Hello from Aberdeenshire

[martinw]

Hi,

I've recently posted in the restoration topic (and have been helped greatly, thank you) so thought I'd introduce myself.

I'm an electronic engineer by trade, turning 50 this year and work and have worked in the oil and gas industry for the last 25 years.

My interest in electronics started with the BBC Micro in my teens and it's funny 35 or so years later the BBC micro sparked my interest in collecting old electronic "stuff".

Computer, calculators and now radios.

My interest isn't so much in the things themsleves, apart from computers (I still program and play games) but the things inside them, the chips, the transistors and now ... the valves

I wasn't taught valves at Uni. in the late 90's, but travelling back through time (with my collection), I have now arrived there.

Here are a few pictures of my "stuff"

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

I have some more valves coming from Bulgaria that are marked for the german military, which I thought was interesting .... anyway that's me, pleased to meet everybody

Cheers,

Martin

[martinw]

The new (old) valves arrived today ...

[Murphyv310]

Hi Martin.
Glad you have joined. There is quite a community into vintage radios and test equipment in your area. Not all are here unfortunately but I can forward some email addresses if you wish.

[martinw]

Hi Trevor,

That's good to know.

I'll see who turns up here I suppose, but if I need something more specific I know who to ask

Cheers,

Martin

[Refugee]

I am a bit more into test gear and anything interesting or well built.
Most of us have several valve radios and I am no exception.

[martinw]

Hi Refugee,

That's good to know, I must admit the aesthetics of some of the vintage kit are pretty cool, my wife told me the Roberts RT1 was the best thing I'd acquired so far. She considers most of it "other people's rubbish" and keeps saying, "we're not a museum", but in a way we are as I like to keep some of this stuff from going to the tip, as it is quite significant in my mind, where everybody's smart phone originated really !!

Cheers,

Martin

[radioman]

Hello and welcome Martin.  
Amongst all the valves/transistors/radios I've got, I also have a few BBC Micros, in fact my first job in '83 was looking after a lab full of them at the local college.
Tried to use one recently only to discover that most of my knowledge about them has 'disappeared' - that's what happens if you don't use something for twenty+ years...
Anyway, I'm sure you'll like it here very well.

Regards,
Andy

[martinw]

Thank you Andy,

At the last count I own:
4 BBC Micro Model B
1 BBC Micro Model B+
1 BBC Micro Model B+ 128K
1 Acorn Atom (spring keys)
1 BBC Master (cherry keyboard)
1 BBC Master 512 (with 80186 co processor inside)
1 BBC Master Turbo (with 65C102 co processor inside)
1 6502 external co processor
1 Z80 external co processor
1 Electron with Plus 1
1 Electron Turbo with Plus 3
1 Acorn Archimedes A3000
1 Acorn Archimedes A4000
1 ZX Spectrum 48K (rubber keys)
1 IBM PC XT 8088 Processor 640K Ram
1 Atari 2600 games console
More 5 1/4 inch disk drives than you can shake a stick at
3 Microvitec Cub monitors.
The Acorn computers in my man cave are networked (ECONET )
And loads of original software and books.

I guess I kind of moved on to ICs and transistors and now valves because I'm running out of room and I like to keep as much as I can "on display" not tucked away in boxes.

Now you can see why my wife gets a bit antsy about these things

Cheers,

Martin

[martinw]

This is a cool thing though that doesn't take up a lot of room ... it's an FPGA that mimics the hardware of old computers! It's called a MIST computer.

[ppppenguin]

Do you know which FPGA it uses? Might just conceivably be repurposed as a TV standards converter.