[Milsurplus] Boatanchor Ennui: Is He Wrong?

[Bob Camp]

Hi

When you look at a couple of things:

1) The number of “kids” who seem to believe that vacuum tube based gear is fun.

2) The number of people in the world (China etc) who never *had* the chance to play with this stuff before

3) The fact that people *do* live longer and longer

4) Antiques have been a staple item in a lot of fields forever and ever. This and the 1930’s era home sets
are the first major batches of gear to reach that point in radio land. We just don’t (yet) have a history to 
refer to. 

I pretty much doubt that 99.999% of this stuff goes to a landfill in the next 10 years. There may be a lot of pack
and ship to odd places around the globe. There may be a bit of “hey kid, try a little of this boat anchor stuff …” 
to get some interest going. We may well be sitting here 30 years from now still saying the same thing. 

Will the hacked up, barely working, foot deep in raccoon dung gear go to the dump? Yes it will, and it should. 
Will the “new in box” ARC-5 still have value? Yes it will. How much value .. who knows. 

Bob


> On Jul 22, 2016, at 2:36 PM, Peter Gottlieb <kb2vtl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Of course most of it is going to the landfill or scrap reclamation. That's the fate of 99.9% of everything of similar specialty that gets collected. 
> 
> Sure a project will get completed here and there, but it's the exception. 
> 
> On the other hand, the number of people doing these kinds of projects or care about old military radios is continuing to decline, so I guess, enjoy it while you're still alive, even if your particular enjoyment is simply possessing a stockpile of possible projects. 
> 
> 
> Peter
> 
>> On Jul 22, 2016, at 2:12 PM, David Stinson <arc5 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I was talking with a "grumble buddy" the other day
>> concerning our "boatanchor radio" hobby and its future.
>> 
>> "Dave, for every twenty guys with a garage or storage
>> locker full of crap, there's maybe *one* who has heated
>> a soldering iron and actually finished a project and got it
>> on the air in the last 10 years.   They all have the "' 'round-Tuit" disease
>> and it's going to stay that way until their stuff goes to the dump."
>> 
>> I told him he was being cynical- that there were at least twice that many guys who actually finished
>> a project and got it on the air.  
>> What's your perspective?
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