[ARC5] Can yoiu say...

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <millerke6f at aol.com>


>    I think that your  statement is more than a bit difficult to 
> prove.
I respectfully disagree.
I don't see how transmitters that never got into ham hands
are relevant to this debate.
The fate of those that did is the point in contention.

I have already stated the basis of my reasoning:

Where are the thousands of QSLs that say: "ARC-5 Transmitter?"

Where are the hundreds of "happy story" estate-sale working sets?
We see thousands of half-finish, half-baked train wrecks
and zombies, but precious few sets that show any indication
they did more than gather dust in a garage after being hacked.

I went to many "old timer" ham shacks and saw
what they were using.  Many had "surplus" like TCS and
ART-13 working just fine.  IIRC, I never saw *one,* save
my own, who had or AFAIK had ever had an "ARC-5"
transmitter on the air.  I did see where they had junked
dozens of them.

I have been to hundreds of hamfests.
Of the hundreds of  *modified* "ARC-5" transmitters
I have seen over 45 years, I can count those that
were capable of making RF to an antenna on my fingers
and still drink my coffee.

There are thousands and thousands of QSLs
of that time that name commercial transmitters.
Even more telling:  There are more QSLs of that era
that say something like "Homebrew 6AG7-807" than
say "ARC-5 transmitter."   I think the evidence is
overwhelmingly clear that the vast majority of "ARC-5"
transmitters that got to hams became junk-box
zombies without ever making a single QSO.

Once again:  My complaint is NOT with the kids-
like me at the time- who were trying to make something work.
My problem is with the "old hands" on whom those kids,
like me, depended for guidance and help; "old hands"
who had no idea what they were talking about,
who were too proud and afraid of ridicule to question
what they "knew," parroting each other's "beer talk"
with no actual understanding or even desire to understand,
then publishing that nonsense until it was bloviated all over
and became religous dogma.

The result was that most of us were mis-lead into destroying
 these "cheap" and perfectly operable transmitters,
and thus defeated the purpose we scrimped and
saved to buy them in the first place.  After my first few QSOs
with my BC-459, on the advice of an "old timer,"  I, too,
scrapped the transmitter I had worked so hard to get going
and scrimped and traded and saved until I got a Globe Scout.
My "ARC-5" became just one more victim of parroted bullsh*t.

Hamfest Talk, 1959:

"Surplus stuff?  TVI machines!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Ha!  You ever tried it?  What a mess!"

"What surplus?  How did you power it?
Did you tune and adjust it according to its design?
What antennas?  Where did you get your information?"

"Wha... well... Hey Joe!  Come here! This kid
doesn't believe surplus makes TVI!"

"Bwaaa-haaw-haw!  Kid, come back when you
are shaving and we'll show you how "real hams"
do it.  Rip that surplus junk up for parts.  Let's
go get another beer, Fred."  (exit laughing)

Regards,
Dave AB5S