Knuckledragger

Today? Blah. How bout the last four fricken months? This thing ate my life. And my savings (and my life savings.) Not so much the windows, per se, which I got for under $300, but the months long process of removing the old (1967 vintage) window and door, re-routing the electrical and plumbing in the wall (I have forced hot water heating and of course there was a pipe right in the way) and making the new windows fit. They also had to repair the mud sill (where the house frame meets the foundation) and some supports in the basement, and of course redo the insulation inside the walls and replace the siding outside. Yesterday marked the first day that I had all of my living room available to me since sometime in early September. The blue tarps outside are covering some of the contractor's supplies, which he will have removed by the end of next week, or I will be decorating the top of my shiny new window with his freshly removed skull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVa_iAzOiwg

<voice="eric_cartman"> I hate you guys, I hate you guys so very very much. </voice> I was going to escape Black Friday completely unscathed.

Never hotlink images from blogger. Use tinypic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMwO9PX4_7c

Um.

Two 4 inch metal box cover, GF©I and duplex outlet. These things are unbelievably difficult to find locally. I had one sales clerk swear to me that they didn't exist because of "fire code reasons." I thought this was particularly amusing as it is building code that dictates that I use them (all basement outlet circuits must have ground fault protection.)

That means they're probably not of much interest to audio snobs. \

I just went through the entire box and squinted at each tube, attempting to discern its maker and type. Below is a list of what I could come up with: RCA Y6E RCA Y6E GE 57-26 188-5 Tung-Sol 5U4-GB RCA OD3 Tung-Sol 7867 Tung-Sol 7867 Tung-Sol 7867 Tung-Sol 7867 RCA 5U4-GB RCA EL34 [box] RCA EL34 [box] RCA EL34 [box] Realistic 25C5 GE 25C5 Realistic 25C5 RCA 25CA5 [box] # is from box, tube is difficult to read Tung-Sol 12AU7A International 25C5 [box] International 25C5 [box] Sylvania EL86 [box] 3M 12AX7A When a tube was listed as a two types, I used the one more familiar to me (e.g. EL34 for 6CA7). I also had a couple orphan boxes that did not have tubes, or had tubes in them that did not match the brand/type.

I am completely unqualified to answer, but after I've sorted out what tube types I have, I'm sure fellow head-casers will be able to make suggestions. Rocky & Bullwinkle jokes aside, they do what most rodents do: make a nest out of whatever is handy (tearing up the insulation), poop everywhere and pee all over their nest. The end result is especially disgusting. Imagine a 1/4" thick layer of squirrel shit that is fused to the floorboards of the attic by their own urine. I spent an hour in one area, wearing a dustmask and goggles, scraping it up in chunks and then vacuuming up the debris. I still have two more locations to clean, I am not looking forward to them. Yes, this makes perfect sense to me. However, I can only report the condition in terms of appearance. I don't have a tube tester, and the tube equipment I do own (vintage radios and some ca. 1970 McIntosh gear) is not suited to the task. I am sure a lot of the tubes I have are of little or no interest to audio snobs if I have one or two "hits" (as they call it in the antique business) with desirable tubes, I'll consider myself lucky.

In the ongoing battle against the flying squirrel infestation in my house (that is not a joke) I have been emptying out the attic spaces upstairs. My house has a Gambrel roof, that lends itself to an awful lot of storage space. That means after 33 years in the same family, there is an ungodly amount of crap up there. Mixed in with the other detritus, I found this: Sorry about the lousy shot, I didn't have time to futz around and get a better one. My father dealt in antiques, including radios, and sometimes he'd get a collection of tubes. I am recalling some much bigger boxes full of tubes, but I don't know if he still had them when he died. This box might be nothing to get excited about, but there could be some cool stuff in there. I know exactly jack about tubes, but when I have a little time (hah!) I'll go through and catalog them. Any knowledge on their relative significance and value from the H-C cognoscenti would be greatly appreciated.

If I did not have, uh, upwards of 6 pairs of KSC75s, I'd be all over that like something on something else.

The Moller Skycar