[ARC5] Boatanchor Ennui: Is He Wrong?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 4:21 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com
> wrote:

> On 22 Jul 2016 at 20:14, Joe Connor via ARC5 wrote:
> > I can't put a price on all of that. Can you?
>
> No. I can't. And I am right there with you, Joe. I wouldn't trade the
> sheer fun I have had with
> this old stuff for anything I can think of.
>

Precisely. As I've told folks for several years now and even mentioned on
these lists: if you bought your radio equipment to use and enjoy, you'll
never go wrong on the value. If you bought it as an 'investment', you'd
better sell it fast because there's no one coming along behind us with an
interest.

A lot of guys who 10 yrs back thought that Collins gear was gold and they
could retire off it are now scrambling to dump what they can before prices
go lower. Sure, pristine collector pieces still bring good money for the
time being as some out there decide to upgrade. But the days of the
automatic $2K KWM-2A are long gone, along with the automatic $1500 75A-4.
Most are back to 80s prices. $5-$10K SX-88s? Numerous examples have
languished for months at $2K or less and not sold.

As to the ratio of users vs collectors/accumulators, I think along with the
milsurplus group the AM group is another where the ratio is opposite: more
guys repairing/restoring/building than letting it sit. Though even at that,
on-air activity is down just by virtue of attrition.

The old wooden radio hobby is still popping along nicely but as Don pointed
out - not the 'grab anything' mentality of a decade or so back.

I'm one of the youngsters at 55, and even so, I've been thinning and
realigning my interests across the board. Having a child later in life
certainly helped push that along, moving to another new home has only
reaffirmed it. You wake up one day and realize you can't spend time
enjoying the stuff you want to enjoy because of everything else in the way
that you need to fix, sell, restore, whatever. I've cut my holdings
considerably over the last decade+ and STILL have way too much. Those
estate deals and fleamarket finds tend to pile up.

Sadly, a lot of interest in recent years by the younger crowd seems to be
related to the "steampunk" hobby of taking old items and glomming things
onto them or removing parts to use on something else. I recall seeing a
nice RBO cabinet and panel w/knobs that had been re-purposed to hold a PC
some years back.

Supply and demand? Sure - but at the same time, what or how much is anyone
doing out there to interest anyone else in our hobby? I always hear the
same old 'kids have cell phones and video games' excuse, to which I remind
folks that even in its heyday, radio geeks were still a small sliver of the
population. The trick is finding them. It's no longer a big part of our
lives for broadcast or such, so someone or something has to take up the
slack if the younger generations are to get some exposure and appreciation
for it. That something seems to be the internet.

Generally speaking, old farts just aren't interested in making the effort.
They worked hard, retired, and want to enjoy their hobby time. No different
than when I wanted to get my ham ticket back in the 70s and had no idea how
to do it.

So the answer isn't as simple as just us and our stuff, if we want it to
live on into the future. I don't think the landfill will be the primary
winner, though. Scrap will be more in demand. Think of the copper thieves
out there now and an ever growing China, India, and so on.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4
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