[ARC5] Equipment Costs - Then and Now - More Info

[Mike Morrow]

Here's a couple of additional items:

(1) Ken Corwin's (SK) BC-348 pages at 

 http://www.nj7p.org/history/bc-348.html

states that in 1943, a BC-348-Q cost $368.

   Liaison Receiver     BC-348-Q   $4807 in 2011 dollars

(That actually sounds pretty reasonable.)


(2) Henry Rogers' WWII Radio pages at

 http://www.radioblvd.com/WWII-PostWar%20Hamgear.htm

states that the original 1940 contract price for a RBB or RBC receiver
was $2400.

   Navy MF/HF Receiver  RBC       $38737 in 2011 dollars


It would be nice to have costs for equipment by the end of the
war, when doubtless the mass-produced items were only a fraction
of their initial cost.  And I'd love to know the prices of the
AN/GRC-7 (RT-68, -70, R-110, PP-112, AM-65), the AN/GRC-19
(T-195, R-392), the AN/VRC-24 (RT-323A), the AN/ARC-21 (RT-128A),
and the AN/ARC-27 (RT-178) sets, which were 1950s-era state-of-the-art
military communications gear.

I can't find it right now, but I've got some price info on the
Vietnam-era AN/VRC-12-series (RT-246A, -524A, R-442A) VHF-FM sets.
IIRC, the version known as the AN/VRC-47 (one RT-524A, one R-442A)
equated to more than $20000 equivalent in 2011.  (Maybe it was worth
it...this series had a 30-year service run (early 1960s to early 1990s)
in the US, and doubtless it is still in use today in various parts of
the world.)

Well, it all sounds like a lot of money.  But then, I remember buying
a four-function Bomar 901B calculator in 1972 for $140.  In 2011
that's equivalent to $757!

Mike / KK5F