[Milsurplus] N/MRT-9 RADIO COMMUNIACTION SHED TRANSMITTER RECIVER SHELTER

[Ray Fantini]

The MRT-9 is listed back on EBay with a "Buy it Now" price of $8,500, looked at the other lot out in CA and with the exception of the BC-610 that looks like it's been stored outside for some time don't see anything worth more than $20 if that. Like the description about how the person who owned it was the seventh Ham in California in 1947, looks like Ham radio started late out on the other coast.
On another site there has been a discussion on what's the current value of a BC-610, I would assume a working 610 is worth around $1,000 with a non complete transmitter being around $250 to $500 keeping in mind that most non working 610 these days are missing tuning units and have been hacked or modified for years. Something like the T-368 transmitters where working good condition units may be worth $2,000 but most I have seen for sale used non working are so screwed up that they require a complete teardown and overhaul, no easy process with all that weight! But still people think they are worth big money. There is a T-368 transmitter that's been floating around the northeast that's touted as being working for only $500 that someone brought me a year or so ago to see what it would cost to get "right" the original fan had been removed and replaced with non working muffin fans, the wiring harness in the back of the case was cut in several places and spliced with zip cord along with all the interlock safety switches being bypassed with zip cord. All the rectifier tubes were replaced with diodes, all different types being soldered directly to the tube socket pins, usually if I do this I install a small diode board and remove the tube sockets along with also installing a series current limiter resistor or just use commercial SS replacements in the tube sockets. The modulator deck had been hacked and had all the posted Ham modifications for "Hi-Fi" audio that includes bypassing the bandwidth filter and limiter and installing different capacitors in the preamp, along with the removal of the wires to the audio gain pot and splicing them with wire nuts and dragging the audio out between the first and second audio preamplifier and running that to the audio control and  if all this was done correctly or neatly that would be one thing but this looked like someone used a 500 watt gun and water pump pliers to do the work, the screen control system had been taken apart and all the resistors involved with the screen keying control were burnt open and last but not least the output connections had been removed and replaced with cheap plastic radio shack connectors that had the same quality of work as the rest of the hack job on that transmitter. The owner was insulted when I told him that I thought all this unit was good for was as a parts set for other radios and that I thought that maybe for more than it was worth it can become operational but would never be reliable, so needless to say did not get that job.
RF