[Milsurplus] Re: [ARC5] Odd ART-13

[Mike Morrow]

Robert wrote:

>Yaah, but...that was 30+ years ago.  In 1970 you almost couldn't even give
>them away.  There weren't many of us in those days who would have taken one
even
>as a freebie.  And in 1970 with a BSEE from a very good school, I think I
was
>making $750 per month and the brand new Land Rover I had just bought only
>cost me $3495.00.  :-)


Speaking of relative dollar values and ART-13s, according to the Dept. of
Commerce a dollar in WWII was worth about ten of today's in buying power.
Walt Hudgens in an ER article about 15 years ago stated that his records
showed that the ART-13 cost $14,400!  Could that be correct...an ART-13 cost
nearly $150,000 of today's dollars???

I've seen numbers somewhere indicating that even a lowly SCR-274-N receiver
with dynamotor cost the government about $400.  If so, then it took the
equivalent of $4000 of today's dollars to buy one.  I seem to recall that
the initial US Federal budget estimate to prosecute WWII was $770 billion
1941 dollars.  I don't know how that compares to what it actually took.

>BTW, Mike, note that the upper part of the mount has been changed to the
>later MT-283/ART-13 from the unnumbered twin rail Navy type that became
MT-161
>that would have originally been on it.

I wonder if they added the control power top cover interlock switch used by
USAF ART-13s, and changed the vernier scale on the master oscillator (dial
A) for finer adjustment than was found on Navy ATC and T-47 (non-A) units?
I've never seen a Navy ATC transformed into a USAF (almost) T-412 before.
I'd have assumed they would have started with a USAF T-47A.

73,
Mike / KK5F