[Milsurplus] Milsurplus Digest, Vol 214, Issue 10

Sat Feb 12 17:47:43 EST 2022

8 hours of homework per night?  I'm 72 and did okay in school.  I sure don't remember that.

----- Original Message -----
From: milsurplus-request at mailman.qth.net
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2022 12:34:32 PM
Subject: Milsurplus Digest, Vol 214, Issue 10

Send Milsurplus mailing list submissions to
	milsurplus at mailman.qth.net

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	milsurplus-request at mailman.qth.net

You can reach the person managing the list at
	milsurplus-owner at mailman.qth.net

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Milsurplus digest..."

Today's Topics:

   1. Yes, but... (CL in NC)
   2. Re: Reality Comes Knocking. (Bob kb8tq)
   3. Re: Reality Comes Knocking. (Gene Smar)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 16:29:51 +0000 (UTC)
From: CL in NC <mjcal77 at yahoo.com>
To: Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Yes, but...
Message-ID: <1449123355.586450.1644683391390 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

"Wait for the EMP attack.
Being able to raise someone on a Boatanchor radio
will be "magic" again. ;-)"

Only if you rig has a tube detector and not diodes, plus, you'll need to make KW's for your tube rig, which requires a gen set which might have solid state regulation, and a big supply of gasoline.  Then, who will be left to talk too?  Do you remember the Harry Belafonte movie, 'The World the Flesh and the Devil'?  I just bought a copy since nobody we streaming it.  Now there is a fellow with a plan, and it took him a while to raise anybody on his Collins station.

Also, chances are every broadcast station will be off the air too, and if  Conelrad was still around, all those stations under the dial symbol would be dead in the water too, but maybe they would keep an old tube transmitter around just in case.

Charlie, W4MEC in NC

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 12:15:02 -0500
From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org>
To: MICHAEL ST ANGELO <mstangelo at comcast.net>
Cc: Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Reality Comes Knocking.
Message-ID: <4986A2D4-467F-49D0-859E-5D757B72B2CE at n1k.org>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=utf-8

Hi

Even back when the paper route (remember when kids on bicycles delivered
the day?s news?) supplied the spending cash, boat anchors were mostly in
the ?affordable? category. The market was full of them and anybody with any
interest already had the garage full of them. Compared to that shiny new radio
?. they came in a *lot* cheaper. 

Competition for your time was not all that stiff. The idea that each kid had to be 
driven to three or four ?activities? a day simply didn?t exist. For one thing there
was only one car and dad hadn?t made it home yet ?. Teachers had not yet
been told that 8 hours of homework a night was ?how it?s done?. 

The one TV station in town probably didn?t have much interesting stuff on it 
most nights. One day they *might* start broadcasting during the day. Family 
might eventually get a TV with a screen bigger than a note pad.  Maybe 
you could listen to exotic short wave stations with some sort of radio. Way
more fun than what?s on TV.

I don?t remember anybody looking at a boat anchor as something to be preserved
for the future back then. You want to tear it all to pieces to ?improve? it ? go for 
it. That?s what everybody else is doing. If the ?improvement" results in a ?.. errr ? 
really stinky fire ? errr ?. that was part of it as well. Make a note to be a bit 
more careful next time :)

These beasts (as everybody here knows) were built by hand with point to point wiring
for the most part. Printed circuit boards ? not so much ( yes, I have R1051?s ?). 
By the time pcb?s became common, they stopped selling stuff cheap. Then they
started sending it all to the crusher. Point to point is *very* user friendly. 16 
layer PCB?s with BGA?s on them ?. not so much. 

Interestingly, I know a lot of ?kids? around here who would disagree with that last
part. They are quite happily doing up PC boards and mounting crazy parts on 
them. Home brew electronics is still alive out there somewhere. They also 
seem to be learning about stinky fires :) What?s missing are the boat anchor 
radios. They have piles of boat anchor servers ?.

So sure, a lot changed. Welcome to progress !!!!

