A Crummy Commercial

Waiting on 4 USPS packages: I was *supposed* to get the last item on Wednesday - what a lot of bunk: "Held at Post Office, At Customer Request"   It is some boards for kits, why would I delay delivery ?  I suspect they just forgot to deliver it and that was the closest excuse on the system ?  Note that I did get one piece of junk mail on Wednesday.   The first item (which was fulfilled by Amazon)  arrived on the Island Wednesday but the USPS doesn't deliver until the next day.  Wouldn't any other business deliver the same day ?  I realize it's the winter ferry schedule but still, it never used to be this way. The Digikey item is also for a kit order - BTW, Digikey also baked in a extra day before sending the order: "unavoidable delay" So I guess I shouldn't complain about the USPS delays if even Digikey now has feet of clay :( Update: the Amazon package and the "held at customer request" package did show up:  But 9:55a ?   I didn't ...

I had to refuse delivery on a FEDEX Smartpost item from Ebay: it clearly says Smartpost It turns out that Smartpost is defunct:   That begs the question:  why didn't FEDEX tell their customers that Smartpost doesn't exist anymore, wouldn't that be the smart thing to do instead of accepting a shipment as Smartpost and then changing it to FEDEX Ground before delivery ? https://www.costanalysts.com/fedex-smartpost/ I guess I am just old now and expect people to do what they say they will do. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Continuing with a look at the Ebay junk box here are 3 more items.  First 3 pre-wound transformers: They are 1:1 and have an inductance of about 820 uH - the wire is quite heavy so I'm assuming these were for some kind of isolated switching supply or ??  I was thinking of building a switcher so these may prove useful. Here are two bags of what appear to be MAX232 clones (RS-232 interface chips) along with the caps needed for the positive and negative voltages:   They might be useful but 10 ?  Even though these chips can sometimes be sensitive to static not sure I'd even need more than one or two. Finally a PCMCIA flash memory card from Sandisk.   I tried it in the only machine I have that has PCMCIA card slots, an old Thinkpad 600E.  I wasn't able to get anything going but probably I don't have the correct driver installed.  220 Megabytes is somewhat puny judged by the flash offerings of the 21st century.  I guess I was just curious as to what mig...

These AA cell to D cell converters seem useful, there were 4 in the Ebay junk box.  They allow for 2 AA cells in parallel but that doesn't seem like a good idea so I just used one.  They are now in the LED camp lantern which should be handy during the next power outage: Also got a nice plastic box of pre-cut wires for a solderless breadboard - BTW I got the solderless breadboard from the same Ebay seller: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-quick-project-for-cleared-bench.html I wouldn't have ever bought pre-cut wires new but as a part of a junk box special, they might prove useful for keeping things neat - usually I just strip short pieces of "telephone" wire. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

For some reason I tried bidding on a Lionel Communications Lab on Ebay.  I've mentioned these before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/lionel-communications-lab-mark-i.html This particular auction was for a mark II lab, so a little fancier than the one I had.  I basically just pulled the figure of $50 out of the air and then deducted for postage, bidding $35.01,  here's a record of the bidding: It's interesting, the original bidder bid $15.  A couple days later a second person bid - he won the auction at $224.72 (plus tax and $15 postage).  The only thing the other 3 bidders did was to jack up the winner's price :) I dodged a bullet there :)  The original advice that Ebay gave me is still sound - bid the maximum you want to pay and walk away, if the other person gets the item, don't worry - generally there will be another one offered in the future. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I purchased some fiber on ebay.  I've bought from this seller before with no problem.  However this time walking back from the mailbox with an unusually heavy parcel I noticed a sound: a klank.  It turned out that the box contained this: no wonder there was a klank . not only was it sent ground in a pri mail box, the USPS noticed the weight discrepancy So I complained on ebay and in a few days the fiber did appear.  However no apology from the seller on their mistake, in fact no communication at all. A couple of weeks later I do get an email from the seller wondering if I received the replacement fiber and wondering what was up with the return of the klanking springs.  I replied that I had received the fiber but hadn't gotten any email from the seller on a return label.  The seller replied that a return label was included in with the fiber - I had seen the label but it hadn't registered that it was for a return.  Anyway I finally returned the spr...

