Michael Black wrote:
I'm sure that did happen, but in the case of parts, they were also
available. So you could get HRO dials and tuning capacitors off the shelf,
though I'm not sure if from National or Millen. I gather there were spare
variable capacitors for the Command Sets, though since the transmitters
were so cheap, it was often easier to strip one down for the tuning gear
and capacitor. I have a tuning capacitor that's never been soldered to,
and it certainly looks like the one used in a BC-221 frequency meter.

You could get HRO dials and tuning caps off the shelf, and the main brand
of tuning caps that my local shop carried was Hammarlund.

But... the surplus gear was so cheap, so much ham gear was built around it.
I remember going to New York with my parents and seeing a shop on Canal St.
that was packed to the ceiling with command sets, and they were all ten
dollars, receivers or transmitters. Pick your band. So many homebrew SSB
sets were built on ARC-5 chassis using the oscillator and final and little
else.

I would have built one myself if my father would have loaned me ten dollars.

You could certainly get Eddystone dials without ripping one apart.

But that cost money! And an old Eddystone was probably a giveaway item.

But yes, the equipment lived its life, then was reused as best it could
be. There was also that period where older equipment was updated. Fred
Brown had an article in CQ in early 1970 about updating his HRO, which was
mainly about replacing the octal tubes with miniature tubes, complete with
lower power consumption. Or Hank Cross took a BC-348 and transistorized
it, in effect using the relatively cheap surplus receiver as a chassis to
build a solid state receiver on. That sort of thing happened too, to
extend the life of something that was getting old and not as appropriate
in the days of lower power consumption and SSB.

Yes, I bought an SX-28 at a hamfest for $2 and followed the directions in
a QST article to add a product detector and a Collins mechanical filter,
and I used that for years until I got an R-388 for $100 at the 1981 Virginia
Beach Hamfest.

I think in 1987 I bought an R-390A from the same vendor for $250, but at
that time prices on that gear were starting to rise.

There have been a few HROs and AR88s on UK eBay recently, so they're
still out there. Prices aren't too bad either.

Some are saying it will all flatten out. That there was a peak, in
interest and price, as people got to a certain age, and lusted after old
equipment, or regretted getting rid of old equipment, but there aren't
that many coming into boatanchors to keep the prices high. It does make
sense.

This is definitely the case, and you see this with all kinds of gear. The
kids who lusted after $10 ARC-5 sets have grown up and they have money now,
and they are snapping up the few units left.

The peak was also helped by a huge demand in Japan for old American boatanchor
gear, although the Japanese only want stuff in excellent cosmetic condition
and they don't want the ARC-5 transmitter with the Compactron sheet beam
modulator stage added in the seventies.

I can look at the ads in the old magazines, and wish for this or
that, but it's mostly nostalgia, I would have very little practical use
for a Clegg 66er, though a Swan 250 six metre SSB rig could still find
use. But if you didn't grow up with the stuff, or at least read about it
when younger, there may not be the same incentive to pursue it now. Once
everyone is satisfied, there won't be new people wanting the same stuff.
For that matter, like that TMC GPR-90, the owners will fade away and fewer
people interested in what remains.

I think there is no sense in collecting equipment if you don't use it. I
am on the OMISS net at least once a week with my R-390A and a homebrew
compactron-based transmitter. (I built it from scratch because these days
that is much cheaper than starting with an ARC-5). Just got my 5-watt WAS,
now I'm working for a DXCC with all the sheer power of the 6AQ5 final.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."