The haul

One of the interesting things as AG Communication Systems was growing down in Northlake was a sale to employees of test equipment.  This was stuff that was surrendered by various departments and even other facilities as things wound down.

I came across my receipt for the stuff I bought at the sale:

The two most useful items from this stuff were the Tek 475a scope and the HP 6281a power supply.  The Tek 475a is no longer in use, the first time it broke I was able to fix it but I wasn't able to bring it back the second time.  Although now that I have the B&K 2190d digital scope I haven't spent much time on the 475a.

I still use the HP 6281a supply daily, a true bargain at $1, I've mentioned twice on the blog:

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-hp-6281a-power-supply.html

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/07/crystal-set-observations.html

The HP 5328 counter was the second most costly item that I thought I'd use a lot but really never did.  It is also busted now but the PIC based counters are just much cheaper/easier to use so never made much of an effort to fix it.

Most of the stuff is still around here unused although I have plundered some things for parts like the Tek TM503 mainframe and the Hughes PDEC.  Imagine if an aerospace contractor made a 6809 based S-100 computer - they'd use Teflon wiring everywhere and gold plated everything and it was available for $1 - that was the PDEC  :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm