[ARC5] Cost of sets - 1950 and 2010

[J. Forster]

I pretty much agree.

My fundamental point was that, although they appeared cheap as seen from
2010, their cost was non-trivial even in the 1950s.

Those that have been ham-hacked have lost value; those that remained
unmolested, have appreciated significantly, even accounting for inflation.
NOS sets are routinely bring well over $300. In fact, a transmitter
control box (BC-451) just brought over $300.

Best,

-John

==============


> Hello John!
> Hello list-members!
>
> Let's scale John's costs.
> Assume the higher value for a set:  $8.00 or equal to 8.00/0.29
> =27 gallons of "gas".  Here in Australia, petrol (very similar to "gas")
> costs 1.25/Litre (with a whopping government tax component) and there are
> 4.5L per gallon.  This makes those earlier command sets worth $75 to $150.
>
> The killer for me, is postage.
>
> Les
>
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "J. Forster" <jfor at quik.com>
>> To: W9RAN at oneradio.net, "Discussion of AN/ARC-5 military radio
>> equipment." <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
>> Subject: Re: [ARC5] Cool acquisition (not for the squeamish)
>> Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:14:35 -0700 (PDT)
>>
>>
>> When ARC-5 were $4 to $8, remember gas was $0.29/gallon and a burger
>> $0.19.
>>
>> They were not cheap. They just appear cheap as a result of high
>> inflation
>> due to governmental misconduct.
>>
>> -John
>>
>> ==================
>>
>>
>>
>> >   Last weekend was the Peoria Superfest, where some buddies and I have
>> > been getting together for a big cook-out and gabfest as well.   One of
>> > them has taken on the chore of helping a widow dispose of the estate
>> of
>> > a local SK, and included in the pile of stuff were a half-dozen
>> sundry
>> > ARC-5 transmitters and receivers.  Most had been "hammified" to  a
>> > greater or lesser extent - only one looked to be original.  But my
>> > attention was drawn instead to one that was REALLY hacked-up, but
>> > immediately recognizable to the "trained eye".
>> >
>> > It was a nearly-intact version of the W2EWL "Cheap and Easy SSB"
>> > transmitter that was featured in the ARRL Sideband Handbook that I've
>> > been studying lately.   Of course I immediately acquired it, as early
>> > SSB is an area of great interest to me.   When this article was
>> written
>> > the author noted that the price of the BC-458 was "from $3.95 to
>> $7.95",
>> > so it's understandable how this was an attractive value for a
>> > homebrewer, although we'd consider it heresey today.  The first step
>> was
>> > to strip the chassis of all parts except for the 1626 oscillator and
>> the
>> > final tube sockets...
>> >
>> > (Graphic image alert!)  I've posted some pictures at:
>> > http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v652/ranickel/Cheap%20and%20Easy%20SSB/
>> >
>> > I'm tickled to actually find one of these already built and very
>> > restorable, as I'd feel guilty stripping out even a basket case
>> BC-458,
>> > and it would be  a real challenge to find the audio transformers and
>> > phase-shift network to try to build one from scratch today.
>> >
>> > 73, Bob W9RAN
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>>
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