ARNSW Trash and Treasure

This morning I went to the ARNSW Trash and Treasure event!

It’s pretty much a small hamfest!

This is the second time I’ve been to it, it was a bit smaller this time but there was still plenty of stuff. 

There was heaps of oscilloscopes this time, with many costing a mere $10-30!!

There was even this single channel scope with a GIANT display:

The first thing I spied when I was walking around was a small block of foam with 12 nixie tubes on it, it was sitting with a bunch of other vintage tubes. 

I’m a huge fan of nixie tubes so I went straight for my wallet to make sure they were safely mine! Haha
The list price was $120 but I talked it down to $60 for the lot. 

I also picked up a few random metal project boxes that… Seemed to be constructed into things. 

Only one of them was labelled so the other two were real mystery boxes !

Nobody was able to tell me what they were, but I see huge potential in rebuilding them into something else. 
I’m particularly fond of the one with the front handles!!

When I was home I opened up the two unknown ones to find them pretty much empty shells. 

The perfect playground for whatever I turn them into. 

I was also lucky enough to pick up some variable capacitors, which I’ve been chasing for a while. I don’t yet know the value of what I grabbed but it’s certainly closer to what I need than nothing !

I want to use it when building a magnetic loop HF antenna. 

I also picked up a rather nice dial with an easily configurable scale. You just cut out and slide it in. 

Overall it was a pretty successful morning ! 

I spent significantly less than I expected and came home with some pretty nice treasure!

Bonus picture:

Spot the long wire antenna: