Jim Douglas ) writes:
David wrote:
http://watkins-johnson.terryo.org/Do...talog-1970.pdf
Dang, some of those systems have multiple receivers, just wondering how
much one of those babies cost......

There sure wasn't mention of Watkins-Johnson receivers in the hobby magazines
in 1971. It was years later before I came across the name, and it might
have even been in relatively recent years.

The old tube receivers that cost so much new, they trickled down to
the hobbyist because the military was buying them in the first place,
so some would come into the surplus market.

But receivers that never got to the military in large quantities never
really trickled down to the hobbyists, because they just were just
too expensive and weren't getting to the surplus market.

I remember a review in QST about 1974 or '75, for a McKay receiver
intended for maritime service, and in some ways it seemed like a shock
to learn of a new receiver manufacturer (and I'm not sure how "new" they
were at the time, just new to the hobby world). But QST occasionally
ran reviews for equipment that few or no hobbyist would buy, simply
to give an idea of how it was done for other markets or when cost
wasn't a factor.

Michael