[time-nuts] Maintaining boatanchors (was Capacitor Failures)

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Like it or not, most of this gear is interesting to us because we "knew it" when it was brand new. Either we had one or wanted one. As time marches on, the memory of most of this gear will fade. My guess is that a lot of these instruments will still be working fine long after anybody who's still alive wants to use them. 

Yes indeed I do still have some test gear (and quite a bit of radio gear) that has tubes in it. Based on buying and selling a lot of it over the years, I'm guessing that the tube based test gear would not sell for a lot these days. The same principle (to big, to ugly,  not cool enough, to weird) will continue to apply as time marches on. 

I'm by no means saying any of that's right, or that I like the situation. It is indeed the way the world seems to work....

Bob


On Oct 23, 2010, at 11:25 AM, Magnus Danielson wrote:

> On 10/23/2010 05:04 PM, bownes wrote:
>> If you are going to worry about things at that level, then it is not just the memory devices, you'll be worrying about all the programmable parts such as PALs, GALs, and other eplds. Then you are really looking fort some exotic programmers.
> 
> Who said I didn't worry about them? :)
> 
> If you want to go into paranoia mode, then there is all sorts of special ICs to worry about. Any programable stuff is relatively easy, but what if you don't have that peculiar gain-stage, low-jitter flip-flop or whatever. Then you have a piece of nice old gear that just turned into a doorstop. Until you find another and can make the transplant.
> 
> Caring about the gear so you don't kill the unobtainium components as secondary casualty should maybe come as natural.
> 
> Cheers,
> Magnus
> 
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.