Befriend your Local TV Repairman

[bgadow]

The doorbell rang this afternoon, and again it was Mr. Matthews, my friendly local tv repairman who has been moving from his old location (a tv shop since the 50s) into his basement. I was the last stop before the landfill. In the past he gave me all his knobs (probably a 5 gallon bucket full +) plus several large boxes full of used "pull" tv tubes, some NOS brighteners, some fuses, a crt socket pin crimper, a tube caddy full of NOS Centralab controls & shafts...today he brought me some test equipment (Heathkit vibrator tester, 2 pcs. RCA TV alignment equipment, & a sweep circuit substitutor) all with the manuals, more NOS controls, a bunch of new solid state 6X4 substitutes, RCA bw pict-o-guides 1, 2 & 3...one of my favorites from this pile is a box full of tv extension cables for yokes, convergence boards, crts including 21" color & old bw. Also, some more fuses, a bunch of those w/ears that I've had trouble finding, like in my ctc-5. Again, all of this was going in the trash except I let it be known that I was nuts enough to want it! Sure pays to ask.

He already tossed all his sams auto radio books (pickup load) because he couldn't find a taker. Now he's trying to find a home for his "drug store" tube tester. I've got no room for it, I know he doesn't want to give it away but I'm not sure where to tell him to go.