{"id":2777,"date":"2010-03-02T08:12:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=2777"},"modified":"2022-12-28T15:02:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T23:02:07","slug":"photos-of-the-black-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/photos-of-the-black-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos of The Black Hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Last May, my brother and I went on a week-long roadtrip across the US.\u00a0 Ambling down the highway in a very large moving truck, we travelled from California to Texas by way of\u00a0 Tuscon, Socorro, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and quite a few rest stops, gas stations, and fast food restaurants in between.<\/p>\n

Intoxicated by the chile verde<\/a>, we spent considerable time in New Mexico, a state that neither of us had visited before.\u00a0 One of the highlights of our visit to the Land of Enchantment<\/a> was a side trip to Los Alamos<\/a>, birthplace of the atomic bomb<\/a> and home of two major attractions for any electronics geek:<\/p>\n

Los Alamos National Labs<\/h3>\n

Sadly, armed guards prevented us from taking a close look at the Los Alamos National Labs<\/a>.\u00a0 Actually, the museum<\/a> is pretty decent, and includes scale models of Fat Man and Little Boy, some exhibits about radioactivity and nuclear weapons, and a short film about the history of the labs.<\/p>\n

\"Fat<\/p>\n

The Black Hole<\/h3>\n

The Los Alamos Sales Company<\/a>, aka The Black Hole, is a surplus store started in 1951 by the late ‘Atomic’ Ed Grothus<\/a>, a former LANL machinist turned peace activist.<\/p>\n

I have never seen a more fascinating collection of electronic test equipment, laboratory glassware, chunks of machined aluminum, LN2 dewars, bell jars, dusty old databooks, and just plain weird stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 Good news: most of it is for sale, although there are very few price tags around and some items are probably in the “if you have to ask…” category.<\/p>\n

A controversial Los Alamos institution, it has even been the subject of a documentary<\/a>, although I haven’t managed to track down a copy (yet).<\/p>\n

Here are some photos to give you a taste of what it’s like to wander around The Black Hole:<\/p>\n

A geiger counter near the front door clicks away in response to some radioactive source nearby.
\n\"Eberline<\/p>\n

One of several aisles of surplus test equipment. You name it, it’s here.
\n\"Aisle\"<\/p>\n

Mmm…\u00a0 Organic Plutonium!
\n\"Organic<\/p>\n

Anadex CF-300R Timer with gorgeous nixie display.
\n\"Anadex<\/p>\n

Racks of vintage test equipment.\u00a0 Scopes, counters, power supplies, etc.
\n\"Racks<\/p>\n

Period datasheet for the Fairchild uA741 operational amplifier<\/a>.
\n\"uA741<\/p>\n

Pan Am hard hat.
\n\"Pan<\/p>\n

Oscilloscope with permanently attached scope camera.\u00a0 This is the same setup you see in the pictures of atomic bomb test shacks in books such as How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb<\/a>\"\", by Peter Kuran.
\n\"Scopes<\/p>\n

Honestly, the pictures capture only 1% of what you’ll find here – you have to actually visit to appreciate this place. Oh, and budget an hour or two minimum.\u00a0 If you enjoy looking at dual trace oscilloscopes and dusty cold war relics as much as I do, you’ll need an afternoon to really do it justice.\u00a0 If you want to see more, check out my Bradbury Science Museum<\/a> and The Black Hole<\/a> albums on Flickr.<\/p>\n

By the way, The Black Hole is listed on the Surplus Electronics<\/a> page of the MightyOhm Wiki<\/a>.\u00a0 Is there a surplus electronics store in your city?\u00a0 Add it to the wiki!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last May, my brother and I went on a week-long roadtrip across the US.\u00a0 Ambling down the highway in a very large moving truck, we travelled from California to Texas by way of\u00a0 Tuscon, Socorro, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and quite a few rest stops, gas stations, and fast food restaurants in between. Intoxicated … Continue reading Photos of The Black Hole<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[501,322,323,6],"class_list":["post-2777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-electronics","tag-los-alamos","tag-new-mexico","tag-surplus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-IN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1785,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/aprs-tracker\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":0},"title":"APRS Tracker","author":"Jeff","date":"May 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, my brother is relocating from the San Francico Bay Area to Texarkana, Texas.\u00a0 I'm helping him move, so for the next two weeks we'll be on a road trip through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and maybe a little bit of Oklahoma.\u00a0 We're planning to see the Very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amateur Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"APRS Tracker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3482910237_624bbb3bb5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4877,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/surplus-summit-2012-part-one-los-angeles\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":1},"title":"Surplus Summit 2012 Part One: Los Angeles","author":"Jeff","date":"February 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/6882203127\/in\/photostream (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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amateur Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Amateur Radio","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/amateur-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8863,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/have-a-cool-electronics-workbench-show-it-off-on-flickr\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":2},"title":"Have a cool electronics workbench? Show it off on flickr!","author":"Jeff","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/claudius9uk\/26376852912\/in\/pool-elwb\/ \"Electronics workbench\" by John Croudy on flickr The Electronics Workbench Flickr Pool\u00a0contains over 200 photos of electronics workbenches and workshops. Whether you're looking for inspiration for your next bench or just want to see where other electronics enthusiasts work on their projects, check out the group photo pool! If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3142,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/state-of-electronics-trailer\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":3},"title":"“State of Electronics” Trailer","author":"Jeff","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"State of Electronics - Trailer from karl von moller on Vimeo. After several months of researching, interviewing and filming, I'm excited to present the first public Trailer to my new Documentary \"State of Electronics\" - A discussion on the Electronics Industry in Australia. Even though the documentary is focused on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1395,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/los-angeles-area-surplus-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":4},"title":"Los Angeles Area Surplus Tour","author":"Jeff","date":"March 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month I spent a weekend in LA visiting Tony, who is building an awesome wood veneered enclosure for my Wifi Radio project. While I was there we spent a day checking out various electronics surplus shops in the area, several of which Tony had never visited before. Here are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"All Electronics","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3304347224_1e2090c7c2_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/is-electronics-surplus-still-alive-in-silicon-valley\/","url_meta":{"origin":2777,"position":5},"title":"Is Electronics Surplus Still Alive in Silicon Valley?","author":"Jeff","date":"July 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bins of ICs at Excess Solutions Last Monday I went on a surplus run in the South Bay. This was a common pastime for myself and a few especially geeky friends around 1994-2002. After that, eBay and mail order electronics pretty much took over, forcing the most interesting surplus electronics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15926,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions\/15926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}