. . . are the bane of my existence ! They are all over ebay - taking your money but then having someone else (like Amazon or Costco) do the actual shipping.  Which is fine BUT for me drop shipping is no good because no one but the shipping overlord knows which carrier will deliver the parcel.  And I need things sent by USPS as they are the only ones who deliver here on the island. So how do you tell a drop shipper ?  They may indeed specify USPS as the carrier in their ebay listing so how else can you tell ? 1) are AK and HI excluded ?  that might mean no USPS !   2) are PO boxes excluded ?  again the USPS should deliver to Post Office boxes.   3) is the picture of the item a stock photo against a white background or an actual item with a real background ?  drop shippers usually use a stock photo   4) is the item picture small in size, an ultra compressed JPG or a larger more detailed picture ?  drop shippers usually use an ultra compres...

I reported on the book previously:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/05/book-report-red-alert-by-peter-bryant.html This was from the USPS: I was sending back an item from ebay.  I wonder if it will boomerang back ?  We will see. update 8-26-2023:  yes, the parcel was returned to me, weird. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I saw this on ebay: Three swings and no sales apparently :) This is the original version with the International Rectifier PVI chip and the 500 Volt rated cap and IRF820 transistors. But it has been relisted:   https://www.ebay.com/itm/325475620652 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Review the previous Laserjet cartridge exploits here:   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/08/stuff-happens.html I tried buying a generic cartridge on ebay to replace the bad HP cartridge.   One of the main reasons for buying this particular cartridge was that it was located in Fond du Lac, WI which is close to Appleton, WI which happens to be the last jumping off point recorded on any USPS parcel tracking.  So hopefully I'd get the cartridge in a day or so.  BZZZZT !  Nope.  I purchased the cartridge on August 30, a Tuesday afternoon before 3pm.  It was sent on September 6 and I received in on September 8.  So much for my plan of a quick transaction.  Of course there was a Monday postal holiday. After receiving the cartridge I tried printing a test sheet: But after putting in a request to return the cartridge the seller asked me if I had "pulled the tape" - I hadn't.  There was no ring on the tape so I figured that it had already bee...

You know how it is, just when you need something urgently:  Stuff Happens In addition to selling the kits I sell books about Washington Island and also do a little printing for one of the local museums.  This museum stays open until Columbus Day.  They are out of two items I print for them.  So I had to buy a new printer cartridge because the last cartridge I bought pooped out after 400 sheets, thanks a lot HP !  This was partially my fault, I had bought the extra life cartidge but had been sent the regular cartridge.   Stuff Happens. The new cartridge arrived (from Ebay) and it was a new, genuine HP.  I tried using it and got this: perfect only for printing horizontal pictures of zebras ? Stuff Happens.     I will try to return the cartridge for a refund and buy a different one.  But this will take a few days and it's already been over a week since the order.  Pretty soon it will be Labor Day and Columbus Day is coming up. BTW...

 I didn't accept the offer.  this was blogged on previously:   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/what-deal.html     Also seeing that I was the only one watching, I unwatched - no sense in feigning interest.   Ebay didn't even email their usual:  "you better jump on this PDQ, the same offer has been sent to others" :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I got this notification from ebay, $1050 off !: the countdown has begun https://www.ebay.com/itm/143598360784 so the total would be 2057.25 including tax for 100 of the Phaostron meters. I usually "watch" ebay "buy it now" stuff that I'm sorta interested in before buying just for this type of discount, some sellers even have patterns of doing this, so it may save a few dollars. But even though these are really nice meters (not sure if they are taut-band or jeweled or what but they are 50 uA full scale, or 20,000 ohms per volt when used in a VOM) over $20 for a surplus meter that's entering middle age (33) is kind of a lot of money. I do have a similar Phaostron meter which I *think* I bought from (the now departed) BG Micro last century: date code 52nd week of 1981 ? the works are visible But I never used it for anything.  That's the other thing, what would I do with 100 meters, sell them in a kit, a VOM ?  Now one interesting thing is that it would be ...