Go to www.arrl.org and search for "hamfests". If you're in the NY/NJ  
area, the Sussex hamfest in NJ is usually the best all year. I hear  
that MIT hosts hamfests once a month but has degraded in the last few  
years.


Matt Bajor
On Jun 29, 2008, at 10:13 AM, Brian Kraut wrote:

> I got a lot of my stuff going to hamfests (ham radio swap meet for  
> those
> that don't know).  I have not been to one in several years, but  
> really used
> to love them.  I have never been into ham radio, but there are  
> usually a
> bunch of people selling just regular electronics junk and test  
> equipment
> there.
>
> Anyone know of a good online hamfest schedule?
>
> Brian Kraut
> Engineering Alternatives, Inc.
> www.engalt.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu]On  
> Behalf
> Of Bryan Bishop
> Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:06 AM
> To: piclist@mit.edu
> Subject: Equipment acquisition for homebrewers
>
>
> Hey all,
>
> I'm wondering about methodologies for acquiring interesting, unique,
> useful, or 'maybe it will one day be useful' equipment (junk).
> Obviously going through the normal routines of Radio Shack and
> electronic shops isn't really going to get you much these days.
> Digikey, Mouser, etc., can do some electronic componentry, but I'm
> thinking more in terms of shop/lab equipment, and for cheap.
>
> So here's the question. How do you, particularly, go about acquiring
> hardware that you work with ? The materials? The tools? I know that
> many of you have very, very interesting toys that you play with, and  
> my
> collection is iffy at the moment. I've seen various suggestions around
> the web to just keep trolling ebay, craigslist and the newspaper, but
> this results only in so much. There's also been that occasional
> suggestion to go dumpster diving.
>
> I'm interested in constructing a few general programs that facilitate
> the acquisition of this sort of equipment. For instance, I could spend
> my time clicking around on ebay and craigslist waiting for something
> interesting to pop up and catch my attention, or I could even more
> easily write a program that monitors for certain items (even though I
> don't entirely know what I am looking for) and various prices,
> locations, whatever. This would be fine if I knew the locations to
> monitor. I just don't know how people with very massive accumulations
> of 'junk' actually get that way without paying a fortune for each and
> every item. Is there some sort of secret club for cool equipment? I'm
> doubting it -- but there certainly should be, yes.
>
> So the program that I am writing would go search the databases on a
> periodic basis, and then return results that may or may not be
> interesting. The routines for this are pretty simple to construct, but
> I'm not entirely sure of where to start searching. Where could I get a
> full list of shops and suppliers and so on for any city in the world,
> for instance? And what about websites and such listings? Does anybody
> have that sort of information besides a printed (text-only) phone  
> book?
> I'd like to avoid print publications, but if I have to I'll look into
> some.
>
> I'd like to hear any stories that you might have. Electronics,
> metalworking, biotech equipment, anything. It looks like the main  
> issue
> is that you have to actually need a component for some project, and
> this eventually results in finding something locally available, but at
> the same time I'm sure there are other ways to creatively enhance your
> set of tools and stuffs, yes?
>
> I'm sending this off to a handful of different mailing lists, so  
> there's
> a reason why the context may seem a little odd for anybody listening.
>
> - Bryan
> ________________________________________
> http://heybryan.org/
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