Day 2 at Orlando Hamcation was spent looking for antenna things and CW keys. Lots more people at Hamcation today than there were yesterday, which was expected. After wandering around to the different tables in the swaps area and wandering around the bone yard, I had a better idea of what I wanted to get.
Picked up some stranded copper wire, coax and ladder line for antenna projects, and then it was out to the swaps building.
First acquisition was this J-38 straight key. It’s a little dusty, the flat knob is a bit chipped and the shorting switch is missing, but it had the best action of the other J-38 keys the guy was selling. It needs some cleaning, but I’m looking forward to learning more about this style of key and wiring up to play with.
Wandering around the bone yard, I came across a few other things that I thought would be nice to have. One of the benefits of cruising through the bone yard towards the end of the day is that people are looking to get rid of their stuff (so they don’t have to haul it back), so sometimes pretty good deals can be had. The flip side is that by then, most of the good stuff is probably gone.
A breadboard, some 7 segment LED modules and some kind of metering panel that I’ll use for parts.
The next acquisition was this Heathkit HD-10 keyer. The guy selling it had it in his shack gathering dust for years and wasn’t getting too many bites at the price he was initially looking for, so I managed to pick it up for a great price. Plugged it in and it works pretty well.
Toward the end of my bone yard wanderings I spotted these variable plate capacitors on the table and scored them for $2. Some of them are a bit oxidized and need a bit of TLC, but I think I’ll be able to put them to work doing something.
