Long story about a Motorola found on an abandoned farm

[electronjohn]

Cool thread! I'm a sucker for this sort of stuff as well...in fact, stopped yesterday at a farmsite where everything but the garage had been leveled. There was a big scrap pile...I was looking for a small sheet of aluminum to fashion into a bottom cover for my ham transceiver. No aluminum...did pick a bunch of bare copper wire that'll come in handy for grounding & such. On the pile was an extremely battered "farm radio" (batteries only) that was waaaaay beyond rescue...but none of the tubes were broken! Into the trunk it went to be parted out. Found a really busted-up brown plastic AA5 radio, too...some salvageable parts there as well. I'm stopping back today...gonna load up this small air compressor that looks like it'll be easy to get going. Need one of those!

BTW: I read an article a few years ago in Popular Communications about an abandoned farmhouse somewhere in Minnesota that had the remains of a radio repair shop on the 2nd floor. Lotsa tubes, parts & radios...the usable stuff was harvested. The writer avoided indicating the location. Drat! I'd love to stumble across something like that!