Normally when you think of a Farmer’s Market, fresh produce grown nearby comes to mind. This experience was similar in that much of the produce was conceived locally, but the goal is to be anything but fresh. I had the opportunity last weekend to attend the final Electronics Flea Market of 2014. I can’t speak for everyone, but there is an obvious affinity for vintage electronics equipment in just about any condition. The people you run into are as interesting as the equipment being swapped, and the social outing tends to continue even after the swap meet closes.

Analog meters Amp and Volt meters Sony rack-mount video cassette equipment If you like to dig $5 scope Vintage radios

Electronics plus

Strolling around there’s a lot of stuff to take in. I was mainly interested in the electronic offerings (specifically bench equipment) but there was everything from a booth selling honey to a gentleman making custom tags for your pet’s collar. The swap meet is located in one of the parking lots of De Anza College of Cupertino, California. You can get in for free, parking cost me $3.

A great old Kodak projector Some type of rack-mount patch boards? another great radio This wasn’t the only reel-to-reel I saw I don’t know what a ratiometer is IM-ME, a hacking classic No table necessary HP5216 counter has Nixies for the display, nice! A variety of dials Calculator collector Beowulf cluster waiting to happen?

I wandered about for 40 minutes or so before bumping into [Charles Alexanian]. I had pinged him before my visit as he sometimes has a booth of his own at the swap meet. He’s the one who told me that all the cool stuff is gone by 7am… I was roughly three hours late for that benchmark.

It was great to see that [Charles] wasn’t just swapping equipment. He brought along some show and tell. Here are some vacuum tubes he design and built himself. Most of the raw materials came from leftovers for mass producing other tubes. I’m hoping he’ll write a post for us detailing his fabrication techniques.

[Charles Alexanian] posing with his custom tube Tubes on exhibit along with a few uCs for sale

There’s an after-party

[Charles] and I had a plan to go to St. John’s with some other regulars after the market closed for what are billed as Silicon Valley’s best burgers. I wandered around a bit more to see the rest of the aisles. The sun is vicious so make sure to slather on the sunscreen if you plan to spend some real time digging for deals.

Audio Equipment Enigma machine (kidding of course!) Loose parts Sockets and ICs Resistors and connectors CRT Close view of the CRT Atari 810 Floppy Drives Atari 800 collection More hardcore equipment

You never know who you’ll run into

After making the rounds I was sitting on the tailgate of [Charles’] truck when [Windell] of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories spotted me. We had initially met at Maker Faire Bay Area back in May. I didn’t get to mingle with him at the Bring a Hack dinner on that one (looks like [Brian] and [Adam] are making up for that in New York this weekend).

He and [Lenore] asked if I was going to the breakfast afterward and I assumed they meant St. John’s trip previously mentioned. Not so. It seems social outings after the flea market abound as there’s an Engineer’s Breakfast hosted by [Paul Ranko] at Bobbi’s Cafe in Cupertino. [Charles] said he didn’t see a lot of the regular St. John’s attendees anyway so we decided to change plans, but not before one last sweep of the vendor area.

Cellphone bin Calculator Bin Camera bin SLR table Rations? Dated 1962 Art Meters and dials Meter panel

The Engineers’ Breakfast

The patio at Bobbi’s cafe is the gathering spot for a dozen or so engineers after each swap meet. I met [Paul Rako] who took three of the images below but he and I pose in the fourth. Also found in the pictures are [Windell Oskay] and [Lenore Edman], cofounders of EMSL. They later gave me a tour of their lair, which I’ll save for another post.

What a wonderful morning and fantastic adventure. If you do find yourself at the Engineer’s Breakfast next year I recommend the corn beef hash.