Your Christmas lists?

Time to make Christmas lists: I wonder what everyone’s preferences are? I suggest the following three categories:

Essential: Reels of 60/40 tin/lead solder whilst lead still available. Reels of red/black coloured house cable for rewiring jobs – undetectable by the “new regulations” thought police. A few tubes of solvent glues and tins of spirit based varnish could also be added before our nanny state completely bans anything that works or is useful.

Desirable: A round Ekco A22 with a good cabinet in need of a chassis rebuild.

Wonderful: An immaculate Murphy A40C – and a bigger house to put it in.

Anyone any other suggestions?

Leon.

[mickjjo]

I would suggest the following:-

Essential: A five gallon drum of creosote.
A years supply of 2 star leaded petrol.
A piece of software to enable you to remove any ebay bids above your own.
Desirable: A road map that gets you to all vintage radio meetings in under 2 hours without using the M6, M1, M4 or M25.
Wonderful: A boxed set of DVD's covering all BBC TV programmes from 1936 to 1939.
A quantity of round Ekco's to sell on ebay.


Regards, Mick.

[Sam]

Hmm. Maybe a fully-working, fully-restored valve radio, that I am happy to leave well alone!

(note to self, finish one set before starting on the next... )

Sam

[Mike Phelan]

A complete Avo CT160
10 years' supply of 400v and 100v capacitors
Lots of tin/lead solder
An immaculate HRO with a full set of coils
A pre-war RGD radiogram
A Ferrograph 6 series
A Hammond M100 organ

[XTC]

Essential: A five gallon drum of creosote.

It's been illegal for amateur use since June 30th 2003 and unused stocks are supposed to have been disposed of by June 30th 2004.

I don't know what the penalty is or how many prosecutions have proceeded for non-compliance. I wonder how many householders with a gallon of creosote in the shed, dutifully surrendered it?

Rather than break the law, get into recycling and use the perfectly acceptable spent sump oil!!

Pete.

[jim_beacon]

A few Christmas ideas.....

Essential
I think it has to be the solder and red/black cable
MORE SPACE!! (see below)

Desirable
Tek 549 storage scope
Replacement shed (but it has to be wired up before 1/1/05)

Wonderful
Permission to put my Murphy A28C in the lounge

Jim.

[quantum]

If Santa (or the lottery!) were to give me a pressie for Xmas it would be the raising of the sloping roof in the attic I use as a workshop. I'd then be able to install shelves to store sets instead having them put anywhere they fit in the limited space available...

[Station X]

I certainly don't want any more radios. I'm sure I've got enough restoration work, not just radios, to last me out.

I'd like:-

A lot more time.

Wooden Flag pole or Rugby post (You can't get them anymore) to support the end of my longwire aerial. Less obtrusive than a steel mast. Ex Utility poles are no longer sold as they're creosoted. The tree I used to use blew down in the 1987 "Hurricane" and the replacement is growing very slowly!

13 amp mains plugs. I bet it'll be illegal to sell them soon.

Banana Plugs. (Not many suppliers left).

High Voltage Electrolytic Capacitors for valve PSUs. (Not many manufacturers left, will probably go out of production soon).

Wobbulator or sweep generator for adjusting variable bandwidth IF circuits.

Graham.

[Sideband]

I'd like:

A lifetimes supply of 'proper' 60/40 solder before it becomes impossible to buy it.

A working Avo valve tester (well any valve tester really)!

A Mullard 'Master 3' radio from 1927 to make up for the one I wrecked when I was a kid.

A new workshop where I can work undisturbed and.....

my wife to understand fully about my hobby and allow me to put restored radios in any rooms around the house and to understand that their restoration takes priority over any DIY job!!

Rich.

[Paul Stenning]

I'd like:

A job where a 37 hour week doesn't mean a 50 hour week for 37 hours money.

That job to be no more than 15 minutes walk from home.

Then I'd have time to restore some radios, scan stuff for CD-ROMs and do everything else I want to do. And I'd save a fortune in petrol and car running costs, to buy more radios.

[ChristianFletcher]

I'm Greedy

1) An Avo valve tester for me please.
2) A signal generator with less knobs
3) a bigger aerial.
4) more space for all this junk I keep buying.
5) Nasal hair clippers. Since I became interested in valve radio's its started growing alarmingly

Jim B : I feel sorry for Santa trying to get down the chimney with a 549. I cannot even get mine up the stairs into my workshop

[Station X]

I'd like:

A job where a 37 hour week doesn't mean a 50 hour week for 37 hours money.

Well Paul. I'm retired and don't have to work at all. I still don't have time to do all the things I want to though. It might help if I only had one hobby instead of four. Radio in various forms has been one of my hobbies for about 40 years, so I don't think I'll be giving that up in a hurry.

Graham

[evingar]

Replacement balance mechanism for left hand ear, - can’t trust this early 60s technology, the thing only lasted 24 years

Pre war telly (any make - I'm not fussed ) for no more than 10S 6d
Oh - must have a good tube and LOPTX

[davew]

Sorry to be completely unrealistic but what I'd really love is the use of a time machine for a day to take me back to all the junk/surplus shops in Tottenham court road and Lisle st in the late 60s
Bliss!

[Mike Phelan]

Originally Posted by davew

Sorry to be completely unrealistic but what I'd really love is the use of a time machine for a day to take me back to all the junk/surplus shops in Tottenham court road and Lisle st in the late 60s
Bliss!

Never thought of that, Dave - pure heaven!
Or for Tommy Best's in Bath to reappear - I have never seen such an enormous box of body-tip-spot carbon resistors as they had in the 60s.

[newlite4]

That takes me back Mike. I used to go into Tommy Bests every Saturday morning in the seventies. By the time that I was going there, most of the radio related stuff had been sold off. The store closed in the late 70s and the business transferred to Mill Lane, Box, Wiltshire, where it kept going for a while longer. I agree that it would be nice to see all of these surplus shops again.
Neil

[quantum]

Originally Posted by davew

what I'd really love is the use of a time machine for a day to take me back to all the junk/surplus shops in Tottenham court road and Lisle st in the late 60s

If I can borrow it after you I'll go back to a time in 1981 when I saw a round Ekco (can't remember which model now) in a local junk shop for £11.50 - I didn't buy it as the maximum I'd pay for a set then was £3.50 (effects of inflation!) and I refused to pay three times my limit...

[staresy]

Highly desireable......

Denise Lewis, rubbed down in cocoa butter and delivered to my tent...... :P

Forget the radios

Sorry, am I getting carried away again......
Naughty Naughty Staresy Mikelect