[Milsurplus] Antique gear.

[gl4d21a at juno.com]

Hey, wait a minnit about them BC-669s.  I had one of those in my dorm 
room in college and worked a lot of both 160 and 75 phone contacts. 
NVIS hadn't been invented yet, so I just put up a low wire out to a 
tree from the window and had a ball, not knowing what I was doing 
hadn't passed muster by the experts.  Of course, that was before SSB, 
but nevertheless, I wouldn't mind having one on 3885 right now.

Now, here's my idea of a real museum display.  Typical young or new 
ham's shack of the late '40s.  Room full of heavily modified WW2 
surplus.  Only way you could afford to get on the air, but ham bands 
are much more crowded than the assigned channels of wartime, so lots 
of mods and hacks to the gear to make it useful.  The rarer the 
piece, the more heavily modified.  ARC-5s, ART-13s, couple LMs or 
BC221s, you get the idea.  Lots of photos of just such in the CQs and 
QSTs of the time.  Take a look.  It makes me much more nostalgic that 
the sterile, repetitive output of a couple hundred radio, tank and 
aircraft factories.

73,
George
W5VPQ


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