Going to Sandwich is a brief but major upheaval in life: go to bed early, get up at midnight and drive until dawn. Shop till ya drop. Drive home. (to read about this process in detail, see last years post)
Does that make it sound awful? It’s really a lot of fun. People I only see once a year, mounds of (mostly) techno stuff … I probably spend half of my time there just chatting with people; some I’ve known for years, some random strangers.
Besides the few completely unrelated-to-radio purchases (a 2 pound ball peen hammer, a waterproof light fixture with a red Fresnel lens, ) I bought two really cool things:
Pyrex antenna insulators
A pair of 12 inch end insulators, new-in-box:
My wife thinks they are fantastic and wants to display them in our home (in a manner to be determined).
Brown Brothers CTL-B straight key & paddle
And a question answered!
In a post back in February I wondered about the numeral “4” on the knob of a key I had bought, and asked my readers (if any) to explicate the matter.
At the Sandwich hamfest, I found the answer to my question for myself (the story of my life in a nutshell, lol) :
A cryptic and unmarked line test set; look in the lower right corner at the tiny little telegraph keys numbered 1 to 4.
So the number “4” on two different keys is merely coincidence, a random event. There are (presumably) an equal quantity of keys out there numbered “1”, “2”, and “3”.
(an update, 5/13/25: I noticed that the keys in the picture above do not have the little “6B” mark that mine (and others) have; is this test set not Western Electric?)
Exactly what properties of four different lines this apparatus was meant to test sort of eludes me; the big cylinder with sliders seems to be an adjustable resistance, the array of little double-throw switches to make different inter connections between parts of the device; the 3 switches and a pilot light seem to be main controls of some sort, and a really excellent milliammeter with several ranges to indicate … whatever it is measuring.
So there is still a mystery; just not the one that we started out with!
I could have acquired this device for $125, but … didn’t.
Maybe next year?
Bonus! a toaster that doesn’t have an IP address
The Radiant Control toaster was, and still is, a marvel of industrial design; not just for its sleek exterior, but for the ingenious mechanism that operates it.
See the website linked here to read about it in detail!
I have long (if not terribly urgently) wanted one, but they are “Collectible”, which means “costing $100 or more, in good working order”. This one was from a vendor’s “free stuff” table, and I was so pleased to find it I gave him a dollar anyway! I haven’t tried it out yet; watch for updates on this!
I want to get this post online now, so I will probably be adding to it for a few days; stop by again soon!
And, as always, thank you for visiting driftlessqrp!
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