This sucker better be good eh?

[skyboltone]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Western-Electric-ou ... dZViewItem

I never knew such a thing existed. Gotta be the golden ears crowd or maybe just two lottery winners?

[dartanion]

Anything that says Western Electric on it brings big money on eBay. Have you seen prices on whole amps?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Western-Electric-12 ... dZViewItem

[CaseyJones]

WE shit goes for silly money. It was good stuff. WE originated many of the "good" designs before they split off Altec around 1951.

Asian hi-fi enthusiasts get all worked up over WE, they seem to be the ones drivin' the market right now. I guess that's a bi-product of us sendin' all our green Yankee dollars to China... some guy in Shanghai or Hong Kong can drop a grand or close to it for a chunk o' iron and think he made a good buy.

Me... I'm savin' my pennies for a wetnurse.

[skyboltone]

Horsefeathers I say. I remember when the Ham radio market first found Ebay and some of those old Collins S line transmitters were going for multigrand figures. Now they run non-stop for a year until they guy takes a 50% hit. Markets are fickle on used electronics. I'd rather buy 1/2 dozen McIntosh 275s than one WE public address amp.

[CaseyJones]

Horsefeathers I say. I remember when the Ham radio market first found Ebay and some of those old Collins S line transmitters were going for multigrand figures. Now they run non-stop for a year until they guy takes a 50% hit. Markets are fickle on used electronics. I'd rather buy 1/2 dozen McIntosh 275s than one WE public address amp.

Let them eat horsefeathers, then!

The food chain goes as follows:

Audiophools especially furrin audiophools. Top o' the food chain, they have little regard for green Yankee dollars so you better bring lots o' money if you wanna play hardball wif these jokers.

Musicians. You'll run into one every so often who is using his or her royalty checks to drive up the prices of a coveted piece of gear or two. The rest of 'em get on their knees every night and pray that the quality of reissue and repro gear catches up to the coveted originals. They conclude their prayer as follows, "please leave me enough dough to buy beer and a baggie, Amen!"

Bottom o' the food chain... Ham radio operators. They don't need no beer or dope, they got their microwave altered brainwaves and their geek-dork glasses repaired with Band-Aids. They don't even need to transmit anymore, that's why hamfests have become dumping grounds for obsolete computer gear.

Like anything else lunacy and frenzy drives spikes in the market. It's like the price of oil, some dickhead decided that's what it's worth and some other dickhead stepped up to the line to pay that much. Once you benchmark the price it's difficult to drive it back down. Unless you're talkin' tweed amp replicas, market forces and an abundant supply guarantee that no one makes money there.

[skyboltone]

Bottom o' the food chain... Ham radio operators. They don't need no beer or dope, they got their microwave altered brainwaves and their geek-dork glasses repaired with Band-Aids. They don't even need to transmit anymore, that's why hamfests have become dumping grounds for obsolete computer gear.

Hey, I got a hearing aid that got stepped on I'm saving for when they get rare. True Hams only buy. Never sell. Especially if it's got a tube in there. I used to have a transmitter weighed more than a Fatboy. Used a pair of 833s in the PA and a pair of them in the modulator too. Dimmed the lights in the whole neighborhood when I keyed it up. I did sell it to an elderly industrialist for $2500 at the peak of the madness. Only problem is I included a Studio Electronics LA2-A in the deal. I'll bet it's sitting in a box in his garage if he's still alive.

[Noel Grassy]

I have a king hell WWII Navy xmitter that takes 2 stout men to lift. I don't recall what tubes it uses, I should see what it's worth.

Currently 21 kooks have driven these WE xfmrs up to $2K.
View the insanity here:http://cgi.ebay.com/PAIR-NOS-WESTERN-EL ... dZViewItem

+1 on the McIntosh 275's! They look so much more appealing both pricewise and aesthetically.

[skyboltone]

I have a king hell WWII Navy xmitter that takes 2 stout men to lift. I don't recall what tubes it uses, I should see what it's worth.

King Hell eh? Hmmm. Don't know that one. The air force put ART-13s in B-29s and I think that was the last AM HF rig built for the Military. It all went sideband after that. An ART13 is an auto tune (long wire on a reel payed out the ass end of the airplane) AM transmitter with a pair of 813s in the PA and (under) plate modulated by a pair of 811s. It was operated by a 24VDC motor generator that produced 120/240 60hz for the transmitter. This was of course very odd because most AC on aircraft was 400hz to make the transformers smaller. But it must have been designed originally for some other mobile service and they made it that way. So the upshot is that they are much coveted by old AMers like me because you just disable the auto tune and they make a pretty good 400 watt Ham transmitter. Oh, 3 mz to 30 mz too. But none of that stuff gets any money anymore. I haven't had a station on the air for 10 years. Like Casey said, we all got sucked in by these forums. I still got a couple of Drake Transceivers and a beautiful Gonset plate modulated AM transceiver that I'll never give up. May set it up in the shop one of these days just to interfere with the neighbors.

[Wayne]

May set it up in the shop one of these days just to interfere with the neighbors.

I haven't been on air in about 10 yrs as well. The best advice I ever received regarding interference w/the neighbors was: never use an antenna that won't fit in your attic, outta sight. That way, when they come pounding at your door complaining about their TV reception, you answer with "Ham radio? Naw, I haven't been on air in years. That can't be it "

[/hijack]

W

[CaseyJones]

True Hams only buy. Never sell. Especially if it's got a tube in there. I used to have a transmitter weighed more than a Fatboy. Used a pair of 833s in the PA and a pair of them in the modulator too. Dimmed the lights in the whole neighborhood when I keyed it up. I did sell it to an elderly industrialist for $2500 at the peak of the madness. Only problem is I included a Studio Electronics LA2-A in the deal. I'll bet it's sitting in a box in his garage if he's still alive.

"If he's still alive" is the operative term. A fair amount of tradin' is goin' on with dead guy's stuff, the trick is to get there before his widow "throws all that junk out." Seriously, that's the screwed up part of this culture. Some Betty who watches Antiques Road Show knows that stupid old vase is worth $15k and that painting that looks like it was stolen from a motel room will buy ya a house... she'll toss Hubby's TV-7 and NOS tube collection straight into the trash before his funeral is paid for.

I'm gonna have to catalog my junk before I drop dead. I can tell my girlfriend, "Look, Dear... these are NOS Xf2 Mullards, there are enough of 'em here to buy you a week at the spa" and it just doesn't compute. Her next question will be, "When are you going to get rid of that junk?"

was operated by a 24VDC motor generator that produced 120/240 60hz for the transmitter. This was of course very odd because most AC on aircraft was 400hz to make the transformers smaller.

I have a couple old Leak radios up in the attic, one has a dynamotor. I always thought that was messed up, using an elecrtic motor to drive a generator. Talk about poor power conversion! All that extra weight in the nose can't be good, either. I guess when you have something that will carry several tons of bombs some extra iron up front just balances it out.

I'm surprised there isn't a cult following for vibrators just 'cuz they're "retro".

[dartanion]

The house I bought in college was right next door to a HAM guy's house with the aerial on the side closest to my house. Literally, when he started yapping, it would come through my stereo, Twin Reverb, and screw up the TV. Luckily he was too busy screwing his girl friend and playing softball to HAM it up much.

My father in law is a HAM guy, but he sold off all his tube gear 20 some years ago and converted to SS HAM gear. Had enough left over cash to start a new hobby of RC Airplanes. Now those collect dust since I got him into homebrewing beer