags full of odds and ends, along with an "electrotherapy" machine to add to my collection and a Murphy BU183 battery/mains valve portable as a potential organ donor for restoring one I acquired at a recent RWB auction.

[Gridiron]

I would also like to thank Stuart R for so considerately packing the items from Lucien's collection I picked up at Retrotech.
Mike.

[Valvepower]

Well, that was grand day out, and concur and second all that has already been said about the BVWS folk organizing the event. I felt there was good buzz at the event and that wasn’t a buzz caused by insufficient HT filtering…

I handed on one of my much-loved Leak Stereo 20 amplifiers to ‘BVWS’ Robin… It needed to go to good home where it will be used and loved. Surprisingly, this was quite painless, and I may find a loving home for another of my ST20’s… I’ll see…

Got the Black/Brown B&O 707 with the missing tone control knob at what I feel was an OK price in the end – just got to hope one of the mule 1501 600’s can yield a suitable knob I can colour black!

Got a good assortment of valve bases including some ceramic B7G PCB bases which was on my immediate wanted list. Also, a copy of Radio Constructor featuring the Neophyte and the original workshop plans supplement, which I haven’t seen for many years and Perdio PR4.

…and a carrier bag of capacitors from Vinyl spinner…

Terry.

[bobbyball]

We arrived in good time and got a useful parking space fairly near the hall. Didn't find anything on my list either but met plenty of people I don't often see and a good time was had, the heat notwithstanding.

Thanks once again to the organisers, staff and helpers for another enjoyable day.

[Colourstar]

As my good friend above says, an excellent day and everything seemed to run like clockwork, so thank you to all the behind-the-scenes people and especially Jim who takes everyone's entry payments and hands out the wristbands so efficiently year on year. No matter how long the queue, it gets moving very quickly at 10.30 and everyone is in the venue in no time at all.

The day is as much about catching up with friends as it is about grabbing a bargain or two!

Steve

[Pamphonica]

What a great event! I was in on Saturday with the setup crew and again yesterday to help on doors and elsewhere, but with lots of time for browsing as well.
The crowds definitely turned up, with a surprisingly long queue for the more expensive "early doors" entry. It was lovely to see so many younger tech enthusiasts there, often couples, coming away with separates, novelties, parts and other bargains of all sorts.
The catering facilities were much better even if you did have to walk to the other side of the main block to find them. Excellent mexican wraps!
I, as usual, came away with various items I had not specifically been looking for. An absolutely mint 1960s mechanical calculator, a panel-mount USB/micro-SD MP3 player with remote (£2!), a Dust-bug and various other bits. For once, no radios!
A long and tiring day (and rather sore feet at the end), but lots of people commented on what a nice "vibe" Retrotech has. They are right - big grins all round.
Thanks to everyone: organisers, sellers and to all the visitors, for making this such a top event.
See you next year, if not before.
-Jeremy

[stevehertz]

Lloyd 1985 - That Bakelite set looks like a nice Radio rentals (Ekco built) model 484? See image attached with valve line up.

[Lloyd 1985]

Hi Steve,

That’s great! I was wondering what model it was, it’s missing its back, and it’s very rusty inside, I have an incomplete Ekco AD38 which looks very similar inside, and it’s missing it’s tuning pointer light box thing, the Radio Rentals has it still intact, so I can use the RR to copy and restore the Ekco!

[agardiner]

Really enjoyed it this year; seemed to be very well attended and great to see how the event continues to evolve. Lots of hifi gear noticeable this year. Also interesting to see a number of very young people taking a proper interest and buying. Seeing children walking around with a bit of treasure they have acquired shows how the retro hobby is alive and well!

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Lloyd 1985

Hi Steve,

That’s great! I was wondering what model it was, it’s missing its back, and it’s very rusty inside, I have an incomplete Ekco AD38 which looks very similar inside, and it’s missing it’s tuning pointer light box thing, the Radio Rentals has it still intact, so I can use the RR to copy and restore the Ekco!

Great stuff. The service data source above has the circuit diagram for the RR 484.

I love the Radio Rentals 30s Bakelite sets, they're kinda like rarer versions of Ekco sets. One 'quirk' however, just because an Ekco set and a RR set have the 'same-ish' cabinet, it does not mean that they share the same chassis. They generally, if not always have their own chassis type.

I've got RR models 897 and a 157, photos attached. A third photo shows the 157 next to its Ekco 'counterpart', the AC64, but like I say, different chassis!

[Temporalnexus]

I personally would like to say a huge thank you to the organizers, my friends, Steve Farley and Robin for sorting the booking and friendly camaraderie throughout the day and of course all of my customers. I had a fantastic day after having a huge clearout at home with hopefully more to come for a stall next year too. This was my first time ever having a stall at RetroTech and really enjoyed it.

[Valvepower]

Hello,

It was certainly well attended...

Next time I’ll wear a particular tee shirt (last Sundsy, I was wearing my recent Caroline Tee shirt) and post it on the forum so I can be more identifiable to the fellow folks on the forum.

Terry

[vinylspinner]

No need, Terry, we all know who you are.

Nigel

[Valvepower]

Yeah, that’s true…

Just looking to use a few of the poly capacitors you handed on to me in the next BVWS article…

Thanks, the Capacitors I’ll pop a few quid in a Charity pot.

Terry

Originally Posted by vinylspinner

No need, Terry, we all know who you are.

Nigel

[vinylspinner]

Thanks, Terry.

I’ll be posting up a full list of all the values I have shortly, should you or anyone else want some.

Originally Posted by Valvepower

Yeah, that’s true…

Just looking to use a few of the poly capacitors you handed on to me in the next BVWS article…

Thanks, the Capacitors I’ll pop a few quid in a Charity pot.

Terry