How much would you pay for a 100w, 2002, 450w transmitter today?

[steve_qix]

I was looking through the 1952 Radio Amateur's Handbook, and went to the catalog section in the back.

It was very interesting to look at the prices of things in 1952, and then readjust those prices for 2010.

For instance, a Viking I *kit* (without the VFO) LESS tubes, crystals, key and mic cost $209.50 in 1952, adjusted for inflation (see http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl for the inflation calculator) a Viking I would cost $1713.05.  Would YOU pay that much for a 100 watt transmitter without tubes and a VFO?

Ok, how about the 32V3 - around $700 in 1952 - that would be an outstanding $5700 (more or less!).  Ok, that's just rediculous!

Globe kings were around $400 to $450 or $3679 here in 2010.

Very, very interesting !

Regards,

Steve

[W8EJO]

Thank God for advancing technology, free markets/free trade & competition.

Isn't it amazing how prices come down (in any market sector) when these factors are present.

[w1vtp]

Steve

You have pointed out the very reason why I couldn't afford a Viking I when I was first licensed in '52.  It was a choice between getting a Viking I and paying for my first year at college.  I thought going to college was a better choice.

I'm still looking for a Viking I as "fondling material."

Thanks for the perspective

Al

[WA1GFZ]

us poor kids learned to homebrew

[Ed/KB1HYS]

yea but the latest offerings from Yeacomwood are all in that price range. A brand New 3K rig is not unusual at all.  

The Flex-5000 is a 100w rig and is expensive too ($3500) (Plus you need to buy a PC to run it so add another 1200 or so) which is more pricey that the Viker adjusted for 2010 dollarettes, and even beyond the Collins.

And you still get no tubes or VFO...  

[KF1Z]

I'm still looking for a Viking I as "fondling material."

Al

Here you go Al....
 

[w1vtp]

us poor kids learned to homebrew

Yep!!  Or buy really OLD gear.  Been there done both.  The Eldico TR-1 morphed into my HV 500 watt PP 813 HB xmtr.  The TR-1 followed me around throughout my college years and became the HB rig

[w1vtp]

I'm still looking for a Viking I as "fondling material."

Al

Here you go Al....
 

ARGHHH!!  I'm trying to expunge that image from my mind.  OW OW OW

[K5UJ]

one way i have of looking at it is, yes the gear 60 years ago was a lot less sophisticated but most of it was really built  Even the relatively cheap stuff runs rings around the build quality of contemporary equipment.   Example:  the Johnson KW Matchbox I got.  in 2008 dollars (latest conversion available) it would cost over $1000 new.  But the way it was built is not found in modern tuners even the expensive ones.  I wonder if an Elecraft rig will still be in use in 60 years the way a lot of 32V and 75A  rigs are now.  I won't be around to find out but I bet not. 

[ke7trp]

$1500 if the thing sat on the table. Did not make fan noise and did full legal limit AM. 

C

[W3RSW]

In my mind I simply divide all current prices by 10 and call the result 'old dollars.' My father probably did the same. He and his father probably looked at real gold coins daily before they were declared illegal.

Drives my wife nuts but makes me feel a little better, especially in restaurants. Just like the history I learned, a lot of my values were established before Carter (the most recent years of US 'hyperinflation) and the modern era.

a Viking I would cost $1713.05.  Would YOU pay that much for a 100 watt transmitter without tubes and a VFO?

So the answer is 'yes' if the Viker and similar ilk were the state of the art now. Nothing else would be out there..    just inflation of the dollar since Ben Franklin's time.  So it was it Aegypt, Rome, France and England.  So shall it be always. Inflation is the most insidious tax placed on enterprise by monolopolistic governments.  Another reason why 'innocent, non-political' ham topics become contentious.

Most all such are intertwined in even the most innocent of questions, even to such esoterica as nomenclature of the planets, witness the singular demotion of Pluto from a planet to as yet undetermined status by simply voting at an IAU conference, not by science..

[ka3zlr]

If I had my Druthers I'd like to do another K-2 with all the trimmings.
those are fun.

73
Jack

[W3RSW]

Yeah "Cactus"; I've secretly been looking at the K3 too.
Can always run AM into an HB linear.
(I miss the earlier Heaths too.)

Of course now it's more than $1500, unless you stick with 10 watts in the basic rig.

[ke7trp]

plus, It sounds like hell.

C

[k4kyv]

My main homebrew transmitter is crammed full of components that were top of the line commercial grade in their day, that few depression-era hams could have come anywhere close to affording.  But I got most of them for next to nothing in the 60's-70's if not free of charge, because someone else no longer wanted them or considered them worth anything.

To have built the same exact transmitter I am using to-day in the 30's through the WW2 era when most of the parts were made, would undoubtedly have cost the equivalent of $30-60K in 2010 dollarettes.

Use the K-3 as an rf carrier exciter to drive a plate modulated rig or a dedicated solid state AM transmitter.

[W3RSW]

That's what I do with my TR-7 now Don.  Use it as a 10 to 15 watt RF feed into the 813's Class C.  Modulate them with outboard 572B's, PA amp. etc.

Guess I'll have to look back through the threads ; the K3's AM performance must have been critiqued.  Seems to be the problem with some of the similar rigs; you can EQ the AF receive output all you want but the transmit AM is restricted to 6kc by design and very hard to modify.

[ka3zlr]

Yeah "Cactus"; I've secretly been looking at the K3 too.
Can always run AM into an HB linear.
(I miss the earlier Heaths too.)

Of course now it's more than $1500, unless you stick with 10 watts in the basic rig.

Hi Rick,

It's a Killer these prices, But I'd still like to though XYL says I should sell some stuff...

73
Jack.

[nq5t]

plus, It sounds like hell.

C

Blame the fat fingered user, not the radio.  Any modern radio can be made to sound as bad as a stock Valiant :-)

Grant/NQ5T

[flintstone mop]

I'm still looking for a Viking I as "fondling material."

Al

Here you go Al....
 

ARGHHH!!  I'm trying to expunge that image from my mind.  OW OW OW

I think she's from a Woody Allen movie

Fred