Electronics Swap 2022

This area is for the discussion of what's new, what's on your mind, and general photographic topics. A place to meet, make comments on this site, and get the latest community news.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Electronics Swap 2022

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Last Saturday was the first Electonics Swap in the Bay Area since Sep 2019. The lockdowns happened just before the first swap of 2020 was going to happen. I remember wondering right up to the night before the swap if it was going to happen! I suppose it was the same this time as well. Since the lockdowns could be re-imposed at any time with any uptick, each Swap this year will be precious. I did find myself spending more time than usual at the Swap, and digging a little deeper through the boxes, and I took home quite a few interesting things!

- a few of what appear to be telecentric inspection lenses and partials. They have some nice cemented achromats that might make good tube lenses
- some large aperture lenses from Kowa and Rodenstock
- a few mechanics that I need to strip down and see what is salvageable
- a nice Bernzomatic butane torch/soldering iron
- some nice rolls of magnet wire
- misc tools, usb cables, etc

Hopefully the swap continues through Sep as usual.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

My hopes have been dashed

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Last line of the above post is

"Hopefully the swap continues through Sep as usual."

Well, it is not to be. I checked a week ahead of this month's swap to be sure it was still on, but when I got there at 6:30AM Saturday, no one was there. Checking online I found that it had been canceled due to their losing the new host location, and that all swaps for 2022 have been canceled. A bitter disappointment.

I'm glad I went to the first (and only) swap and made the best of it. Looks like I will be going to El Segundo end of the month. There are items available at these swaps that you can't get anywhere else, and discoveries of new and previously unkown (to me) items to be found.

Scarodactyl
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by Scarodactyl »

These sound like a lot of fun. Wish we had something like it on the east coast.

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4042
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by Chris S. »

I go back and forth between wishing we had this in Ohio and fearing that perhaps we actually do, and I might find it if I looked. On one hand, it sounds like great fun. On the other, my debris field is already far too big.

--Chris S.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by ray_parkhurst »

There is an apparent dearth of these swaps on the East Coast for some reason. I do see that the New England Vintage Electronics show is tomorrow, in NH:

http://www.nearc.net/future_events.htm

And there is a recurring show at MIT:

http://w1mx.mit.edu/flea-at-mit/

I'm sure there are more, but these popped up.

I'm also planning on going to the N7RCA annual meet in June, in Minden NV. I haven't been to it before. Sounds like Burning Man for Hams:

https://www.n7rca.com/

blekenbleu
Posts: 146
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 5:37 pm
Location: U.S.
Contact:

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by blekenbleu »

Chris S. wrote:
Thu May 19, 2022 10:20 pm
I go back and forth between wishing we had this in Ohio and fearing that perhaps we actually do
Starting today:
Dayton Hamvention will bring 30,000 people to Xenia this weekend
http://arrl.org/news/get-to-2022-dayton ... -may-20-22
Metaphot, Optiphot 1, 66; AO 10, 120, and EPIStar 2571
https://blekenbleu.github.io/microscope

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4042
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by Chris S. »

blekenbleu wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 2:43 pm
Chris S. wrote:
Thu May 19, 2022 10:20 pm
I go back and forth between wishing we had this in Ohio and fearing that perhaps we actually do
Starting today:
Dayton Hamvention. . . this weekend
Vade retro, Satana! Since Dayton is pretty far from my part of Ohio, I'm probably safe. ;)

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Well, I had to decide between Redondo and Minden swaps, and since Redondo is monthly but Minden is just once yearly, I am going to Minden next week. Didn't want to be away from home two weekends in a row...

Will send out a report after Minden.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by ray_parkhurst »

The Minden swap was not what I expected. It was nominally supposed to start at 7AM, but sellers were allowed to set up the night before and camp on the property, so I got there around 6:30 to get a head start. There were only 4 or 5 sellers there, and no other buyers, a bit disappointing. But by 7AM a few more sellers had arrived, and by 8AM there were perhaps 20 sellers and 100 buyers. Still very disappointing since the other swaps I have attended have ~75-100 sellers. On top of that, the swap was indeed a "ham fest" in that most of the sellers were exclusively hams selling ham equipment, with not much else. I did pick up a few items of interest, but not a single seller had any surplus optics or similar items, so it's not likely I'll be going back next year.

I'm thinking now of going to Redondo end of this month.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by ray_parkhurst »

After a few months of fits and starts, I finally made it down to the Redondo swap meet. Also took advantage of the trip to meet with Robert, and had a nice visit talking about photography, lenses, and the forum. Nice to finally meet you Robert!

The swap meet itself was a bit disappointing. It was smaller than last time I visited, even though that was at the height of the Delta wave. Most of the sellers were the same as before, selling a lot of the same stuff. I did come away with some things I was looking for, mostly tools and other hardware items (eg some nice knobs for steppers), but one thing I expected to come away with but failed to find was an oscilloscope. There were of course 'scopes to be had, but none were nice enough to take home.

Overall, I doubt I'll make the trek down to SoCal for a while, perhaps only yearly. At least I now have one more reason to go there...

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3415
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Electronics Swap 2022

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Well, I'm back to Estate Sales since I can't justify going to SoCal every month for the swap. Hopefully the local swap will come back in March. This year we had it only for ONE TIME in March 2022, then the venue canceled access and the swap was canceled for the rest of the year. Normally I'd be going every month...

Anyway, last Fri I went to probably the best estate sale yet. It was not advertised well, so attendance was not heavy. Reminded me of a tool sale in Oakland where I was the only one there for a half hour in the AM. They advertised only on Craigslist, and the location was in known gang territory, but what a sale! The one this last weekend was in a nice neighborhood in South San Jose, Almaden area. Think Whole Foods and Bloomingdales. I almost didn't go since the sale was not due to the death of the owners, but a relocation, and there were few pics of anything I was interested in. But the description included some keywords such as "clock maker's tools" and "LP record collection" and "sewing and crafts" and the all-important "camera and darkroom"...

It started at 9AM Friday, but I got there around 10 since I loathe standing in line. I figured all the "good stuff" would be gone but there were a surprisingly few people there, and the stuff that was coming out was of little interest. The garage had watchmaker's lathes (three of them), Bergeon tools, and a huge record collection of mostly things like Montovani and Glenn Campbell. The records were a bust, but I came away with a big bunch of watchmaker's tools and assorted niceties. Cheap, too. I passed on many items since I am on estate sale parole with my wife, but I could not help it and went back on Saturday. I remembered a Bergeon screwdriver set, no handles, but it had the handle carrier (sizes 50...250) with tip holder in the middle. I didn't check Friday if it had tips, and it bothered me, so I went back Saturday to check. I figured it would be gone, but amazingly it was still there....with a full complement of tips! Score. I ended up buying more on Sat than on Fri.

Sunday morning was a bit slow, and I needed to go out shopping anyway, so I stopped by the sale for a third time. Sometimes at these "digger/picker" sales there are boxes of things that you miss first time, and boy did I ever. There was a whole separate part of the sale I never saw, with books and clock parts galore. Sorting through the boxes of parts I found many cool tools and amazingly, camera gear. It's odd at these sales but for some reason folks don't like to go through boxes, but that's what I go to them for. You find so many cool things. I picked up a 105mm f2.5 Nikkor lens in near mint condition, and a 50mm f1.4 in excellent condition. Plus a bellows and extension tubes that I still need to identify. They have a huge bayonet mount, like 58mm diameter. Very heavy duty stuff, but no markings to indicate mount type.

Unfortunately, 3 days of sales, and then the sorting and all, has me nearly back to estate sale prison after a parole period. Probably no sales this week...

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic