One of the curses of attempting (I say ‘attempting’ because I’m mostly a failure) to be a “sustainable consumer” of electronics and appliances is the inevitable repairs. My venerable desktop PC of 8.5 years (known affectionately by it’s hostname “sakhalin”) is finally showing its age. It has trouble finding the boot drive from time to time. The “A radio” TS-930S doesn’t transmit on SSB anymore (this is a long-standing problem I have yet to diagnose), which is unfortunate because it has the roofing filter and Inrad SSB filters. The power nozzle for our Hoover canister vacuum cleaner needs an agitator belt. I need to find a local vacuum repair shop because none of the big stores carry the right size. I think Sarah would be just as happy to replace it with an upright. But, the canister still works! I wrecked the airplane a couple of weeks ago when the weather was not quite nice enough to be flying it. Fortunately, I have $3 worth of MacGuyver parts and epoxy that should be sufficient to make that repair. The wind broke one of the wires on my open-wire 80-meter dipole. (Finally, I reached the point of “if it stayed up last winter it’s not big enough.” The proof is in the performance, too.)
I’ll probably get the airplane and the antenna fixed yet this afternoon. The other problems are more long-standing. The desktop PC isn’t really necessary, especially since Sarah will be getting a laptop with her new job. So, I really probably could let it go. I still have the Pentium 166 that I bummed off of Dad for a contesting computer. It’s working great. But, do I unload the newer, superior computer that’s flaky? I have been tempted to dump the 166. I should try a new hard drive in sakhalin. Then there’s Sarah’s desktop…I can count on one hand the number of times it’s been turned on since we got married and I was the one using it! I’m holding onto Alan’s PowerBook because it’s the only place I have Adobe CS2. And, I have the ThinkPad “contesting laptop” that Ryan gave me when I got married… I guess if I weren’t such a tightwad and Mac-addict, I wouldn’t have this problem! No more junk!
We have five CRT’s in the house…two Dell 19″ Trinitrons on my desk, Sarah’s 17″ un-Trinitron Dell, my oscilloscope, and the TV. I’m not planning to replace the ‘scope or the TV anytime soon. So, I guess it’s the computers are the ones that will have to go…I just can’t let go of my junk… And, I went out and bought a new camera…sigh.
