VOLUME 16               MARCH 1999                NUMBER   3

EDITOR'S COMMENTS

From Antique Radio Classified for March 1999
(Copyright 1996-9 by John V. Terrey - For personal use only.)

"Nostalgia" is a word we antique radio collectors can call our own. Certainly a reason I found our lead article by Hank Brown on World War II military equipment so appealing is that it triggered the nostalgia of those teenage years when I wanted to get on air after earning a ham license. A quick and inexpensive way was to use World War II surplus equipment. My first piece of such equipment was a BC-454 3 to 6 MHz receiver. Using surplus equipment, I avoided spending hundreds of dollars on the commercial equipment of the day.

Another meaningful bit of nostalgia lies in my memory of a later purchase through the "Used Equipment" section of a Ham magazine. It was a World War II Model SCR-288 portable radio station, complete with a canvas backpack case and a GN-44A hand-cranked generator. The transmitter receiver stood on legs, and a fellow operator would sit on the tripod-mounted generator and crank away. This wonder of wonders could well have been the beginning of a long radio-collecting career. Alas, it was stolen in later years.

Perhaps Hank's article about the military equipment collectors and their activities on the West Coast will evoke similar memories for some of you collectors. It's always interesting to trace the threads that tie us to the past and the beginnings of this passion for our avocation.

Continuing in this reflective mode, we look back again, in this our 15th year, on A.R.C.'s first year. The reprint we have chosen is the December 1984 With the Collectors page, which includes several rare items from the late Paul Giganti's impressive collection. Many of you will remember Paul as a pillar of the radio-collecting community.

Photo Review includes several rare items. Note the unusual inside antennas submitted by Gerard Faassen of Holland. Two are ceramic fish, while another is disguised as a wall painting. Not to be overlooked is a Grebe Model RORD detector/amplifier shown in its extremely rare early configuration. Your editor has been asking Santa for one of these for years.

The careful report by Frank and Mary Rasada on the Mason Estate Auction is obviously a labor of love and respect for the late James Mason. One can't help being impressed with the quality of the items in this auction, reflecting the overall quality of Jim's collection.

Top bids were drawn by Catalin, blue-mirror, and E.H. Scott radios. The top item was an early scanning disk TV set selling at $3,000. Proceeds exceeded $130,000, making this one of the largest totals in radio collection auctions. Jim's love of old radios was reflected in his will, which directed the proceeds to his radio-collecting community.

Ron Ramirez reports on the Eric's Auction Service annual radio auction in Olney, Illinois. Here again a Catalin radio brought the top bid. And from New Zealand, Ian Sangster reports on a radio/phonograph sold at auction to a museum for over $8,000. Though from the 1950s, this set's interest lies in its unique, carved folk art cabinet.

We continue our Internet theme for those of you who may not yet feel comfortable with the new technology. You've had time to digest the information in the February issue about how to get online. What to do when you get online is the subject of this month's article. An example of the A.R.C. Web site is included. For those anxious to see A.R.C. ads online, be assured that it will happen in the near future.

Radio Miscellanea includes comments on Web security, restoration supplies, and the pros and cons of dealings with advertisers.

15th Year Specials. We continue our discounts for full-year back issue purchases, and our 15th year subscriber rates have been made our standard rates for 1999.

Coming Radio Events. Over forty radio events are listed this month, a sure sign that there's hope for the end of winter. Of note are the DVHRC meet and auction in Telford, Pa., the Estes auction of five collections in Seville, Oh., the New Jersey meet in Freehold, N.J., and the AWA/Carolina Chapter 3-day spring meet in Charlotte, N.C. As always, we urge you to get out there and join in supporting your area groups.

Happy Collecting!

John V. Terrey, Editor

ON THE COVER

Our cover is the Motorola photograph which appears on page 266 of Morgan McMahon's book Flick of the Switch. Pictured at left is the BC-611 Handie-Talkie, which weighed under five pounds. Next is the BC-611 removed from its case, and two batteries. Almost 40,000 of these Handie-Talkies were produced by Motorola in 1941. The battery second from the right is a 103 ¹/2 V BA-38, which evokes another kind of teenage memory for your editor the fun of walking around with this "weapon" and giving friends a "fast charge."

Incidentally, Flick of the Switch, published in 1975, has over 20 pages on World War II radio equipment. Obviously, this has been a subject of interest to collectors for several decades.