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

[Jim Lowman]

On 12/30/2011 6:05 AM, John K3GHH wrote:
> 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.
In my case, it's too many hobbies (ham radio, photography, travel) and 
too much unfinished
business.  Several boxes need to be sorted and mostly recycled or 
tossed, including:

1)  stuff from my office after I retired, after I spent a near-solid two 
weeks
       sorting it there and nearly giving our custodian a hernia with 
several 55-gallon
       trash bin loads for recycling.  Some of the boxes had made the 
transition from old
       office to new without being opened for 10 years.

2)   the garage, which is preceded by clearing out the storage unit so 
that I can put
        several antennas and unbuilt kits to good use

3)    boxes of stuff that we decided to keep from my late parents' 
condo.  Dad passed
        away in 1997 and mom in 2009, and we tossed 29 lawn-size trash 
bags worth of
        paperwork that was long past the need to keep as records

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.

Fortunately, my wife was able to give away her old issues of National 
Geographic after I bought the entire set on DVD for her last Christmas.  
But no one wants the old ham magazines; not the local club, library or 
the local colleges and universities.  I was able to sell some of my 
computer science texts and Microsoft books on Amazon; the rest went to 
the library at the local Cal State U.

We have practically no family now, and no children to leave things to.  
One cousin is an engineer, but I've never heard him say that he's 
interested in ham radio.
I have tried to divest myself of some of the ham gear, but the pittance 
that others are willing to pay for it makes it worth more to me to 
keep.  Likely I'll leave it to that Jr. High school in NY.

73 de Jim - AD6CW

P.S.  I wasn't the first to say that I don't see how I found time to 
work.  That was another OT at the local club.  But I found out how true 
that statement is.