[TenTec] OT: Old QSTs, CQs, etc.

[Kris Merschrod]

John,

Many thanks for the excellent summary of commentary - it was a long thread. 
The sobbering reflection on what happens to accumulated treasures is food 
for thought.

Perhaps a slow and steady flow toward eBay should be in order.  Not too much 
at once or the price of boat anchors could become depressed!  :<)

Kris KM2KM


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John K3GHH" <k3ghh at arrl.net>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 9:05 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] OT: Old QSTs, CQs, etc.


> As the original poster in this thread, I thank everyone for the
> responses. It's good to see such a wide range of views, from "discard
> after 6 months" to "keep them all."
>
> For the record, I got those boxes of QSTs into the attic. Since it's
> accessed only by steep, narrow, pull-down stairs it was a good workout.
> (There has to be some kind of rope-and-pulley way to get them back
> down.) My little spreadsheet has records of which issues are in which 
> boxes.
>
> A number of posts were especially relevant to me. Rick DJ0IP's (and Jim
> AD6CW's) views on retirement... mine is imminent, and I always had
> visions of sitting quietly in a comfortable armchair with a good reading
> lamp and a cup of coffee, following Dave K8MN's approach: going through
> QSTs, especially from the days when I got into the hobby (the mid-1950s)
> and before. The Yasme DXpeditions, how (and why) to neutralize a 304TL,
> Lew McCoy's ingenuity with old TV sets... But, as Rick and others asked,
> is that realistic? Just considering amateur radio, our hobby moves on,
> and I really should be learning about surface-mount stuff like the
> brilliant homebrew-contest things I see in the NEW magazines. (I was an
> avid home-brewer as a kid in the tube days but have never even worked
> with transistors.) Beyond radio, I have several other time-consuming
> hobbies that suggest a "don't know how I found time to work" retirement.
>
> On the magazines' eventual disposal: One of my "kids" (a middle-aged
> adult) has friends whose parents have passed away, and she's helped
> clean out their houses. The friends can keep only a few small momentos,
> so accumulations of the parents' lifetimes go to charities or (mostly)
> the dump. Our small house is filled with things that reflect our
> interests, but our kids don't share them. Thousands of books, my
> boatanchors, antique-car parts... There's always Ebay, but our kids have
> no idea whether a DX-100 or NOS Hudson steering wheel might be worth the
> trouble. At present, I'm waffling between (1) intelligently disposing of
> all this stuff gradually so it'll go to good homes and our kids won't be
> burdened with its disposal, and (2) keeping it all because "you never
> know when you'll want it" and when the time comes we won't care and the
> kids can just rent a dumpster anyway. Of course if we ever decide to
> MOVE, as Ron W3WN (and one of my local friends) did, difficult value
> judgments will have to be made earlier. [Ron, I'll remember your
> interest! We drive through (well, around) Pgh occasionally.]
>
> We recently disposed of hundreds of National Geographic magazines...
> such a wealth of information. As Carter K8VT reported with QSTs, We
> could find nobody who would accept them as a gift. Fortunately we have
> curbside recycling here.
>
> That's it for now, guys. Thanks a bunch for your insights. Obviously
> this matter has to be continually revisited as time goes on.
>
> -- 
> John K3GHH
>
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