Blog

2024: Another Year of 5/9s Across the Bands!

Sellers know our approach is by far the best way to achieve as close to market value for their items as possible. The value added by our techs testing and repairing their consignment is significant. Our realized prices make this abundantly clear!

2024-11-21T09:05:38-06:00November 20th, 2024|Amateur Radio, Auctions, Consignments, Ham Radio, Vintage Audio|

Jumping into the Deep Space Waterhole

When astronomy became my main hobby some fifty years ago, one aspect I never dreamed I'd be doing in any way was radio astronomy. It seemed too out there, too abstract. Yet technology has progressed to the point that radio [...]

2024-04-17T12:19:53-05:00April 17th, 2024|Amateur Radio, Ham Radio, Radio Astronomy, RTLSDR, Sawbird LNA|

From Gemini to Apollo with a Collins 51S-1F Receiver

As we were cleaning up equipment for photography and testing, KFØCOM discovered an original JPL/NASA DSIF (Deep Space Instrumentation Facility – pre-Deep Space Network) tag! It was affixed to the reverse along with a green and white inspection/calibration sticker with JPL stamp and handwritten dates 1/17/68 and 10/8/69 with “JPL 17” and “JPL 168” code stamps next to them – indicating this unit was in service during the heart of the Apollo program!

2023-10-25T19:02:00-05:00October 25th, 2023|Amateur Radio, Auctions, Ham Radio, Vintage Electronics Articles|

Spring is in the air…The Vernal/Spring Equinox, courtesy of Geochron

Spring officially began in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20, 2023 with the vernal/Spring equinox as the entire world experiences an equal amount of daylight and darkness, as shown on the Geochron Atlas 4K.   

2023-03-21T10:47:43-05:00March 21st, 2023|Amateur Radio, Ham Radio|

Book Review – Wes Schum: Amateur Radio’s Unsung Hero by Dominic (Nick) Tusa, 2021, Jan-Carol Publishing

"On Thanksgiving Day 1961, Wes Schum was unstoppable. His Central Electronics Company had produced the world's most advanced single-sideband transmitter, setting the amateur radio world ablaze. Three months later, it was all over. 60 years later, learn why and what could have been." - credit: excerpt from back cover

2023-03-21T10:23:38-05:00March 21st, 2023|Amateur Radio, Ham Radio, Vintage Electronics Articles|

A Rare Find, The Hallicrafters FPM-200 Transceiver

It was around 1960 when Hallicrafters put into limited production its ahead-of-the-curve 'transistorized' FPM-200 transceiver. This was a hybridized unit with 41 transistors, 49 diodes, 14 power rectifiers and 5 tubes, and would put out 70 to 100 watts PEP SSB, 60 to 90 watts CW, and 15 to 20 watts from 80 down to 10 meters. It also featured a combination R.F. output and S-meter, CW sidetone, vox, 100KHz crystal calibrator and crystal lattice filters, a dual conversion receiver and more.

The Consignment Process

We get a lot of questions about how our auction process works and how we acquire and curate the equipment we sell. Let us start by saying, we don’t purchase collections outright. The simple reason is that you, the consignor, will benefit more if we sell your items at auction on your behalf. When you consign items, our seller’s commission is all we take. If we purchased your equipment or collections for resale, it would be like selling anything to a reseller. A calculation would have to be made - in our favor - accounting for risks and unknowns we would be taking, such as how much of the equipment would need servicing and to what level. Auctions work best.

2022-10-16T15:21:57-05:00March 8th, 2022|Auctions, Consignments, Vintage Electronics Articles|
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