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Andy Williss (VK5LA)

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Are you a scrounger? Do you hang on to junk ham or otherwise - "just in case"?
Posted: May 21, 2012 (353 votes, 11 comments) by VK5LA

Survey Results

Yes - but ham/electronics stuff only...	33% (118)
Yes, - but only if I know I'll use it...	12% (43)
Yes - my place looks like a junkyard!	30% (107)
No - but I might hang on to something for a while before I chuck it...	18% (65)
No - I don't see the point...out it goes!	6% (20)

Survey Comments

Just Today As A Matter Of Fact
I have a small Coleman power inverter and the cooling fan went bad in it. Well........ After searching for about a half hour I found the small PC cooling fan that I had scrounged and fixed the inverter. Lots cheaper than going and buying another inverter plus I had it "in stock" and ready to use. 73 KB9TMP Posted by KB9TMP on May 26, 2012
cluttered treasures!
I haven't been able to walk through my garage in over 30 years! I used to have a path through it, but it dis-appeared! I wonder, in my lifetime, (what is left of it),if I'll ever clear my garage out! It seems that everything winds up, in the garage, or in my breezeway, between the garage and house. My sheds in the backyard, are at maximum capacity, full of junk! de Claude, AE6FI Posted by AE6FI on May 25, 2012
why hoarding is necessary
I often find that the thing I need is something I either once had and threw away while in a junk reduction mood or it something that I recently saw and didn't take home because of a junk avoidance mood. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction say from having a connecting cable fail and remembering that you have a spare. That satisfaction is magnified immensely when you open your parts bin and find that you actually have two such connecting cables. 73 k4ehb, robert Posted by K4EHB on May 25, 2012
Hoarding
Half the fun of Amateur Radio is collecting boatanchors, and various electronic items over the years. That is how I got the ICOM 706, the 902DM, a TS-940sat, and a raft of stuff. I do the same with antennas including the Force-12 Vertical Dipole, and various Bazooka long wire dipoles. Posted by WB8JDX on May 25, 2012
Scrounger/junk collector
I would have to say that yes I am and it sometimes drives my girlfriend, here in the Philippines, crazy. I was encouraged as a Novice some 40+ years ago to have a nice junk box - parts from old discarded TV and the like, learned a lot taking them apart. It also carries over into my other hobbies. It is a habit and I have no plans to break it. What is nice is if we need something fixed - I can do it and I have the required items. BTW my junkbox is several boxes all labeled and stored on shelves, but then there are the boat anchor radios on the floor. Posted by WB0HZL on May 24, 2012

My answer would more accurately be only if I know I "MIGHT" use it. However in recent years, the older I get I try to clean out unnecessary stuff, and the backlog gets smaller every year. Might be down to just my radio in another 10 or 15 years ! Posted by K7AAT on May 23, 2012
It's what makes a Ham a Ham.
I have a large commercial building full of "Junque" and when a problem needs a solution I may dig for hours to unearth something to facilitate a repair or build something new. I got for the effort to haul it away a Gates BC-1J AM broadcast transmitter (1956). It sat on a trailer under tarps for many months before a friend hauled it away to make a 160M transmitter out of it. Another friend had all the manuals for it. Hams do this stuff!! 73 k9ml Posted by K9ML on May 22, 2012
Sanford + Son
I just hate to throw something out that I think I might use someday, Does this qualify me for the Sanford + Son club? Posted by KK4AH on May 22, 2012
The good life
The good life is a life with a minimum of goods. The more you have, the more you have to manage, to store, to maintain, to clean, and to get in your way when you want something in a hurry. What you keep you eventually lose through corrosion, breakage, or theft. What you give away, in a sense, you keep forever, and you make good friends, too! Get rid of junk! Posted by AI2IA on May 22, 2012
Parts is parts
Having been born in a 3rd world country we were taught ow to be resourceful with everything we had. The word disposable was not in our vocabulary. I keep used solder wick and use it as braid ground connection wire. I take broken hack saw blades and sharpen the back edge to a razor fine edge that rivals an xacto knife blade. I never have to buy xacto blades… Posted by KA3NXN on May 22, 2012
On Hoarding...
Yes, I admit it: I am a scrounger & a hoarder---but ONLY with regard to things that are electronic / Ham radio related... There is no greater comfort or joy for a homebrewer like myself, than to elect to build a new gizmo, & to find ALL of the required parts in one's proverbial "...junque boxxe". No greater joy at all, apart from building the thing & having it actually work! Hi Hi. Now, as for my deceased non-Amateur brother-in-law-- -now THERE was a true, dyed-in-the-wool hoarder: when he passed away two years ago last April, we couldn't even come close to selling his house until August of that year. Some seventeen(!) industrial-sized dumpsters later, umpteen give aways / private sales / yard sales, we FINALLY cleaned the place out---but it took TWO FULL DAYS of work with a gang of FIVE PEOPLE just to gain access past his front hall way! I'm nowhere even CLOSE to that myself with my radio treasures...but I have no doubt that there are those out there---maybe even a few of them are reading this right now---who are. I think it's symptomatic of an impoverished childhood: my brother-in-law was raised during the 30's & 40's, when material things weren't so very easy to come by...in his later years, I guess, he took comfort in the fact that he COULD buy his way into security, what with 25 unopened jars of coffee, two dozen "fresh" containers of peanut butter, a closet full of aluminum foil / wax paper / garbage bags / etc. etc. etc. Now, if YOU have a basement full of Collins KW-1 transmitters & Hallicrafters SX-88 receivers, speak now, or forever run the risk of having your descendents enrich the landfill sites of your community with your trove...! Hi Hi ~73~ Posted by VE3CUI on May 22, 2012

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