Good thread. I have a file cabinet in my office that holds a lot of information about my toys. I've tried to keep it updated over about the last 40 to 50 years. For my ham gear, there are manuals. In many cases there are the originals, purchase receipts, photos, and other notes. In many cases there are printed versions of downloaded PDF manuals that I've "red-lined" to reflect modifications I've made to equipment. I don't expect that my ham equipment is worth a heck of a lot of money. So, I'm not too concerned about what happens to it when I do become a silent key. Actually, very little of what I have is worth much. We have been downsizing since I retired about four years ago. I've been filling my cargo trailer regularly and taking it to highly respected local auction houses. Except for guns, coins, and things with significant gold, silver, or diamond content, not much else brings a whole lot. Some cast iron cook ware does well. My 1959 fully restored pin-ball machine did pretty good. Some of my farm equipment has done well. I figure I've done well. But there ain't no way you are going to get rich in your old age by selling your wonderful possessions and heirlooms. Too many others are trying to get rid of the same things, and tipping fees at the local landfills just keep getting more and more expensive.
And include the ARRL and ARISS in your estate, too. As well as a little to your local ham club to use as they see fit.
She was invited in for dinner after modeling for the photo. But don't worry. There are always plenty more models available. Last night we invited in a very nice hybrid striped bass for dinner.
I get this discussion from my 3 sons often. They are totally clueless about radios and the one Id trust the most lives in the small country of Montenegro in Southern Europe with his Russian GF and her 7 yr old son. As a certifiable collector/packrat there is gear in every room of a 3500 sq ft house plus walk up attic and large basement. Not wall to wall to ceiling but too damn much. Plus in the garage, 3 trailers back in the woods, an outbuilding, a screen house and 4 vans that I drove till they died or wouldnt pass inspections; all for storage. Toss in 4 towers and enough extra sections for a few more and enough aluminum to furnish a first class contest station with antennas from HF to UHF. I have slowly been thinning it out and this past summer it started to accelerate. I dont even want to start thinking about taking an inventory with expected values, condition, etc. but it has to start; Im pushing 76 real soon and Ive seen way too many others lose their collections to ghouls who keep track of death notices and literally steal the gear or buy for pennies on the dollar. There are likely a few on here and other forums.. Carl
I have two plans. Plan A is two more sunspot peaks, then I am done. Sell all my stuff. Sell my house. Distribute the proceeds. Move in with one of my kids and die in my sleep the first night there. Plan B is a detailed inventory and "written instructions" for one of my kids to dispose of all my gear, sell the house, etc. Just in case Plan A doesn't work out.
jeez carl, Sell the stuff, buy a first class cabin in an around the world cruise,and tip the ladies generously
This one is easy. Get rid of the excess now while the going's are good. Sell it while you have the health and ability, and while you can get some of your money out of them. From 1994 to 2005 I had amassed a huge collection of old tube radios from small Knightkit shortwaves to a Collins KWS-1, Johnson Viking Desk Kilowatt, Invader 2000, Rangers, Hallicrafters, Hammarlunds, Collins, Nationals, Morrow, Globe, EF Johnson, etc... . It was so fun to seek out those nostalgic radios but I never got around to selling. Eventually there were radios everywhere, far more than I could restore or maintain, and I knew I had way too many. The company I worked for started having yearly massive layoffs which made me realize that I might have to sell the house and move if I got laid off. I didn't want to pack and move all that mess. Then my wife asked me what should she do with all my radios if something happens to me. I told her to contact my best ham friend and have him take it all away and sell it for me. She asked why I would do that to my best friend. I thought about it and she was right. What a poor friend I would be. It took me a couple of years to get going because I knew it would be a huge effort, and it was every bit of that. Initially it was easy to identify those radios that I no longer had any interest in or emotional tie to and so I unloaded them first. That cleared out a lot of radios. The next round of selling started cutting into the bone, nice radios like my Drake 2NT, 2C, or Morrow Twins, Mosley CM-1, SX-115, DX-60/HR10/HG10, Hammarlunds, etc.. Surprisingly it became exciting to identify more radios to sell and get out of the house. I'd sit in the shack and look at the shelves and pick out the next round of sell-ables. The later rounds were the toughest, with the Collins 32V2, 32V3, 75A1, 75A2, S-Line, KWM-2A, 312B-5, etc... It took nearly 8 years to sell off 95% of my collection. I have sold a ton of radios, power supplies, matching speakers, cw bugs , tubes, straight keys, VFO's, crystal calibrators, manuals, etc.. I now have a nice SMALL manageable collection of tube boatanchors all in the shack wired up, on the air. Yet after all that I still have a large enough list of smaller items and accessories left to sell. There might be 25 items on that list for goodness sakes. Seems like everytime I rearrange the back room storage shelves I find more to sell. Looking around the shack I can still see a few radios that need to go like the National SW-3 Model III, Johnson Navigator, Johnson Courier, Drake TR-4CW/RIT. I don't think we realize just how much stuff we own until we have to sell it. This is my personal experience and strategy, your mileage may vary. I do have friends with large collections that just plan to keep it until the estate has to dispose of it. Thats fine for them. For me I preferred to get my money out of the radios now while the going was good, and clear out the clutter early. My wife is actually pleased with me....for the moment 73, Scott WA9WFA
Already fully articulated in my will, with a separate notarized page signed by me and my wife, and all family members apprised of my wishes. Shouldn't be any question.... Dave W7UUU
I'm in academia now, and I can tell you that with a good advisor, whose role it is to think things out, be fiscally responsible and teach students to monitor their spending and be held accountable, donations can be very beneficial and not wasted. It's when accountability is lost do we have big problems. I'll leave it at that,Chip. We can agree to disagree. We need to empower the future. PS ... A student run ham radio club is hardly the cause for the trillion or so racked up in student debt.
Obviously there must exist eager university ham clubs that would be huge opportunities --if someone would donate a rig, an antenna, a bit of cash. We do disagree on whether that is the norm these days. Fair enough. I've asked 5 university clubs and there was clearly not a demonstrable need. Some clubs have more rigs than members(!) Yes, the student loan debt now exceeds one trillion dollars. That debacle rests squarely on the universities, which with their bloat, has spelt the coming end of the American university, and trust in universities, as we know it. Tragic. Yes, we can disagree on that too;-) Is the faculty(as a whole) responsible for that? Yes, I believe it is. Are you responsible for that? I hardly think so, OM In the past, a blind donation to your chosen university was a good assumption of effort for the greater good. Nowadays, I would be very cautious to make sure your gift goes to benefit the students or research of your choice, with specific earmarks and milestones. I will not donate any further to my alma maters without a contractual relation with a payback for misuse of funds. Universities I have been associated with include: U Iowa; Cornell; Harvard; MIT; Stanford; BU; Brandeis. Universities have become living pyramids whose educational mission has become marginalized by morphing from charities to 'non-profit businesses', with a pot for every drop. Special emphasis nowadays on overhead generation from the pyramid. Essentially universities are landlords tapping into government pork. Remember the days when the emphasis was on research consortiums, placed off-campus? Now its into labs that make huge dollars in rent--on campus; when was the last time you heard of a 'commuter college' for 4 year degrees? Now, universities buy up apartment buildings to get rent money from students, and take the real estate off of the tax base. There are still many who don't want it that way; I assume you are one, which I obviously commend. 73 Chip W1YW
