Well, of the 5 radios I’ve owned, my Yeasu FT-857 is the best, followed by the Yeasu FT-817. My Alinco DJ-56T is a really good dual-band HT. My antennas are all home-made, and my G5RV is probably the best of them all.
KF4VCC
EM78
As a whitewater kayaker, the step up from a wetsuit to a drysuit (well, actually a 2 pc.) was a biggie.
I’m into synthesizers (for making music), specifically analogue synthesizers, which had their heyday in the sixties and seventies. While I’ve owned some real beauties, the most magnificent one I’ve personally played with is an original Roland System 700 Modular at a boutique store that specializes in selling fully restored classic synthesizers. I think they were asking something like 15K for it, and I would have paid that in a second if I had it.
Ooo, the FT-817! I almost upgraded and got one of those. Damn my inability to learn code!
I came into this thread to say exactly that! I was in the market for a piano at the time, and there was no way in hell I could afford this $100,000 instrument, but when I sat down in the store and played it I felt like Arthur Rubinstein. Now, as far as musical skill is concerned, I’m probably about as far from Arthur Rubinstein as you can get and still have a pulse, but I never felt more musical in my life than when I played that piano for a few minutes. I’m sure there were huge sighs of relief all around the store when I stopped playing, but it was light years away from anything else I have ever touched, including Steinways, Baldwins, and every other brand you can think of, and even a smaller Bösendorfer. Damn, it was sweet.
(In case you’re wondering, I ended up buying this one for less than one third the cost of the Bösendorfer. It’s an excellent instrument, far better than I deserve, but it’s no Bösendorfer.)
I’m a recreational cyclist and recumbent bike enthusiast. I still haven’t found the perfect bike, but if I had to pick one that comes closest, it’s the Challenge Fujin SL. (Here’s mine.)
Although I have more fun on the tandem… This too is a nice comfortable bike but it’s no high-performance road bike.
Well, its GOTTA be a list!
in no particular order -
Dremel Tool
Aztec Airbrush
Photoshop
My Art Supllies (too numerous to itemize… )
My Air Tools - (too numerous to mention again)
A beat up old radio shack computer ( nice for playing in BASIC)
Yamaha Synth
MIDI interface for above
Internet
The minds of my cats
My Electronic equipment
My books (reading is a hobby… just like eating is a pass-time)
The kitchen (Current fave toy is the crock pot/slow cooker)
The Internet
Kites
Digital Camera
1995 Honda Civic (I tinker with it… )
Beer
probably could think of a few more, but… welll… we are talking “favourites” here…
Regards
FML
If only there was a way I could get that DOT approved. Can you imagine seeing a guy whipping by on a motorcycle wearing one of those? 
A manual-transmission BMW coupe.
Sinric’s pattern, and those are pictures of the actual helmet I wear. He sold it to a guy who moved to Northshield, then developed an inability to fight, so he sold his gear. I’ve been using it for the past four or five years.
I took a sculptural papermaking class last spring. My instructor let us use her Hollander beater. It beats fibers for papermaking, which makes the fibers behave differently depending how long you beat, how much water you use, etc (for example, flax gets darker and crispier and shrinks more when it’s beaten a lot). They’re almost impossible to find and buy, so my dad and I are planning to make me one. I’m really excited.
I have two hobbies.
I make bead jewelry, and I don’t know how the hell I managed before I just bought a pair of bent-nosed pliers and a jump-ring tool.
I’m also into photography, and I have an Olympus C700. I want a new camera, but can’t afford it right now.
Archery - Whisker Biscuit Keeps my arrow on my rest regardless of how I have to move my bow.
Homebrewing - Autosyphon Beats the old “suck” method of starting a syphon, hands down, with no contamination risks.
I’m a quilter and I was given a Fiskars rotary cutter and cheapy cutting mat. I mostly trace templates and cut out by hand, but eventually I thought I might do some cutting and the kit I was given got warped so I treated myself to an Olfa cutting mat. Heaven! The difference in feel and quailty was night and day.
And the best scissors is a toss-up between my Gingher Featherweight shears and my Fiskars shears.
I love all fabrics but the most interesting was a piece from Liberty of London. And the most beautiful was a piece of Japanese-inspired quilting fabric: black background, slate blue peacocks, maroon, loden green, a little bit of peach and lilac, and gold accents throughout. It’s amazing.
That is very nice! Of course it’s no Bosendorfer, nothing else is. 
The one I played was for a high school music competition (I didn’t win) so not only did I get to play it, I was playing in front of a lot of people and being judged! If I am ever a lottery winner I will have a music room and the imperial grand will be one of my big ticket purchases.
I really like my bass; it’s a Kay S-1 Swingmaster like this one. The best guitar I have played was a vintage Gibosn L-5 from the thirties that a band mate of mine had. He played through an old eh150 amp (the one Charlie Christian used) and he had one authentic old timey sound. Speaking of the EH150, I used to have a 1933 EH150 lap-steel guitar that I sold to buy the bass (I try really hard to restrict the amount of money I spend on this stuff).
This is my custom built computer. I play a lot of games and surf teh intarwebs with it.
I have a Dremel tool that I use for making necklaces out of dice, or for making modifications to wargaming miniatures.
I used to have a GT Tequesta mountain bike when I was younger, with a few aftermarket parts added on. It got run down, so I gave it to my friend who needed a bike.
'Splain please. Any time I try to work on a craft or hobby my cats aren’t exactly helpful; settling down on fabric I have laid out to cut patterns making it all smooshed and hairy and chewing off parts of my papier mache sculptures or rubbing up against the wet pieces coving them with hair and messing up the finish.
And since my only semi-active hobby right now is papier mache my main tools are newspaper and wallpaper paste and my hands. Come to think of it my hands are pretty useful.
If I ever get time to work on the other stuff again maybe I’ll get a chance to figure out what other equipment is the best for that hobby.
Had no idea we had so many SCA fighters here – although this is the sort of thread title that would attact us.
Here I am (in the blue surcoat). Obviously, my helmet’s not as nice as Ethilrist’s (and doesn’t look remotely like any historical helmet), but it’s indestructible. But the piece of equipment I wanted to mention is my coat of plates – okay, you can’t really see it under the surcoat, but it’s my favorite piece of armour. Very simple – just two layers of heavy canvas, with steel “nail plates” from Home Depot riveted into it. I used 6d nails for rivets, and pennies with 1/8" holes drilled through them for washers. Easy to make, authentic in basic design, lightweight, and very protective. I could buy much fancier stuff, but I like wearing something I made myself (with my limited skills).
Favorite SCA weapon – 6 foot greatsword. Just a straight stick of rattan with a basic crossguard. Maybe not the most successful weapon I could have picked, given the SCA combat rules – but the most fun of any of the many rattan items I’ve hit people with in my quarter century of doing this stuff.
Favorite tool for working on equipment – the little 15-pound anvil I got at Northern Tool. Don’t know how I got along so long without one.
Did I kill the thread? Knew it, knew it. Damn it. Killed the damn thread. Why do I do this? I hate myself.