(Photo: Tony KC6QHP testing out his 47GHz amateur radio. Remember this post? All that work paid off, the radio works!)

Last month I cashed in some airline miles and finally got to visit some old friends and spend some time in beautiful Southern California. Some long-time readers of the blog may remember the last time I did something like this in 2009.

While I was there I visited my good friend Tony in Los Angeles, and we went on a tour of surplus electronics and swap meets that we called Surplus Summit 2012.

All of the surplus stores mentioned here are listed on the Surplus Electronics wiki page, which is continually being updated and expanded. (Do you know of a place to find surplus electronics in your area? Add it to the wiki!)

If you want to see more scenes from Surplus Summit 2012, there are lots more photos from my trip on flickr.

Here are a few highlights from our tour:

C&H Surplus, Duarte, CA

C&H is the best surplus electronics store I have visited since The Black Hole in Los Alamos. Test equipment, weird scientific stuff, motors, gears, components, the works. The owner, Rick, is a nice guy with a good sense of humor. This place is awesome and a well worth a visit.

(Note: C&H is only open Thursday-Saturday.)

More pics!

W6TRW Swap Meet, Redondo Beach, CA

This swap meet has been around forever is held on the last Saturday of every month, rain or shine, even if that Saturday falls on Christmas, etc. Get there early, the swap was hopping by 8AM.

This is an amateur radio swap meet but there is lots of computer stuff (too much!) and general electronics.

More pics!

All Electronics, Van Nuys, CA

Not that many people realize that All Electronics has an actual retail store in Van Nuys. It’s small but fun to visit. Not everything in the catalog is out on the shelves, but there are also some big things that probably won’t ever make it in the catalog.

More pics!

APEX Electronics, Sun Valley, CA

I visited Apex in 2009. Lots of stuff, much of it junk, but there a few interesting odds and ends. I hear that these guys supply the film industry with a lot of props.

More pics!

That’s it for LA. Stay tuned for Surplus Summit Part Two: San Diego next week!

Last weekend at the Electronics Flea Market I picked up some very strange items, including this one, pictured above.  It’s a tin can that looks very similar to an ordinary soup can, except that it has the following markings on it:

R16-C-28604-15
COIL
QTY.1

NSC.OAKLAND JULY 1953
PRES METH. 2D

Thus far the only information I have learned from the markings are that NSC.OAKLAND stands for the former Oakland Naval Supply Center, closed a decade ago in 1998.  According to Wikipedia, NSC supplied components to the fleet in the Pacific during WWII.  Beyond this I have not been able to find any information.  Presumably this is a replacement part for some piece of obsolete military hardware.  A “coil” is another name for an inductor, a clue that this may be part of a radio system or other high frequency equipment.

After staring at this mysterious object for almost forever (a week) I decided to open it.  Realizing that the can could be full of cold war era hazardous chemicals, munitions, objects under high compression, or nasty sharp edges, I did this very carefully and documented the entire process of discovering the contents.

First, the obvious – opening the can.  Pretty straightforward.

What’s inside?

Weird.  Lots of oiled green paper.  Whatever is inside is packed very well, when the can is shaken nothing moves around.

This is the clump of stuff to come out.

Packing material?  The precursor to styrofoam peanuts?

Below the packing material…

What’s this?  Vintage dessicant!!!

The last object left in the can looks interesting.  It’s wrapped in oiled green paper and sealed with tape.

Inside the paper we find this:

Not a huge surprise – it’s a coil (inductor).  It has a knob or grabby thing on the top and a funny connector on the bottom.  It looks brand new.

Here are a few more pictures.

The markings are “ARC” and “7270 239 KC”.  ARC might be American Radio Corporation?  239 might be 239 kHz (kilocycles)?  Hard to say, google didn’t turn up anythign interesting.

An impressive amount of stuff was packed into that can!

This solves the mystery of what’s in the can, but what is it for?  Does anyone know?  I’d love to find out – leave a comment or contact me directly.

More photos are on flickr here.

Kylie and I decided to check out the Electronics Flea Market at DeAnza College this past weekend.  I took a bunch of pictures and put them up on flickr.

We met a trio of Evil Mad Scientists there and had a great time.  I stocked up on tweezers and tiny solder braid, along with some mystery items I’ll feature in an upcoming post.

The last Electronics Flea Market of the year is next month, on Saturday October 11th. Don’t miss it!

By the way, the big news this weekend was that HSC electronics is NOT moving as was rumored earlier in the year.  Speaking of HSC, this coming weekend is the annual HSC sidewalk sale.  (This year they’re calling it a warehouse clearance sale due to downsizing at their present location.)