MOTM

>a) You NEVER EVER NEVER throw away old magazines or data books. Reason:
>"You never know when you
>might need something in there." This includes complete sets of QST and CQ
>from the 1970s.

Forget ham magazines, it's the databooks I can't live without. I do still
have all my old issues of BYTE, Model Railroader, etc.


>b) your garage has no cars in it: that's your "storage" area (see #1
>above). If married over 15
>years, wife gets 1 side of garage. You grumble at the waste of good space.

I've been informed that when the 1954 F-100 restoration is complete that
it's getting one side of the garage. I guess the KISS pinball--and all the
junk piled on it--will have to move...


>c) your car has more than 2 antennas

Actually, I'd like to get a black Crown Victoria and put half a dozen bogus
antennas on it, then watch the brake lights come on as I'm going down the
interstate...


>d) your attic has over 5000' of wire you found on the side of the road,
>removed from old
>equipment or found in a dumpster. You have wire over 20 years old. Your
>prized wire is 50pr
>telephone cable.

The last piece of that I got was BOGUS. Super slippery insulation and wire
so fine my stripper wouldn't work. So what you really want IS the older
telephone wire...


>e) ANYTHING must be repaired before a new purchase. This includes items
>that can be bought for <
>$10, but you want to spend 5 hours 'fixing' it because you can make it
>'better than new'.

Tempting, but too much trouble.


>f) Besides MOTM, you NEVER spend over $500 on anything that plugs into an
>AC outlet. Garage sales
>are your friend. You look at eBay occasionally, but scowl at the
>over-inflated prices morons pay
>for 'junk'.

Well, I've seen some rare Xmas lights that might go for that on ebay but I
can't afford it and besides I wouldn't hit it with 120V anyway. I use a
variac I found in someone's trash for powering up my old lamps...


>g) You will gleefully pay $20 for a 120lb. 19" rack mounted, 30" deep 1972
>HP frequency counter
>that consumes 1000W and "needs some work" but think spending $89 for a
>new, really good DVM is "a
>waste of money".

Does it have Nixie tubes??? I rest my case...


>h) your 'rig' has 23 different components, 3 different antennas and has a
>combined cost of over
>$7,000 and 2000 man-hours invested to make the equivalent of a 10
>cents/minute phone call.

Fortunately my ticket has run out.

Heh, you should cross post this to synth-DIY and see if it starts a big
argument as usual.
-- 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"