Hickock Cardmatic 121 Cards
 

I guess I am one of the few owners of a Cardmatic 121. I think mine has the standard card set with a few additions. It would be nice if 121 owners could share their card lists and trade scans of the uncommon cards. Attached is my list of 538 cards.

Cool, you have a few more cards than me. I just have the 322 card factory pack. Here's a scan of the original Hickok list of 121 cards.

Group 5 - Factory Pack (the 322 cards that came with mine)

Cardmatic Card order Form (list of all available cards)

Hmm, I wonder what the best way would be to post scans of the cards here? Four cards resized to 20% of the my scanner resolution in .jpg format is about 75KB each.

As a test here are three scans of some cards. They are a resized to the point they are blurry, but you can still read the card labels and tell which holes are punched.

Thanks. I can read them just fine.

I know of two or three that are(or were) in Florida. Several years back I saw them for sale at a FAWG meet in Orlando, thought they were cool, but cost way too much for me to justify spending. I think one of them had some supplementary cards. I seem to recall some red or pink cards that I believe were supplemental.

Here's what the Hickok Cardmatic 121 looks like in case anyone was wondering.
Don't confuse it with the Cardmatic 123 - the cards are NOT compatible.

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4064/4...0b13a31d_b.jpg

I took one look at the pictures of those Cardmatic cards and my mind went reeling back at least 40 years. When I was a kid in the late '60s-'70s, there was a pharmacy in the next town east of us that had a Hickok Cardmatic tube tester. I don't recall if it was the model 121 or 123. That was the first and only Hickok Cardmatic tube tester I ever saw in my life, until now.

BTW, what was the difference between the cards for the Hickok 121 and 123 Cardmatic tube testers? :scratch2: I'd think one set of cards would work in either tester, unless there were major differences in the card readers or other parts of the 121 and 123.

Also, I did not realize at the time that the Hickok company was located in Cleveland, Ohio (I grew up in an eastern suburb of that city). The "Cleveland 8" in the address is a dead giveaway as to the tester's vintage -- late '50s or very early '60s, before the advent of zip codes.

Unfortunately there is a considerable difference between the Hickok 121 and 123 tube testers. The 121 is a simplified version that does not use any internal vacuum tubes. The 123 uses several vacuum tubes to test the subject tube in representative circuits that it would be used in. Here is a link with some description: http://padgett.performanceresearch.us/tester/cardh.htm

Hmm, maybe I can find some low priced cardmatic cards on Ebay... Maybe this one:
180905730841
...Cough, splutter.... That's outta my price range! Guess there are others looking for these cards. Would be nice if the winner could share some of the card info.

They jumped for $303 to $850 in one bid less than an hour before the auction ended! With all the shill bidding going on lately I don't buy it.
Also, the 123 cards are archived here (or at least a bunch are) and reproductions can be purchased for $1 per card IIRC.

Who's to say there are any 121 cards in there beyond the standard factory set ?

The same seller also has a USM-118 cardmatic for sale. I wonder what it will go for ?

Hmmm... I've got a buddy with a desktop laser cutter. What are the cards made of? "Cardstock?"

Certainly overkill for one card, but for sets of specials...

The $1 per card mentioned above sounds good to take a doorstop to productive machine.

Chip

The cards are plastic and the holes are usually made with a hole punch. Hickok used to sell blank cards and a branded hole punch.

The $1 figure came from a guy in the western Chicago suburbs that used to (and may still) sell them.

There's one on ebay right now that has some extra cards. I hope whoever wins it can share those cards :yes:

There's another guy selling off 121 cards in small batches. I lost out on a batch this morning, but I sure hope the winner is kind enough to scan and share the hole patterns.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160974972160