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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 01:23:45 :
In Reply to: Saw somethng cool today posted by Tim Holloway [69.54.28.229] on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 00:07:30 :
That sounds neat. I've had surprisingly good luck buying bizarre surplus from Russia and Eastern Europe via ebay. Shipping is expensive, and the sellers know what their stuff is worth, but someday they'll be museum pieces, at least in this country. I wish I could go to Russia, speak Russian, and fill up a shipping container with all the weird military surplus they have over there. I have a hunch that with the right contacts, you could get just about anything, and get it cheaply. Might have a problem clearing customs in this country, though. There don't seem to be any restrictions on their military surplus, like with all the "demil" requirements here that basically mean you can't buy anything any good from the DRMO any more. Of course in Russia, the surplus might be more looted than bought. They have a lot of vacuum tubes, high voltage capacitors, nixie tubes and other antique electronic parts. Also a lot of radiological instruments, chemical warfare detectors, and such. I bought a pair of Russian cold war vintage binoculars that turned out to be a near-perfect knockoff of the German Zeiss artilleryman's binoculars that my dad brought back from the war. The optics weren't quite as clear, and the stadia lines (for estimating distance) were different, but you could tell they basically just copied the WWII Zeiss design. The Russians made good stuff. They weren't very creative, but their workmanship was first rate.
By the way, I bought some very bright Russian halogen light bulbs that were rated 27 volts, like your clock. I think that's just what they call their nominal 12-cell battery voltage, what we usually call "24" or "28" volts depending on whether it's in a golf cart or a military truck. The catch with the light bulbs is they have a base I've never seen so I have to make my own socket for them. I figure it'll make a good area light for the bed of a deuce for night-time loading and unloading or backing up.