Friday, April 15, 2016 — Happy Tax Day fellow Amateur Radio ops! Well, actually, the deadline is actually midnight Monday, the 18th, but the Zed Man did something quite unusual — he paid his taxes due more than 12 hours before they were due.
I filed our federal electronically, and mailed the paper one (with tax payment) to the state capital.
And of course, it was Christmas in April yesterday here in the Ohio Valley. In my last entry, I mention that I (quite literally) stumbled across a Bunnell Navy bug with case on eBay just minutes after the listing was posted. The seller had a Buy It Now in the “really dang cheap” category, so I punched the button and snapped ‘er up.
As you can see in the photos, the key is just about perfect, despite the fact it is missing the weights. The key has dust on it; judging from the clean areas on each side, I suspect the key may have sit in its case with the case open. But no real wear, no plating loss, no chips. If cleaned up it would pass for new (or nearly so). It was sheer luck I happened across it.
I’ve not found out much about these keys. The key and its case bear U.S. Navy ID plates with sequential numbers.
The box that I received was HEAVY — it had to be nearly 8 pounds. I wondered if the seller used gravel for packing or something the box was so dense and heavy. The extra “something” was a Lionel J-36 bug!
The J-36 is dirty; I still haven’t taken time to clean it up, but it appears to be in pretty fair condition despite the fact it seems to have been well used.
It’s missing the weight and the finger knob; the celluloid label is completely gone, but the five pins are intact. I had no earthly idea the seller was including a second key, though he made a reference to adding something extra in one of his emails. I didn’t expect a second key.
The timing is interesting, because I was still wondering what to do with the Lionel J-36 that was damaged in a fall in my shack. The fall bent the top triangular pivot plate pretty severely. If nothing else, I have spare parts with this J-36. As you might guess, I’m not really wanting to part out either key to repair the other, so I’ll more than likely attempt to straighten the plate. I’m fairly sure I have a spare from an later key, but the plating won’t match. If nothing else I could clean up the new arrival, add a repro label and finger knob, and list it for sale.
