This attached pic is a snapshot of me looking at weird old radio stuff in a shop window downtown Budapest, Hungary - sometime around 1995.
Pic was taken seconds before I realized I was looking at a genuine, brand new looking, connector/stand mount for a U47. Now, you don't see these every day.
The very old lady in the shop didn't speak English, German, French, or anything I could use to interface, but luckily her friend came by with lunch as I was in the shop - and she spoke a bit German, so I landed the connector. Very good score indeed.
I asked about tubes, and yes, they had a big lot of them, but none of the standard types like ECC82, 83, EL34 or such. They explained that the shop was an outlet of leftovers of a big electronics shop that the lady's husband had had in the 50'es and 60'es - and all easily-used consumer stuff was gone many years ago.
The lady's friend insisted that they had a very big collection of a-little-unusual-type-tubes - couldn't I come up with some non-standard type I could use (I wasn't allowed to look through the many handwritten lists myself).
So I say: Would you happen to have some VF14's? - woman looking through papers for some time, and then yes, there should be four of those stashed in the storage somewhere. Old lady goes into the storage room and starts pushing boxes around.
My hands starting shaking..
And sure enough - four VF14's, in their beautiful red and blue boxes and all.
..Those are expensive, the lady's friend explained: They're Telefunken, very good German brand, impossible to find for many years in Hungary. So the price regrettably can't be lower than four euros a piece.
Aah yes, that's a lot of money, but if they're good, I'll take them anyway - with thanks. The old lady ensures me that they have never sold duds in her shop - and explains that the tubes are guaranteed working - shows me the warranty label on the inside of the tube box
Went home to the hotel, still shaking, with my four VF14's....
A couple of days later I pass the shop again, and note that the window decoration has changed somewhat: A pile of top-hat tubes (like the EF/VF14) in the middle of the window - but no "gold" that I can see from outside.
I go in to ask if I can take a look at the tubes - but communication is too hard as her friend is not there - I get a handwritten note saying "12:30".
Aah, we're waiting for her friend..
I return at half past twelve, and her German-speaking friend is there alright.
They explained that the reason for redecorating the window was that I had seemed so happy about the tubes, that they looked through the lists once more - and found two more VF14's that were overlooked the first time because they were a matched set for Hungarian Radio (no idea about what parameters they were matched for, but a lot of officially looking Hungarian documents).
And they'd hope I would pass by and see the hint in the window decoration (!!) so I could get the last two VF14's....
Jakob E.