Bob

> On Feb 12, 2022, at 11:18 AM, MICHAEL ST ANGELO <mstangelo at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Boatanchors have a fascination with oldtimers because it was an introduction to the hobby when electronics was expensive. Electronics is cheap and commonplace today and Moore's law has made electronics obsolete in a couple of years so the fascination with the hardware has disappeared. Younger people today are interested today in software.
> 
> The people I know from the Northeast who have moved to Florida downsized and got rid of most of their equipment before moving so I believe Hamcation is not representative of the typical local hamfest. Even so I believe the market is filled with sellers, not buyers. I have always been a proponent of selling your boatanchors at the local Hamfest. You will not get the price you want but at least the equipment would not land up in the landfill.
> 
> The Antiques Road Show, like most reality shows, is an exaggeration of reality. I believe for every gem shown on the show they edit out lots of items what are worthless.
> 
> Enjoy the equipment while you can.
> 
> Mike N2MS
> 
> 
>> 
>> 
>> For those who've watched too much "Antique Road Show,"
>> those who think selling their boatanchors are going to 
>> save their finances, those trying to sell common
>> Heathkit/Johnson/Milradio etc. on Ebay for big bucks
>> (and relisting them for months), etc. etc., please
>> take note of this from a Hamcation attendee.
>> These stories are becoming commonplace.
>> Father Time is merciless to collectables, folks.
>> 
>> "Update from Hamcation. 
>> So there was one seller in the field today who was 
>> offering a boatload of VERY nice boat anchors of 
>> various types. RCA, Johnson, etc. Beautiful receivers 
>> and transmitters, all said to be working, mostly going 
>> for $200 to $350 each. More than a dozen at bargain prices. 
>> Evidently he had no, or few, takers. By mid-afternoon he was 
>> offering the lot for $900. Methinks the boat anchor era 
>> really may be ending. My other thought about Hamcation, 
>> as I stood in the ticket line at 0830 this morning: 
>> "Jees, all these guys are OLD."
>> (He said, the day after he turned 72.)"
>> 
>> To which was commented:
>> 
>> "Greying out. We?re on the shady side of the nostalgia bell-curve."
>> "I think most of the boatanchor enthusiasm was driven by 
>> Boomer hams remembering the radios they longed for 
>> but could not afford as kids. As this (my) generation dies off, 
>> I except the market for all old radios, to continually decline."
>> 
>> Advice from one who once sold estates: What one *thinks*
>> it's worth means nothing. It's "worth" what a buyer and seller 
>> agree at that moment, and that's all. 
>> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 17:34:16 +0000 (UTC)
From: Gene Smar <ersmar at verizon.net>
To: "milsurplus at mailman.qth.net" <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Reality Comes Knocking.
Message-ID: <472457911.797261.1644687256419 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

 Same can be said for Muscle Cars that we all drooled over in our yoot.? (A nod to My Cousin Vinny.)? I recently watched a YouTube video of the "Top Ten Muscle Cars."? Most originally sold for $4k - $6k in the 60s and early 70s (I drove a '67 GTO once and scared myself half to death!) and are now worth upwards of $100k.? Now that we have (some) money, we're bidding up the price for reminders of our childhood and early years.? 

My prediction is that, when we boomers are no longer around, the nostalgia for these specimens of mid-century mechanical art will disappear with us.? I'd go so far as to say that the younger folks today (now I'm sounding like my father) will even turn up their green noses at these gas-guzzling behemoths and have them hauled away as scrap.... SCRAP!
My BOTTOM LINE:? It's not technology but nostalgia that's driving us to seek all the BA's we can lay our arthritic hands on, but the basis for this nostalgia is understandably absent from subsequent generations.
73 deGene Smar? AD3F? 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org>
To: MICHAEL ST ANGELO <mstangelo at comcast.net>
Cc: Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sat, Feb 12, 2022 12:15 pm
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Reality Comes Knocking.

Hi