Hello, Steve and all....
I've had a good time reading the "EBAY Times" on the newsgroups and
reflectors...and the somewhat humorous/hostile/tounge-in-cheek/etc
responses to them....all in good fun....
If you think $400 for a little 'novice' XMTR is something,
how about a Collins speaker for $600-1000? At least the
damn transmitter "does" something, admittedly little!
In 26 years of ham radio, and three years with internet access,
I've learned some things...there may not have BEEN a maximum!...
There were some things about ham radio and life that I didn't
understand.
#1- Hams, traditionally, are cheap. Skinflints. Trash pickers (my
favorite past time, BTW) Do-it-yourselfers -- making from junk
what they easily could afford to buy was a 'badge-of-courage'...
this, unfortunately, has changed in recent years...it's a sad
loss...to me, at least....oh, I know there was always a Doctor
in the ham club with a complete S-line and a commercially installed
tower and stacked beams, but they were in the serious minority..
the main stream ham from my youth worked in a skilled labor/technical
position, had a house and three kids, and a pickup and a 10 year
old Buick...and a 'strange' hobby with (free) wires strung all
over the house on pieces of conduit he got 'off the job'....etc.
He converted a "prog-line" to 2FM and made contacts on a war-surplus
J-36 with two non-standard weights and nicotine all over it...
His gear was always 'modified' as necessary, sometimes to the
point of nearly not working at all...damn engineers, anyway! If he
was "on the plush", he'd make the kids wear the shoes a little
longer and fix the ol' Buick and used the money saved to buy
a Heathkit or a Swan...which he kept 'till the estate sale in
'98......We have a different 'kind' of ham population today,
needless to say.
Point #2 -- some people have more money than I do....not a little more,
not a higher 'salary'....1000 times more!!! A friend of mine has
bought two cars in the last three years...the "add-ons" (TT&L, luxury
i.e. gas guzzler tax, and insurance on these vehicles) cost MORE than
my GROSS value (house, cars, possessions, etc) NOT COUNTING THE
COST OF THE CAR!!! (one over $200K, one well over $100K) Oh, BTW,
he paid cash for all. Now >IF< (unlikely) he got interested in
ham radio 'collecting', I assure you there'd be no "top" limit...
His camera gear (amateur only) cost more than 99% of the ham
stations on the air today!....$400 for a little transmitter
wouldn't be a problem, since the speaker cables connecting his
stereo speakers cost $1000 (not a typo, BTW) Having grown up
with a truck driver for a father and a housewife for a mother,
I had no idea such people even EXISTED!!!....but they're coming
out of the woodwork.....ham radio and audio gear (my interests)
have skyrocketed as the "other" folks have gotten interested
in them...
Also, to these people, whose 'time' is worth THOUSANDS of dollars
per hour, it's MUCH easier to buy from EBAY than to 'scrounge'--
what's a few hundred more, when your insurance alone (house, car,
possessions, life, possibly mal-practice) is hundreds PER DAY?
Ever get a tune up on a Rolls-Royce or a transmission overhaul
on a Carrera?....A Signal/One or KWM-380 is chicken feed, much
less TenTec!! --
___________________________
Me? I'm still scrounging and building....and restoring "junk"--
I did, however, at age 40, "buy" a transmitter recently...for
$250...(one of my biggest expenditures, BTW) without haggling
or scrounging...just wanted it RITE NOW......who knows what
I'd have paid for that TX100...if my house/cars/kid/etc were
paid off and I inherited a million....at age 60??? -- I just
might have bought it to see the response!!! along with
that $3500 new-in-the-box KWM2 and that unbuilt SB-102 for
$1000...always wanted one way back in "72 , ya know"....hell,
what's a few thousand....by then, the ten batteries
in my car'll be $4000, and a pack of smokes $20, they'll have
outlawed guns and beer, so why not?....hell by then my
"anti-environmental RF pollution tax" will probably be
$1000 a year (if we don't get rid of California and democrats
by then....:) :) :)
Yessiree, ham radio has 'changed'....I'm looking forward to watching
the next changes...sure hope I can find a "mint" Johnson adventurer
to go with my Drake 2B for under a thou......that's progress for 'ya..
73, Walt
WB5LJW
On
Sat, 27 Mar 1999, Steve Ellington N4LQ wrote:
> Hey folks. There's a TX-100 about to go for a measley $401!!! I'de love to
> have gotten it but there has to be a limit. I'm still wondering what the
> guy's maximum was.
>
>
>
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