[ARC5] R-45/ARR-7

Mon Jun 18 00:48:40 EDT 2018

Besides market, condition and completeness matter also.  People like the idea of getting a whole product - there is very little patience these days for the need to gather parts.  For the antique radios, you're simply not going to get the same price for a partial set as you would for an electrically complete radio.  We're beginning to see that now with the old military tube stuff.  If you can't make the thing work, you have a decoration at best.  If the radio has been significantly modified, vehicle people and collectors aren't that interested in it because in all likelihood it's been all buggered up electrically and may have had the outside appearance altered.  Nobody is going to pay the same price for an empty cabinet as they would for a radio with it's original insides.  Also in a lot of cases, the cables, power supplies, etc. needed to complete a specific radio are either hard to find or no longer available.

You aircraft radio guys have a whole other set of problems - mostly to do with market.  Where as the military vehicle (ground and historic ship)  guys may still be able to operate out of their vehicles, putting the old radios back in aircraft presents a problem, starting with price.  Who the hell can afford to buy vintage aircraft of any size?  Most of those in the radio hobby sure can't.  We're lucky to be able to play with the radios.  The old Navy radio guys have the same problem.  Then there's the FAA.  Aircraft require the installation of modern navigational and especially communication gear.  The old tube stuff, even if it's working, just doesn't cut it anymore.  The market for these sets in the aircraft community would then be limited to the owners of those few aircraft that are used for ground tours, provided there is room in the aircraft for the radios, and the weight doesn't create too much of a problem economically for the owners ( more weight increases the need to burn more fuel to get and keep the aircraft into the air ).  The aircraft radios may have been popular in their day, being, relatively inexpensive, easy to work on and modify for Amateur use, but your average new Ham now is much more interested in the new, wiz-bang gear they don't have to do anything to in order to get on the air.  And repair/replacement parts for the old stuff are drying up fast.

You'd have to be nuts to put to sea relying on 75 year old communications gear, even if the Coast Guard would allow it.  So, other than on historic ships, that market is also limited.

Still, the reenactor/vintage vehicle owner market is one that is just beginning to open up.  It's probably your best bet if your looking to sell vintage military radios.

Mark D.
WW2RDO

" In matters of style, swim with the current.  In matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

Sent from AOL Desktop

.
In a message dated 6/17/2018 9:01:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, mmab at cox.net writes:
 This past Saturday, at the SCARS swap meet, I sold an early 1950's vintage 
Zenith portable radio to a young lady who, at first, believed that all 
portable radios were transistors. She couldn't believe that there were ever 
portables with tubes. I showed here the tubes inside and she seemed pleased 
with the whole idea and bought the radio.

73, Mike W6MAB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Knoppow" <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2018 17:05
Subject: Re: [ARC5] R-45/ARR-7

 I have encountered this with other stuff. My almost wife's
family sold a house full of antiques in Cape Cod recently. It was
hard to sell. Young people do not want old stuff. There was a
certain market of people of our age (old) who have memories but
there are getting to be fewer and fewer. I think there is also
getting to be a lack of appreciation of workmanship. The idea now
is to get something new that will do the job and toss it when it
breaks. I suspect that in a century there will not be much left
from our era. Technology has changed so fast that I suspect that
a lot of people under about 25 simply have not even heard of
things which were a part of life for decades for many of us.
There is a series of short films on You Tube where kids of
somewhere between 5 and 12 are introduced to work a day objects
from the past. Things like dial telephones. They recognize its a
phone but have no idea of how to use it.

On 6/17/2018 4:01 PM, Mike Morrow wrote:
> Market values are much lower today, and continue to plummet. Most of us 
> are reluctant to appreciate how little real value or interest our 
> treasures have in 2018. Soon our estates will be paying someone big bucks 
> to haul the junk...even uncommon NOS pristine un-hammed unmodified 
> junk...away.
>
> One would be very lucky to sell an R-45/ARR-7 for even $100, unless a 
> gullible buyer can be found on ebay.
>
> Mike / KK5F
>
-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL
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