Favorite Electrical Component in junk box

[KU0DM]

What's yours?

I personally like the capacitor.
However, tubes are pretty cool, I especially like how they glow.

Have an old tube amplifier (from the 60s) given to me by an elderly ham in the area. It is a 6 in 30 out, home-brew. Love plugging it in and seeing those tubes glow! Can post pictures of it, inside and out if you want.

Am working on getting it on the air, right now it only works on 20 & 15, but am working to get it on 10.

BTU

[KC0OFZ]

A big hammer??? Well some of my projects make me feel like that from time to time.....:p

[N5PVL]

I end up digging around for a piece of wire, more often than not.

[N8YX]

Connectors, of all shapes and sizes. No matter what you're working on at the moment, you need one that isn't in your parts stash...

[KC0OFZ]

Actually I think it is my roll of Super 33+ tape.

[KC9JIQ]

555 timer











My message was too short, so cry me a river.

[KA4DPO]

My favorite junk box component is the one I need when I need it.

[KU0DM]

Which one would you want to need the most then? :D

[K3WRV]

My two favorite parts in my junk box are a CK-722 (Raytheon) and a UV-201. Been looking for a goid UV-201 circuit lately, but haven't found one. Not much need for either of them these days, but they're my favorites. [EDIT] the CK722 is Big and Blue, but it bringsa back fond memories. Only wish I had a CK-768 too.

[N8GAV]

Restors,caps,some common chips,transtors,tubes,heatsrink,connectors mic plugs screws washers nuts etc.etc. And Duct Tape:D Super33 too

[KL7AJ]

What's yours?

I personally like the capacitor.
However, tubes are pretty cool, I especially like how they glow.

Have an old tube amplifier (from the 60s) given to me by an elderly ham in the area. It is a 6 in 30 out, home-brew. Love plugging it in and seeing those tubes glow! Can post pictures of it, inside and out if you want.

Am working on getting it on the air, right now it only works on 20 & 15, but am working to get it on 10.

BTU

Right now, my favorite item is ROLLS of copper wire.....just because of the price of copper! Glad I stocked up when it was cheap!

I have lots of ft 243s, Tubes by the gazillion, of course, some roller inductors, some broadcast type vacuum variable caps, and some J.W. Miller chokes in their original orange boxes!

:)\

Eric

[AI4EP]

solder and black electrical tape.

also wd-40 --- duct tape --- crazy glue

[KC0OFZ]

Restors,caps,some common chips,transtors,tubes,heatsrink,connectors mic plugs screws washers nuts etc.etc. And Duct Tape:D Super33 too

Ah another fan of the Super 33. I certainly love the stuff.......glad I work for the company that manufactures it and other tapes I use.

[W4XKE]

I guess I like mercury switches. It's kinda hard to avoid picking it up and shaking it once or twice as I pillage through the goodies.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a201/XLente/Mercury_switch1.jpg

This one came from a control unit for a blinking light on top of a radio tower. An electric motor rocked a tray that held the switch, thus making / breaking contact for the light circuit.

[WB7DMX]

sorry but I don't know what a junk box is.
all the parts I have are new and unused. all the parts have there own multi-drawer storage cabinet.
I have many of these cabinets for, resrstors, caps, diodes, digital ic's, analog ic's, small xistors, power xistors, smd devices by size, connectors, jacks, plugs. and just about anything else you can think of.
but I also need more smaller cabinets as I gain more smd devices.
so, I guess you could say my room is a junk box, its a life time of collections.
but I do not have any hollow state devices, I went completely solid state back in the 70's.

that said, then my favorite device would be my two 8 ft long work benches loaded with test equipment above the benches, and the parts cabinets on a shelf above that.

like this
http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s128/wb7dmx/

taken while under construction.

[KC2ESD]

Favorite stuff has to be coax connectors for practical uses and the transistor since they are interisting parts that a very small current can control a larger current.

[AB9LZ]

The ubiquitous 2N3904.

73 m/4

[N8CPA]

Mine is the salvaged matching circuit board from my late R-7. Of such a noble antenna that died, what can a ham say?

Snatched too soon from this world by a vicious witch riding the October wind, I discarded the tubing, brackets, and the box that contained the circuit board. Of her mortal remains, just that circuit board I save. It is tenderly preserved in my junkbox, rather than the gloom of a grave, a sweet souvenir of her, of whom it was a part.

Alas, as I swoon in grief, I shall at present write no more of her.

[N2RJ]

I always like meters.

I dunno, there's a special mystique about meters, especially ones that were salvaged.

I have quite a few mil surplus meters, and you have to wonder what they've seen and what they were reading during their lives as a piece of military equipment.

[KL7AJ]

I always like meters.

