[Milsurplus] Radios, etc. in the movie business

[Michael D. Harmon]

I have a brother in law who is a Master Sgt and lives in Albuquerque.  
He took me on a trip of the antique/junk malls in ABQ and we ended up in 
a place that was absolutely full of old 40s, 50s, and 60s tech stuff.

I'm sure that a lot of it came from Los Alamos, but there was a 
considerable amount of commo gear as well as old test instrumentation.

The prices were ridiculous - like hundreds of dollars for an old 
AN/USM-140 (HP) boatanchor scope.  I questioned the guy about the 
prices and he just shrugged.  Turns out, ABQ is the shoot location for a 
lot of old WWII movies and other period films.  The studio people come 
in, spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for old Army green and 
Navy gray boatanchors, use them for a scene or two, then either dump 
them in the landfill or take them back where they got them, get pennies 
on the dollar.  And the guy puts them on the shelf ready for the next 
buyer.  The studios just write it off as the cost of doing business.

Moral of the story:  Don't ever try to buy an old boatanchor in a movie 
town junk store!

Mike Harmon, WB0LDJ