[Milsurplus] Maybe the Good Old Days Weren't

[Mike Morrow]

George wrote:

> Well, that's all fine and dandy.  The "inflation calculators" really don't 
> mean anything.

AND

> Those prices represented a lot of money back then, just as the "inflation
> calculated" prices look like a lot now.

Your second statement appears to contradict the first. :-)

FWIW, in June 1964 Fair Radio sold used BC-348-* receivers for $89.50, plus shipping. Acording to US BLS, that equates to $690 now.  I purchased a NEW condition  BC-348-Q complete with mounting and manual a few years ago on eBay for $300.  Adjusted for inflation almost all of our favorite gear (except for some tubes) is typically much cheaper even on eBay than was found at hamfests and dealers 50 years ago.

> Even in the 1970's Fair Radio had brand new BC-223 with the TUs and all
> for less than $50.

Which would equate to more than $300 now.

> Now, a brand new 801 is $145 and there were 4 of them in th BC-223.

ERSC sells the type 801A now for $75...there are only two of them (VT-62) in the BC-223-*.  The other three tubes are type 46 (VT-46).

A better example than the BC-223-* is the BC-A*-230/-430, the very disdained by hams transmitter from the SCR-A*-183/-283.  It has two type 10 (VT-25-A) and two type 45SPL (VT-52) all worth about $225 today from IQ-challenged audio-mythological cultists.

> I couldn't afford a BC-779 back then; but a few years later I got one for
> nothing through AF MARS.

I got my first outside-ham-band receiver (R-105/ARR-15) through USN-USMC MARS (call N0LTD) in 1969.  Later I got an AN/SRR-13A receiver.  I devoted about 20 hours/week on MARS during the Vietnam era until it came time for my USN service.  Unlike Army and Air Force MARS, USN-USMC MARS did not generally allow members to keep their issued equipment.  If one left USN MARS, equipment had to be returned.  I was allowed while on active duty to keep my MARS membership.  In 1974 I was sent my issue papers with a form saying accountabilty had been dropped, so I still have those receivers.

There were some scandals in the generous Army and AF MARS equipment programs during the late 1960s that USN MARS avoided with its striCt accountabilty program.

Mike / KK5F