I dunno, there's a special mystique about meters, especially ones that were salvaged.

I have quite a few mil surplus meters, and you have to wonder what they've seen and what they were reading during their lives as a piece of military equipment.

Me too. I have a substantial collection of D'Arsonvals, myself

[WA3VJB]

I agree with the other guy -- wetted mercury relays !

I've got some metal can, sealed octal types, and some clear glass bakelite types.

There's something magic about a liquid you can hear/see sloshing inside that's part of a circuit.

Yes.

WA3 Valuable Junk Box

[K8MHZ]

Solder wick and burn creme.

My hands just aren't as steady as they used to be......

[KA0GKT]

I like Vacuum Variable Capacitors followed closely by the big fixed value glass vacuum capacitors...heck I juust like typing the word Vacuum, how many other words have a double-U (as in UU, not W)...I have even been known to place a double-U into words which uusuually only have a single-U. I don't do it all the time, so I most certainly am not uuniform. I wonder if the condition is uunuusuual? sometimes people see my typing and juust don't uunderstand. :eek:

I also like roller and rotary induuctors! :D

[AF6FH]

LEDs. Especially the red ones... I'm old fashioned that way! :)

[AA5TE]

Blobs of solder. Pieces of solder. Slivers of solder. Then the ensuing lead poisoning and chelation therapy...It took me 4 hours to write this reply:cool:

[KI4WCA]

I really like my unused 4-400A and my old broadcast pulls an 833A and a 3CX2500F3.And my 12 4CX250B's.

[WY6K]

I like my 8877 and 3CX3000. Don't know if I will ever really do anything with them. But I love them.

[VE2NSM]

I have an old HeNe tube laser that I take out from time to time, along with it's HV power supply. Not stronger than the stock LED laser pointers but it looks impressive :)

In the '80s I had a lot of fun with those, now days a laser dot on a wall is soooooo boring :D

[N8FQ]

I'm gonna have to go with LEDs. Green and amber especially.

Second in line would be capacitors, if for no other reason than the fact that there's nothing like a 200V 560uF electrolytic when it comes to getting unwanted visitors out of your shack.

[WZ0O]

My two favorite parts in my junk box are a CK-722 (Raytheon) and a UV-201. Been looking for a goid UV-201 circuit lately, but haven't found one. Not much need for either of them these days, but they're my favorites. [EDIT] the CK722 is Big and Blue, but it bringsa back fond memories. Only wish I had a CK-768 too.

WoW I have one of each. The CK-768 cost $1.29 back in the cave man days. I think the CK-722 was $.99 but I don't remember. Those were the days :D

[W2JGA]

MAX 232 IC

A few resistors, couple caps, and I can read the data coming from the PCM on my 95 Bonneville on my computer.

[W4HAY]

Variable capacitors, magnet wire, and scraps of PVC pipe, along with a crystal diode or vacuum tube. Am I the only one that will spend an hour breadboarding a 1-tube 'ginny just to listen to a few signals on 80/40 meters, then take it all apart?

[VE2NSM]

Variable capacitors, magnet wire, and scraps of PVC pipe, along with a crystal diode or vacuum tube. Am I the only one that will spend an hour breadboarding a 1-tube 'ginny just to listen to a few signals on 80/40 meters, then take it all apart?

Probably not, but I know I won't.

I will however, build a repeater interface (complete with timers, audio routing, ID and DTMF interface) with two boards full of TTL and OP amps instead of buying the 29.99 all in one chip :D

[K8ERV]

My wife.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[WA6MHZ]

Here at the Crest Radio Museum, the most loved and favorite item in the Junk Box is my Galena Crystal. This is because this is how radio started, it is the earliest known form of radio detection I have, requires no power and only needs an antenna, coil/cap with some High Z headphones to here the world! And it always marvels me how just poking around with a catwhisker I can find a point where it is sensitive and can pick up stations! This is the MIRACLE of radio!!!

[KC5CSG]

I was going through my junk box yesterday after reading this thread. There was a wadded sheet of paper pushed all the way to the back in one of the compartments. I fished it out to see if it was a reciept or something and guess what I found? Yep, it was my FCC Amateur Radio License. Man, I need to keep better track of that thing right? Either way, I wadded it back up and threw it back in the junk box. Since the box is under the desk where my radio gear is installed I guess you can say it IS within sight of my station.............


Why waste the money on a frame?

Jerry

[N5PVL]

My wife.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

I keep my wife in the junk box too.

Bless her heart... She still calls it "the bedroom" sometimes, just because we sleep there I guess.

Too.

[KC5CSG]

I wonder what would happen if you were to ask your wife what she kept in her "junk box". Besides possibly getting the crap slapped out of you, would you really wan to know?

Just a thought.........

Jerry