[Chad Hauris]

I think we are seeing at this point in time the last of the old equipment with its original owners such as service shops and we need to be seeking it out NOW before it hits the dumpster. We were lucky enough to find a shop around here who had started to send old TV's such as round color sets to the dump but were able to step in and save a lot of them (there are still some stored in the shop that we need to get). We were also able to save the contents of another shop that closed down in the area after years of business.

Just recently we were talking with our local piano and organ dealer and they said they had dumped warehouses full of organs, pianos, and parts a few years ago, and had c-3's and b-3's on sale for real low prices, which we unfortunately did not know about.

All of us should search out the old shops in the small towns around us to seek out and save these irreplaceable sets and parts as it seems like there is something going on now at this point in time where a lot of it is ready to be disposed of and unfortunately a lot is going to the dump. In 5 or 10 years there is likely to be NONE of this stuff around except for collectors such as us who have an interest to save it.

I am already seeing this in the solid waste/recycling stream from which I have been salvaging TV's for the past 10 years...in 1994 in a single collection day I got probably 50% tube type equipment, but in 2004 out of 35 sets or so there were only 2 tube sets.

Also in the past couple of years there have been a lot of radio/tv station cleanouts of tube equipment such as ampex tape recorders, film chain equipment, etc. and I was lucky enough to save some of it.