Re: [Amateur-repairs] Old test eqpt? Chuck it? Refurbish it?

A few thoughts.
First, there are a lot of people around who could make use of some of that equipment. Think young people with few resources but interest. A fifty dollar/pound piece of "modern" equipment might seem cheap to you or I, but out of reach for some young person learning. So getting it to them could be very beneficial.
Second, there are others who collect various old equipment for various reasons. Probably for most of your equipment there is someone who would like to have it.
In some cases museums may be interested. I had an oddball piece of RCA equipment from around 1960 that ended up going to a museum. It was rare enough they didn't have one.
Getting it to these interested parties is sometimes challenging. Some ideas.
There are various forums in different places that cater to such things as old test equipment. You can look for them. Google groups, facebook, etc. Amateur radio clubs might also be able to help. For things you think might be museum worthy, you could search for museums directly. And of course you could haul it all to a hamfest or two or three... Could be a lot of trouble.
If you would like to keep it available without all the work, you might list it all as a single lot for sale at some nominal price. Sell it to someone else who will then do whatever with it. That would increase the chances of it going someplace it is appreciated and put a bit of change in your pocket without very little effort.

Hope this is helpful,
Will, N4JBD


> On 06/26/2025 10:37 AM EDT Gareth Evans via groups.io <headstone255=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
>
>
> We seem to have been overtaken by the miniaturisation of Anno Domini
> when VNAs and the TinySA give us almost everything we need in a size
> not much bigger than a packet of cigarettes.
>
> What then, to do with shelves full of the test eqpt slowly amassed
> over 50 years but now worth almost nothing, perhaps only 5 or 10
> shekels / dollars / pounds sterling at the various rallies and hamfests,
> hardly worth the hassle of trying to sell it?
>
> I'm thinking of my valve (tube to the Left Pondians :-) ) RF sig genny,
> AF sig genny, RF millivoltmeter, bench DVM, freq counter,
> homebrew capacitance meter; all taking shelf space that is on
> increasing scarcity of shelf space in the shack and all of which has been
> superseded by miniaturisation.
>
> There's even a W95 laptop in there somewhere purely to support
> the ICOM PCR1000 RX, long made redundant by RTL-SDR
>
>
> 73 DE G4SDW (Was G8DXY) GQRP #3339 Gareth
>
>
>
>

You just can't beat the person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth


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