[ARC5] Can yoiu say...

[Robert Nickels]

On 6/13/2017 3:13 PM, Nick England wrote:
> don't tell the Antique TV Collectors Society about all the sets I took 
> apart as a kid in the 50's - gaining lots of nifty parts for my 
> fledgling junkbox.

Boy Nick, I hadn't worried about those guys...til now!   I would have 
gladly molested ARC-5 stuff if I'd had any when I was a yout', but the 
best I could do was the occasional Philco or Admiral from my dad's VFW 
buddy who'd drop the chassis off in our driveway - or sometimes the 
whole thing.  That was extra fun because I'd get to bash the mahogany or 
whatever cabinet up with a sledge hammer!  But I was forbidden to mess 
with the picture tubes, until one day when my dad and I hauled the 
half-dozen or so I'd accumulated out to the dump (remember "dumps"?) and 
throw rocks at 'em from a safe distance til they imploded.   I'm sure I 
busted up a couple of "roundies" and enough old consoles with record 
changers to give audiophools the vapors.  Of course I kept the 6L6s and 
such from those prehistoric "monoblocks" ;-)!   Heck, I kept *every* 
part with leads long enough to solder to.

Growing up in Nebraska, the closest to surplus I came was the Surplus 
Center on West "O" St. in Lincoln.   They put out a catalog which was 
mostly stuff I didn't understand or care about like hydraulics and 
motors, but they once sold a "Grab Bag" of electronic stuff for $10 if I 
recall.  I got one and it provided the J-38 key I used as a novice and 
other useful goodies, like a Geiger tube.    I wouldn't have known what 
to do with an ARC-5 if I'd had one, but chances are I would have 
hot-rodded it with some extra toggle switches and stuff and probably 
painted it to look more like a proper transmitter, i.e. a Knight T-60 or 
something like you'd see in the cool guys station pictures in the Novice 
column of Pop'Tronics.

Speaking of hot-rods, maybe these "unfinished" hack jobs are the radio 
equivalent of a rat-rod - made for go, not for show.  The rat-radio!

73, Bob W9RAN