[Milsurplus] [ARC5] responsibility to our posterity

[Kludge]

-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Ray Fantini
> I have said it before and will say it again, the history of modifications
and use in Ham radio 
> is also valid and worth preserving as well. 

Parallel with that is postwar modifications and use in other services as
well, though I don't yet have any examples thereof.  On the other claw, I
can't see hams as being the only ones who saw value in surplus command
equipment.

> Do you sit around and listen to you all original 348 with it being powered
by an R-2800 
> while wearing a leather flight jacket? 

R-1830.  Couldn't get an R-2800.  Had to settle for an R-1830 that a C-47
didn't need.  It had another on the other wing so no big.

> And if it were not for the hams who years ago bought this stuff how much
of it would be 
> around today? 

Not a lot.  By the way, where are the NOS/NIB pretty clean new-looking units
coming from, ham inventories?

> Don't see a whole lot of old radar stuff out their do you?

A gentleman I knew bought a bunch of AN/APS-4 radar units - the wing-mounted
piece - because he wanted the enclosures.  What he planned for them I don't
know but I wound up with the electronics from two of them as freebies for
helping him remove the innards.  (I could have had all of them but I'm not a
greedy sort.  A few other hams got the remainder of them.)  Those two
systems were how I got on X-band.  He got them for practically nothing
beyond the shipping from the west coast (JJ Glass?) via REA.  The closest
agency office to us was in Mars which at the time was "a good piece down the
road."  Well, "up" since it was North of us.  

Radar equipment was sold for parts.  IFF systems were sold for parts.
Norden bomb sights were sold for parts.  BC-191s and BC-375s were sold for
parts because *no one* would be dumb enough to put them on the air.  Some of
this was still in the crates which made shipping easier since no packing was
involved.  All of it was cheap, right along side the command equipment and
somewhat more expensive BC-312/342, BC-348, ATC & AN/ART-13* etc and the
even more expensive BC-610.  As I recall, the cost of a brand new BC-610
with all the goodies (BC-614 speech amp, TUs, coils, crystals[?] etc) was
less than a brand new HT-4 which was essentially the same thing.  The cases
(literally) of crystals, blanks and holders I bought were gotten for
practically giveaway prices but they were how I got set up in the crystal
grinding "business".  

I wish someone would scan the various catalogs from the 50s and 60s to put
on the web somewhere.  Some of the folks who missed out on that period may
be interested and a few of us who were around for it might enjoy the
memories.

Best regards,
 
Michael, WH7HG BL01xh
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx 
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/ 
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com 
Hiki Nô!