[HBR] Cost Of Homebrewing?

[hbr@mailman.qth.net]

I'm replying to Walt's excellent post in sections because he raises so many 
interesting subjects that I can't adequately answer them in one post of 
reasonable length. 

In a message dated 10/3/03 1:26:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
waltah@earthlink.net writes:


> I think that if you take a catalog of the HBR period and add up the
> 
> > price of all new parts to build [one of the W6TC HBR's], the total
> > reaches a surprising figure. 
> 
> That's an interesting exercise and I think I have a suitable catalog.  
> However, I'd expect most hams who would tackle this sort of project 
> to get all but major parts from the junkbox -- they'd need a chassis, 
> tuning cap, coil forms, fresh electrolytics, a bunch of small parts -- 
> but not the transformer, tube sockets, most tubes, hardware, IFTs 
> and so on.   
> 
> 

I did my test comparison using a 1959 Newark catalog and a classic MOPA 
novice rig. When you add up the price of just the big stuff (chassis, power 
transformer, choke, tubes, tuning caps, coils, meter) you can quickly exceed the 
price of Heath DX-20 ($35.95) and when all is said and done you can get past the 
cost of a Viking Adventurer ($54.95) - IF you buy everything new at small-lot 
catalog prices.

Some things shot up in price, too. A PC-8411 power transformer (750 VCT/150 
mA, just the thing for a Viking Adventurer clone) is $8.29 in my 1959 Newark 
catalog but $11.82 in my 1964 Newark. That's 42% more in just 5 years. Seems 
cheap today but back when $5000/yr was a good middle class income (and a lot of 
hams were raising families on much less) it was not.

The HBR designs (and others!) tended to use a few rather costly parts that 
would not be found in most hams' junkboxes, like the 100 kc. IF cans, the tuning 
cap, and of course the 898 dial if you went that way. The coils don't seem 
expensive until you add up the price of a complete set using brass-plate APCs. 
Some HBRs, particularly the 16, don't leave a lot of extra room for parts 
substitution.

There was a picture series in a QST Stray shosing one hams' construction of 
an HBR (16?). Looks like he just ordered everything new from Allied. (Sigh)

Add to this the fact that with rare exceptions a homebrew rig had very little 
resale value compared to a kit or manufactured set. 

One of the main reasons to homebrew used to be purely financial. As 
manufacturing methods improved and the small-lot cost of parts to hams went up, the 
cost advantage dwindled. Kits and surplus were another factor - what ham could 
build a receiver for $25 that could compete with a BC-453/xtal converter combo 
on 80 and 40 meters? (I did, but it was a lot of work!)  Heath released the 
HW-100 for $249 in 1967 - nuf said.

With a big enough junkbox, one can build an entire station without buying a 
thing. (I've come really close to doing that in the past, and today I could 
build several complete 100W CW stations out of my junkbox alone!) But that's the 
exception, and requires that one design the rig based on the parts on hand, 
rather than copy an article. 

And that's the key factor in amateur radio - that ability to adapt, reuse, 
modify, and use what's available. We homebrewers also have the advantage of 
being able to tailor our designs to meet our likes and dislikes - if I don't care 
for AGC or an S meter, I don't waste time, money or chassis space putting them 
in. And if I have a one-of-a-kind or no-longer-made-but-good part, I can 
build a whole rig around it, while such parts are useless to a manufacturer.  

In fact, a big part of what has kept me homebrewing all these years has been 
the attraction of looking at what's on hand or easily/cheaply available and 
figuring out how to build a rig out of it. Hence the "cereal bowl dial" receiver 
on the HBR website. But there's no word for that sort of thing.

73 de Jim, N2EY



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