Yesterday, I got a call from a guy whose website I’m working on. He says he’s calling from the Ann Arbor Recycling Center and that they have two tubs full of vacuum tubes there. He asked, “Do you know anyone who might want them”?
“How much are they asking for them”? I reply.
“Ten cents a piece.”
“How many are thereâ”?
“I’d guess about two hundred.”
“Well, tell them I’ll give him 20 bucks for all of them.”
He tells them that I’ll give them $20 for the lot. I hear some mumbling. He comes back on the line and says they’re negotiating. After a minute or two, he says, “OK. You got them. How do I get to your house”?
I gave him directions, and in about 15 minutes, he pulls up to my house, gets out, opens the hatch, and pulls out two plastic tubs and a cardboard box with vacuum tubes in them. I can tell he was way off in his estimate. There must be at least 400 tubes in all.
There are also a bunch of 6KS7s. According to the RCA tube manual, these tubes were often used as RF or IF amplifiers. That sounds like the beginning of a receiver project, doesn’t it? In fact, 6SK7s were used in the receiver section of the ParaSet, a “spy radio” used during WWII.
And, of course, there are a bunch of rectifiers to make a power supply. Now, all I have to find some cheap transformers. Anyone know a good source for them?