[rescue] In Realtime: Saving 25, 000 Manuals ??? August 15, 2015

[Bob Darlington]

This pleases me greatly.  Sure, I'm a computer nerd, but I also am into
electronics and instrumentation, and in particular old test equipment such
as Tektronix oscilloscopes, plugin systems, and the like.  This is amazing
and I'm very thankful to everyone who was able to help and rescue the
manuals.  I know as the dust settles the long task of dealing with what was
saved is going to start.  I'll continue to follow what Jason is up to, but
please let me know where money is needed, if I can help in any way, etc.
There are multiple communities that rely on scanned Tek and HP manuals such
as the time-nuts that I've been involved with for many years now.  There is
plenty of discussion on that list too about this and they have expressed
gratitude as well.

Thank you!

-Bob

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 5:53 PM, J. Alexander Jacocks <jjacocks at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Bob,
>
> Most of the Tek manuals were master copies, so no, I'm not aware of any Tek
> manuals being left behind.
>
> That said, no manuals were actually thrown away.  We moved as many
> different versions of manuals as was possible, given the number of
> volunteers, and the time available.  What was left over will probably go to
> the recycling center, but nobody involved with this rescue threw anything
> away.  There was a strong effort to retain all possible different versions
> of manuals, as we were well aware that different revisions may contain
> different unique data.
>
> - Alex
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 7:01 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
> wrote:
>
> >   It sounds like it was quite the event.  I wish I could've been there
> but
> > I'm on a road trip. :-(
> >
> >                -Dave
> >
> > --
> > Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> > New Kensington, PA
> >
> >
> >
> > On August 20, 2015 7:00:18 PM "J. Alexander Jacocks" <jjacocks at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Rich,
> > >
> > > I was there too, on Monday night, with two of my friends.  I'm sorry
> that
> > > we didn't have a chance to chat, as I think that we met at a Hamfest, a
> > few
> > > years ago.  The three of us worked for about 4 hours, and split our
> time
> > > between the HP section, and the Tektronix masters, which were much
> easier
> > > to pack.
> > >
> > > It really was an amazing project, and it would never have happened
> > without
> > > Jason Scott's leadership.
> > >
> > > - Alex
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 6:25 PM, Rich Kulawiec <rsk at gsp.org> wrote:
> > >
> > >> On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 10:59:31AM -0400, J. Alexander Jacocks wrote:
> > >> > The estimates that I have seen posted online, for the number of
> > manuals,
> > >> > seem to me to be woefully low.
> > >>
> > >> I concur.  I was there Monday and Tuesday afternoons, working my way
> > >> through a seemingly-endless selection of Tektronix manuals.  (So if,
> > >> years from now, it turns out that I included some duplicates: I'm
> sorry,
> > >> but there was considerable time pressure.)
> > >>
> > >> There's a photoset up here:
> > >>
> > >>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/textfiles/sets/72157657277241785
> > >>
> > >> It would have been nice if someone, anyone, could have taken all the
> > >> leftovers and distributed them around the planet -- but given the
> > >> logistics (including the timeframe and the expense) that wasn't
> > possible.
> > >> The one thing that I did make sure of was that the small remaining
> > >> stack of (duplicate) Heathkit manuals left that building in the hands
> > >> of someone who's going to do the right thing with them.
> > >>
> > >> I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that 100K manuals were
> rescued.
> > >> Some of the ones I handled were still shrink-wrapped; others were in
> > >> surprising good shape given their vintage.  And of course others were
> > >> in more dubious condition.
> > >>
> > >> The best moment came when I flipped open a binder and found that
> > >> an engineer, 30+ years ago, had added a hand-written supplement
> > >> in the back, with beautiful circuit diagrams and equations.  I hope
> > >> that when that's scanned, whenever and wherever that happens, that
> > >> the person handling it will include that as a supplement, even though
> > >> it wasn't an official Tektronix document.
> > >>
> > >> ---rsk
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
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