What caught my eye in the box was a whole bunch of very high quality banana jacks and sockets. I have a bunch of cheap meters that need good test leads. To build a good test lead, one needs good wire and good jacks and probes. Notice the extreme quality of these jacks, the way it was done “back in the day”.
Notice how finely machined the metal is and the chamfered hole.
perfect fit!
To connect a wire it would first be soldered to the brass insert and then screwed into to back of the jack.
There were many, many other high quality vintage parts. As I said, I bought this box O’Stuff for the Banana Jacks, but was very pleasantly surprised with other fine stuff.
This one should interest comfychair, a turns counting dial. Perfect for the 10 turn pots that he uses on his drivers. I plan on using this to make a bench power supply. It also has a locking mechanism for once the exact voltage is dialed in.
Finally this last item actually shocked me. I immediately recognized the number on the envelope, but it took a couple of seconds to remember why.
Does anyone know what the significance of this item, other than it was one of the first electronic components I ever worked with?
I used it to amplify the signal of the crystal radio I made when I was a Cub Scout. For those that don’t know what a crystal radio is, it is a circuit with a tuning capacitor, choke and detector that is connected to a set of sensitive earphones. It is used to pick up strong radio stations WITHOUT any power other than the radio signal. It is quite impressive to hear, especially as a young child. It works as if by magic.
Anyway, the Raytheon CK722 was the first low cost junction transistor available to the general public. Here is a link to a web site in it’s honor.
I also had an FM (maybe AM) crystal radio and it was magic……as it’s name implies. FM= Fu$%#in magic. Sorry for any foul words. The box was an awesome find.
On the probe I think wire goes through the middle of the brass piece and then the bare strands folded back so they are clamped when the brass part screws in.
Nice old parts, but all the new stuff is safe shrouded, not bare.
I know this thread is 2 years old now, but I just came across it again and I NOW know what you were referring to with your 2 words: Poly Paks
Sure there was the retailer that took seconds, repackaged them and sold them off in mail order, but you were referring to what the CK722 really was. It was a transistor that was binned not good enough for the government and was literally stuck inside a new can and sold to the consumer and hobbiest market.
The original Poly PAKS!
Poly Paks was around well into the internet age, mostly reselling overstock, not rejects. Government contracts used to require selling off all the excess inventory at the end so you couldn’t pad one contract with parts used in another. The volume parts was huge and combined with parts anybody else wanted to dump in quantity.
Somewhere around the 90’s I think they started selling some completed items and some kits.
BTW if you are into “making” stuff, couple more days left in a Humble Bundle of ebooks on Arduino and Rasberry, $14 goes to charity and you get $200+ in books. Books
You sometimes luck out on stuff like this at Hamfests, but many have gone by the wayside and there’s a lot fewer components and parts being sold at the ones still going since nobody makes their own equipment anymore. Sometimes bargains, sometimes overpriced junk but always fun digging through the dusty boxes to see what you can find and us older folks always come home with fond memories if nothing else. BTW, anybody here got a matched pair of new or nearly new 8950’s for cheap? :bigsmile:
Don’t forget I posted that find 2 years ago. When you asked about that crystal I was horrified to think that maybe after I picked through that box I threw the rest away. As I started to look for it, knowing myself all too well, I KNEW I wouldn’t. And sure enough I didn’t.
There are just too many memories in there. A lot of the parts are the kind of parts I worked with when I was a kid.
pics of that crystal.
Here are some selected parts from the bin, in full resolution so that the picture can be panned. Anybody want to guess what the Aluminum numbers on the right were used for?
HINT: It had nothing to do with electronics, I only included them for nostalgia’s sake.