[Boatanchors] [BoatAnchors] An object lesson

[Whitebear1122]

This is a very Interesting topic because we all will be faced with selling our equipment and/our families will be faced with selling or dumping our stuff  if we die prematurely or end up in some nursing home.    About 8 years ago my wife asked me what should she do with all my radios if I should die early.  I had an insane number of radios including gorgeous heavy radios like my Collins  Gold Dust Twins KWS-1 and 75A-4, Johnson Viking Desk KW, Johnson Invader 2000, Johnson Invader 200, multiple Ranger 1's and 2's,  5 National SW-3's, a bunch of Knightkit and Heath short waves, Drake 4B, Drake 2NT/2C and Drake shortwaves , Hallicrafters including  SX-115, Morrow, Collins RE KWM-2A, 312B-5,  extra Collins S-Line, extra Collins receivers,  Hammarlund HX50's and several HQ-180's, and on and on..  Hoarding I guess.  I'm embarrassed  to tell you but  I want you to know what I went through because I'm betting you have a crapload of stuff in your basement and a wife wondering the same thing as mine … hi hi hi hi  .   I said to call my good friend Tom, have him rent a truck, come up and pick up everything and sell it for her.  She said "why would you do that to your best friend?"  That got me to thinking… Since then over the past 8 years I've sold off 82% of my stuff - yep I'm keeping a sell list.   It was hard at first.   Her words still ring in my ear.  I still have too much left, and a current sell list of 32 items including radios and accessories, for this years radio sale.   At that point I will have reached equilibrium for the next several years.  It's likely that we will move when I retire in a few years so I might as well get rid of this stuff now rather than move it so it can clutter up a new basement. hi hi

So that is how I resolved the problem.  I didn't want my wife or my best friend to deal with crapload of radios, t so I'm getting rid of as much as I can now while the going is good.  I am keeping a wonderful collection of operational BA  that is set up and running in the shack for daily use instead of sitting on the back room shelf and unused forever.   Eventually there will be just a single BC-348 on the back room shelf that is unrestored, and in mint condition with the dynamotor awaiting my restoration .  I might have to seek out a Collins ART-13  or an ARC 5 transmitter for that set up. hi hi  While it was very hard at first (veeeery hard) to sell radios, soon it  felt wonderful to identify a radio and sell it off,  clear the clutter and mess, get my money back for the family, and minimize the mess.  Honest to goodness, I would sit in my shack, look around at all the radios on the wall shelves and get excited when I could identify another bunch of  radios to sell.  I know, it sound very bizarre :)    It's like "anti-hoarding" hi hi

So what I'm saying is that for me I decided to lessen the impact on my wife,  my best friend, and a potential retirement move, by unloading 82% of my crap now and eventually 90% by the end this year.

Since I'm talking about it, here is a list of items  that I am planning on selling in this next round.  Contact me if interested.  I need to figure out prices. A super nice Collins 75A-2, National NC-300 that I found $497 dollars hidden inside and it's keeping a 1968 $1, $5, $10, and $20 bill  out of respect of the owner who hid it in there, a Johnson Ranger 1 in fabulous conditions other than the builders calls sign poorly but lightly  engraved in the front panel under the tuning knob hi hi, sweet and rare Johnson Courier amplifier with a fresh Peter Dahl rewind power transformer and recapped, Tentec Argonaut 509,  National HRO5TA-1 recapped with matching serial number ham band plug in coils and wooden coil box , NC-101X with original silvered PW dial and recapped HV,  a ratty  on the outside but clean on the inside SW-5, Hallicrafters TO-Keyer new and unused as far as I know, Kenwood DFC-230 outboard VFO, Kenwood R-2000 Shortwave with fresh battery back up, Kenwood TS-830S that I bought new in 1982, gorgeous and clean early National Red Label speaker in great condition with original paint and finish, an original 1930's home-brew ham station consisting of a transmitter and receiver (Rationalized Autodyone) that was used as a pair back in the early 1930's,  a early 1930's transmitter using an 860 that may be original or a reproduction, a home-brew DCS-500 receiver - rare with a ton of 50 Kc Miller IF transformers on it and some coils,    I'm planning on Ebaying  unless otherwise motivated :)  a minty Millen 90711 VFO that was new in the box -OMG incredible condition and likely the nicest surviving 90711 in existence,  a nice functional well built  HBR-16 with a boatload of coils, a superb HBR-17 with a boatload of coils and Eddystone dial (search internet for W0WB HBR-17) , an incredibly rare and gorgeous  National SW-3 Model III that took me 25 years to find with the original ham band spread coils and coil boxes, original doghouse supply,  -  the last SW-3 model made with the octal sockets, front panel B+ and front panel headphone jack and matching doghouse supply (some serious dough invested here as you can imagine),  a large collection of SW-3 and SW-5 coils, and finally my 1920's and 1930's logbook collection that includes a logbook from the late 20's documenting contacts with Art Collins 9CXX and Leo Meyerson 9GFQ.  Oh my gosh it is so amazing  looking at the Art Collins and Leo Meyerson contacts in that log.   I haven't gleaned the rest of the logbook for any interesting calls from that era.   I have a couple other radios for sale like a minty Gross CP-100 and CP-25 transmitter, National FB-7, and a boatload of 1920's and 30's parts and tubes.  yikes!!  

Gads we collect a lot of radios don't we?  hi hi


73, Scott WA9WFA