[ARC5] Can yoiu say...

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 13 Jun 2017 at 7:22, DSP3 wrote:

> have to agree with Robert, in part.  If one does a value of money 
> comparison, the $79 BC-348 in 1950 could cost over $500 dollars in 
> today's environment.  Exceptions, of course... the new 50-cent J-38 
> would be about $10 today.  I wish.....  So, things weren't as cheap as 
> they appear.

Absolutely correct. When we "correct for inflation", the cost of everything works out to be far 
above what a 13 year old kid could afford.

I know I sure couldn't.

Thinking back on it, it amazes me that we did so much with what we had.

Like my first "good" receiver was a Hallicrafters S-41G which a sub-contractor for my 
step-father's construction company found abandoned in the basement of the home he moved 
into.

I worked the world with that thing,(after fixing it) and a DX-35 I bought after working all one 
summer as a water-boy on one of my step-father's jobs.

I have an S-41G now and cannot understand how I did it. The thing is unstable, insensitive, 
uncalibrated (the entire 20 meter band covers something like 1/8" on the dial) and essentially 
a real piece of junk.

I would have been in ham heaven if I had had a BC-454 or BC-455.

Finally, my Mother took pity on me and managed to buy a very lightly modified (added power 
supply) BC-348 very cheaply from one of my Elmers to which he had added a BC-946B 
"Q-5er". Then I really WAS in ham heaven.

I eventually traded that back to my Elmer for a brand-new RAL-7 because I wanted to be able 
to work 15 meters. I came to love that receiver.

I have at least 50 "ARC-5" receivers now, all of which have been "hacked" mostly to ribbons. 
Yet every one of those I have "attacked" can be made to work at least as well as they 
originally did, although none are, in my opinion, restorable to original condition.

The only transmitters I have, with one exception, have also been hacked to ribbons and I 
cannot see how even one ever was used on the air.

The single exception is one of those ARC-5 transmitters which cover 2.1 - 3.0 MHz. I have no 
idea where I got it. That one hasn't been touched, and it won't be touched by me.

Ken W7EKB

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