[ARC5] Equipment Costs - Then and Now

[J. Forster]

They bought quality.

-John

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



> Gordon wrote:
>
>> ...I think an AN/ARC-5 receiver by A.R.C. Co., went to the government
>> for $343 each. ($4,480 in 2011 dollars)
>
> Gordon, I hope you won't mind if I quote your 5 January 2007 posting.  It
> has very interesting information that new members will no doubt enjoy
> learning:
>
>              ----- Begin Gordon's 5 Jan 2007 Post -----
>   I have in front of me the original Army Signal Corps contract 1470-NY-41
>   for the SCR-274-N, dated October 31, 1940.  (Fiscal years then began
> July
>   1st of the preceding calender year) This contract was obviously adapted
>   from the Navy contract for the GT/RBD series as there are any number of
>   places in it where it is noted to change from Navy to Army nomenclature.
>
>   This contract covers 1,500 sets of three receivers, three transmitters,
>   modulator BC-456-A, racks, cabling, plugs, control units, etc.
>
>   The face value of the contract was $3,960,997.50 or $2,640 per complete
>   set of receivers, transmitters, control boxes, etc.  Using current
> Bureau
>   of Labor Statistics data, $2,640 in 1940 would equal $37,997 today.
>
>   The price of a receiver, such as BC-453-A, less dynamotor, was $353,
> equal
>   to $5,080 in 2007 dollars.  (This is more than I said the other day,
>   calculating from a 1943 base.)  If a single receiver in 1940 was worth
>   half of a current Ford automobile, well, today a single receiver for
> your
>   Cessna or Beech is going to cost as much as a 2007 automobile.
>
>   The BC-450-A and BC-496-A receiver control boxes cost the U.S. $66.  The
>   BC-456 modulators cost $223, the DM-33 dynamotors $73 each, the DM-32
>   dynamotors $47 each and the transmitters $205 each.
>              ------ End Gordon's 5 Jan 2007 Post ------
>
> Using the inflation calculator at http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
> to adjust from the 1940 contract date to 2011, the prices Gordon provides
> would equal today:
>
>    3-Receiver Control Box  BC-450-A    $ 1065
>    Receiver                BC-453-A    $ 5698
>    Modulator               BC-456-A    $ 3599
>    Tranmitter              BC-457-A    $ 3309
>    Receiver Dynamotor      DM-32-A     $  759
>    Transmitter Dynamotor   DM-33-A     $ 1178
>    Complete Set            SCR-274-N   $42610
>
> I also recall that another list member come up with something which
> indicated
> that by late-WWII, the cost of a Western Electric BC-453-B was a mere $94.
>
>    Receiver (1945)         BC-453-B    $ 1180
>
> Walt Hutchens in his article on the AN/ART-13 in Electric Radio about
> 15 years ago stated that it cost $14000 WWII dollars.  Assuming a 1942
> inflation starting point (although perhaps that figure was computed from
> the original 1940 contract...Walt doesn't say), that equates to an
> astounding $194080.  I got mine for less than half of that on ebay! :-)
>
> Somewhere I learned that the HF radio set most commonly used by USAF SAC
> bombers in the mid-1960s, the AN/ARC-58, was about $18000.  Today that
> would be $130000.  Military stuff has never been cheap, until it gets
> surplused.
>
> Mike / KK5F
> (What ever happened to Walt/KJ4KV?  He wrote many excellent "Radio in
> Uniform" articles in ER, now too long ago.  Those articles were the
> main reason I subscribed to ER then, just like Gordon's "Surplus
> Sidelights" were the ONLY reason I ever bought a CQ in the late 1960s.)
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>