[ARC5] On Hacking

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 5:18 AM, David Stinson <arc5 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Oh No Here He Goes Again warning:
> IMHO and YMMV.
> This is just how I see it.
> I do not demand anyone agree with me,
> nor am I mad at anyone who has a different opinion.
>

Nor do I. It's probably related to the way the topic gets re-injected from
time to time, perhaps out of boredom or in hopes of stirring up another
discussion on the matter.

I feel the same way when looking at things today. I know numerous folks who
have all kinds of 'easy fixes' or other mods for old radios to make them
receive SSB, do this or that better. Aside from a plug-in tube swap or
something simple, I see no reason in trying to make an old radio that as
never designed to be SSB-capable or whatever into a newer radio that was.
If I want a newer radio that is 'better' in that way, it's a good reason to
pick up another to play with. But that's just my opinion. I understand that
others get their enjoyment from the tinkering/modifying end of things.

Pride is a hard thing to define. By your standards or mine Dave, someone
elses' work might look like garbage. But they were probably mighty proud of
simply succeeding by getting it to work. Or maybe it didn't work so they
tried again until it did. There's a lot to be said for that spirit,
something discouraged more and more in the new p.c. world. I still have the
BC-455B that I hacked up and was the starting point for my interest in
preserving and using the Navy ARC-5 gear. I know a number of old timers(as
in 'from the day') who still have their projects, too. More and more of it
has been showing up at hamfests and on ebay. So while plenty of rigs hit
the scrap yard over the years, far more still exist than you'd think.

I think some folks tend to lose sight of the purpose that surplus gear
served vs the alternative (anything not sold to allies or some banana
republic getting scrapped). It's also easy to lose sight of how good we
have it today from a radio hobbyists perspective, whether user or collector
or a bit of both. Over the last few decades even, we've had opportunities
that yesterdays 'hammy-hambones' would've loved to have. Had they been able
to buy a TS-530 or FT-101xyz or any number of other commercial rigs for the
mere pittance we can today, the surplus market would've collapsed, or never
even existed. Having the disposable income is a big help, too. Some would
say we're spoiled.

Looking forward without losing sight of the past is the key, IMO. Those who
choose to look backward and constantly revise or judge what those before us
did based on a perception of a superior postion, well....been there, done
that. It doesn't yield much once the "I'm better/smarter than that" feeling
wears off. I would bet that a lot of progress - not just in radio but in
unrelated fields - came about from those kids and war veteran hams who
returned to piles of surplus and tore into it for parts, projects, or
whatever else.

Of course, one of the things we truly are entitled to in this country is to
believe or think what we want. Human nature dictates that we'll have a view
that supports out opinion or vice versa. While we can never know for sure
how much or what progress and innovation came about from 'hacking' up
surplus gear, we do know with certainty who the surplus market and places
like Radio Row existed for, who drove the market, and that without them,
there would be no amount of gear available as we know it today. That's
clear. And since we can't change what has happened by either revision or
scorn, I'm willing to take the bad with the good and accept that a lot of
nice, sometimes rare surplus to us now, though not particularly exciting
then, was indeed destroyed from a 21st century collector's perspective. I
also understand that the vast majority of NIB or otherwise-untouched pieces
found today and available to us are a direct result of the same people from
the same time period. Far from being a separate fact, the two are
inseparable - even as an unintended consequence. That reason alone is
enough reason for me to be thankful and congratulate our predecessors for
having the interest and creating the demand that makes it possible. Who am
I to judge what they did with the gear they bought? I'll leave that to the
ghost or Marconi, Armstrong, and Art Collins. (o:

Sounds as though we took a similar path, Dave. We both hacked things in the
past and wouldn't dream of it today (beyond adding an UN-UN or other
discrete mod to let the gear live on safely *Purist alert*). Like that
chart showing apes turning into man, perhaps this is a big step in the
evolution of....hamkind! I just wish there was a good pool of interested
youngsters coming along to carry on in our places. To me, that's a far
bigger immediate concern that gear hacked up 40-50 years ago.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4