[Milsurplus] BA's going begging Big Heavy Radios

[Peter Gottlieb]

On number 2, sometimes it's that something new has grabbed their attention.  For 
example, I noticed at Tesla that there were fewer and fewer combustion engine 
nerds, replaced by software nerds who tuned three phase vector drives to eek out 
every last foot pound of torque.  They stay late into the night trying things on 
the dyno then the next day go out in the field or track.

Peter
kb2vtl


On 9/18/2018 12:19 AM, Jeff Kruth via Milsurplus wrote:
> On the subject of big heavy radios:  I see a lot of them for a lot of money at 
> hamfests around here. No one seems to be buying and I think the reasons come 
> in several flavors.
>
> 1.    Had that, used it, done with it OR still have three in the garage I 
> havent touched yet (Old timers, usually thin on money around here).  There is 
> a LOT of stuff that SHOULD go to the metal recycler at local hamfests!
>
> 2.    Youngsters, no sense of history, no appreciation of WWII, no memories of 
> youth with "valves" and their warm friendly glow & relatively uncomplicated 
> circuits, easy to get going.
>
> The second one is the one that gets me: history, it seems, is for old farts. 
> How can young people appreciate the object if they have no sense whatsoever of 
> what it does, what it meant, its contribution, the underlying effort to create 
> it in the midst of a world war, etc.  The modern world sprang into being as 
> whole cloth as far as my college students are concerned. WWII is a few words 
> in their high school history class (if they even had one). WWII as the first 
> technology war, and really the birth of modern electrotechnology, is quite 
> remarkable. We appreciate that and preach to the choir. Unfortunately, we have 
> been overtaken by events. History, even the amazing, remarkable events of 
> WWII, is of little interest to most of the current crop.
> I keep a pile of things (APQ-2, APS-13, several radars, APR-5, among others) 
> in my teaching laboratory and show them to my classes when we do my Microwave 
> Systems course. How much sticks, or prompts further interest, who knows. I am 
> happy when I can see the spark develop in one out of ten students.  It is sad 
> but real. Enjoy what we have, we will probably die with most or all of it! 
> Then off to the trash!  As the product of depression era parents, I cannot 
> abide waste, and I guess it is this upbringing that makes it hard to see 
> useful, interesting things discarded.
>
> 73
> Jeff Kruth
> WA3ZKR
>
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