Highend RF boards for sale- Huge Payouts

Hey guys, I have been in the radio field for years and have been replacing and repairing these circut boards. I have been saving them for years in the hopes of reclaiming the gold inside these guys. They have huge mil spec gold pads and the previous people i sold them to used to bug me constantly for more. I sold 50 boards for $250 and the people wouldnt stop blowing up my phone after the first batch... I have fallen on poor times and just done have the time or effort to "play"(as my wife would say) with this and i need to let these go. I am no longer in contact with the previous guys and now need to find someone to take these off my hands. I have 150-200 boards?
Before i waste my time pulling them out the box to count them is there anyone here interested? Make me an offer?

how much weight ?

a location & more info about the "mil specs" would be good
if you worked with these you must have the whitepaper or other manufacturer information.

is it possible to supply this for your second post.

Maybe it's just me and I'm no expert on this but I just don't see 50 of those boards yielding $250 in gold. That would be like 6 grams in gold. Gold plating is gold plating, mill spec or not it's only so thick. If those boards have some gold braze (which I doubt) then that's another story. Plus they would be a pain for a garage refiner to deal with.

$1.25 CAD per pound. i will pay shipping

I have tested, assayed and processed over *** lbs of these boards between 2007 and 2009.
Neither the assays nor the final process results came anywhere close to "$5 per board".
As far as I know, these are not mil spec.
PM me if further details or clarifications needed.

Yea no way $5 a board. Those are microwave boards. Your looking at maybe better then a sound blaster board gold plating thickness which isn't much. So if you got someone jumping down you neck to buy them for $5 board then you have your buyer but I wouldn't expect that kind of money here. $1.25 a pound seems reasonable.

what does one board weigh or how many to make a pound
did this board have a gasket ?

I didn't mean to sound by any way knowledgeable about this I only know what happened and tried to share the facts. These are mobile radio boards and are used in police, ambulance, fire truck application. They are used in Mexico and in France mainly. I service these in the USA tho. Southern California. I'm sorry I did not check this earlier I was hoping I would get an email letting me know someone had a question.

Weight of each board? Unknown. I will break out my scale when I get home.
Mil-spec was a term used by the salesman of the company because these are also used by government agencies and have to be up to spec to even be purchased as I understand it.

If someone could make me a decent offer I would gladly work with you.
Not looking for any price just a fair one for both.

I'll get you a weight asap

joubjonn said:

Maybe it's just me and I'm no expert on this but I just don't see 50 of those boards yielding $250 in gold. That would be like 6 grams in gold. Gold plating is gold plating, mill spec or not it's only so thick. If those boards have some gold braze (which I doubt) then that's another story. Plus they would be a pain for a garage refiner to deal with.

Click to expand...

Don't be too quick joubjonn. Although I've never seen mil-spec boards I'd imagine they would have to be out there. Also take into account the packages (high GSP ) and the mlcc's. Check out this thread. These are true mil-spec items and have what I consider amazing yields by weight. They were also used by government agencies. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=20616&hilit=keeping+my+fingers+crossed

These would be the boards being referred to by some people on the thread, of which I should be getting quite a lot next month to toll refine.

Frankly this one is a bad example. For the OP though that top board looks like a good board. I think that Necromancer's offer is a bit light.

Every mention I've seen of these type boards say that it's such a thin gold wash that despite the large surface area it amounts to nothing?

You're correct Mac. Some are engineering failures or samples which are pre-production and only dusted with gold.

The pic I put up was one of these however the batch includes fully produced items as well. That was the reasoning behind my comment that this pic "wasn't the best example."

I do agree with you completely though. A lot of the cards are a complete waste of time no matter how pretty they look.

Jon

The real value of these boards is not the gold traces on the boards. The real value is locked up in the components. The long rectangle pieces, in a void in the board, 2 holes, one at each end, with the heavy plating ( foils are on par with 386-486 kovar lids) also contain gold wires inside. I believe they are microwave resonators.
Here is the bonus..... I have processed boards like this many times and of these, 2 times, ( 2 batches) the solder holding the resonators to the boards has been gold bearing. That makes for an order of magnitude jump in yield if they have gold solder at this attachment point. They always seem to look "hand soldered" and the solder is usually very thick, blobbed on. I always test the solder for this. You never know, you might get lucky.

Be careful with the white ceramic components (RF amplifiers), they are made of beryllium oxide, see the small sticker on the first picture.

As for the "goldbearing" solder, when soldering a gold plated component onto a gold plated board, the gold is dissolved in the solder. Maybe that explains why you are finding gold in the solder.

Göran

Hey Goran, Yes you are correct, solder is very good at dissolving gold, however, I do mean gold alloy solder which can bump a single board yield from a small fraction of a gram to over a gram or more per board. I have only found 2 batches like this out of about 50 batches processed. Really pleasant surprise when it occurs.

I will also give you all the odds and ends i can find. all the connector ends all of the gold plated spring pins i have.

Is the weight in the pictures pounds or grams. Sorry i am looking at this on my phone.

It seems the terms used in the title of this thread, "Highend" and "Huge Payouts", are ones that should be taken with a grain of salt. This isn't eBay.

Pm sent.