[Milsurplus] "The 861 Treasure" (Tales of Surplus Glory)

[Hue Miller]

Here's another anecdote pointed toward the Wireless-Set-No19 collection.
>From my collection "Tales of  Surplus Glory". ( Unpublished;  with apologies
to Ed Sanders, author of "Tales of Beatnik Glory" )

Following from Ray Kresek, curator of the private "Fire Outlook Museum"
in Spokane, Washington state, USA:

"One day, back in 1980, I walked into a second-hand salvage yard and 
discovered a 6-foot tall US Navy vintage 1941 transmitter,  junked, but
still intact. with its glass vacuum tubes. Among them was one   #861 
tetrode tube measuring 16 inches tall and 10 inches wide; a beautiful glass
bottle! Seeing that it was junk, with $5 in my pocket, I carefully lifted the
"treasure" out of its socket and walked inside to see how much the junk
dealer wanted for it. He immediately became furious that I'd removed it
from its socket, yelling  'It's filled with silver, tungsten, and other extremely
valuable minerals; worth  $thousands!'   I apologized and quickly left.

"A week  later, I sent a friend who as a TV chief broadcast engineer for 
forty years, to try and explain to the man that the trace elements of platinum,
tungsten, silver, and mercury in an 861 were worth about $5, and this friend
of his has this collection of vintage radio tubes that it would look nice in. He
immediately kicked Jorgy out!

"A week later, I sent a retired police officer "ham" friend in to look at the tube.
The dealer pulled it from his safe, and smashed it on the floor in front of
the cop! Then he kicked W7DTP Hubert out just as quick......while he began
scaping up his 'precious' elements.

"Share this story with anone you wish, Hue"

[This corrects my previous account of this story, which was by my memory
of hearing it long ago. ]

Ray Kresek has written two books: "Fire Lookouts of the Northwest, Third
Edition", which territory covers the forests of Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
and Montana. Also "Fire Lookouts of Oregon and Washington" ( now out
of print. )

I donated an olde Forest Service field phone, magneto, very heavy, from
Tony Grogan, to this museum. And so further:

"Its addition makes it possible for us to now display a fully intact USFS Type-C
portable telephone in our Forestry Communications exhibit. This exhibit now
contains appliances dating back to 1910, and includes 3 USFS heliographs;
10 different USFS telephones; 17 different split-tree telephone line insulators;
a lineman's kit including tree climbing belt,  spurs and repair tools;  58 different
forestry radios dating back to 1934. Also on display are more than 1000 radio
tubes of all vintage, from 1906 to 1980; tiny hearing aid tubes, to a 250,000 watt
100 pound tetrode; glass vacuum tubes from 1/4 inch to 5 feet tall."

[ I also collect Forest Service rado, particularly those built in Washington
and Oregon states, but i was shocked to learn Ray has found this many
varieties!! I have only maybe 6 varieties and was only aware of maybe 6
more.   - Hue Miller ] 

Ray Kresek is at 123 W Westview, Spokane WA 99218 USA.
email:   r k r e s e k  @ w e b t v . n e t