[Milsurplus] ARR 7 vs BC 348
Mike Morrow
kk5f at earthlink.net
Wed Aug 29 17:48:53 EDT 2012
Mark wrote:
> I have both and I prefer the BC 348...
That makes sense to me...the BC-348-*, aka AN/ARR-11, has history beginning
with the 1936 BC-224-A as a practical military communications receiver. The
AN/ARR-7 was not a military communications receiver. I've got a couple of
them...but I've never warmed up to the design.
> My ARR7 is one of the RE Goodheart conversions...It retailed for $199 in
> 1966 which wasnt a bad deal considering that the two Goodheart rcvrs I
> have seen appear to have been unused prior to the conversion.
IMHO, that was not a good deal. The US-BLS inflation calculator says that's
equivalent to more than $1400 today. I'd have found something like a used
Drake 1-A (which was $180 new) or used Drake 2-A (which was $270 new). Even
back then, I did not want any military equipment that had been hacked for ham
use. (The military gear I had in the mid-1960s came from my Dad's USAF MARS
membership...I couldn't afford it at market prices.)
If inflation checks are done for most of those "great" post-WWII to early-1970s
surplus prices, it will be found that often such gear is much less expensive
to acquire today (even on ebay) than it was in those good ol' days. Even a
common BC-348 from Fair Radio...that $70 in 1968 is equivalent to almost $500
today.
Of course, this does not apply to audiofool vacuum tube holy relics. I wish I
could go back and buy every VT-25-A, VT-52, and VT-4-C that Fair had in 1970.
:-)
73,
Mike / KK5F
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