Gordon Bennett ... and I sold one for £5

[Bluechip]

National HRO HF Rx.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WW2-NATIONAL-HRO-W-RADIO-RECEIVER-4-COIL-SETS-SPEAKER_W0QQitemZ140344691500QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20ad320b2c

Sold mine in 1970-ish for £5, AND it had 7 coil packs ... this one seems to be minus the Power Pack too ??
Probably about same condition, could be bought new/boxed in the '60's for circa £12/15 ..

What a b*gger ...
 
Think he's a bit optimistic though, ... or maybe not.

Sulk    Sulk    Sulk  

Dave BC

[John Hill]

Heck, I used to sit in front of racks of those, if I recall correctly they were quite good performers.  Later they got replaced by Eddystone 608x's, boy I wish I had a few of those, lousy radios but the cast aluminium boxes would make good tool chests!

I do not think his asking price is too optimistic, I recently sold a Collins transmitter  (30K5) for about the same.

[Bluechip]

John

Yes, good sets. Used mine to receive the Pirate Pop radio stations we had at the time. Not their intended use, probably.
'Course, the up-market folk got an AR88, but these went for about £20 ish at the time.

No idea they were worth so much. About 1966/7 or so, I went into a large Ex-WD warehouse in West London, stacked to the roof with redundant military stuff. Radio's, Test Gear, Mechanical Gunlaying? Computers, Portable Generators, Pumps, Vehicle Engines etc. Clothing, Beds, Furniture... You name it, it was probably there. All new/boxed.

The place was frequented by dealers buying up stuff that could be used on civilian trucks, cars, bikes etc....
Heaps of drill bits, cutters, tools. Amazing place. All charged to the taxpayer, of course  

Not any more  ...

Dave BC

[John Hill]

Dave, in about 1975 I sailed on a yacht to Christmas Island (the Pacific Ocean one) which had been the base for nuclear tests by both the US and the UK.   We spent a couple of pleasant days opening crates in derilect  wharhouses, there was some amazing stuff there including huge quantities of aircraft parts, sadly there was also stacks of unassembled prefabricated buildings that I am sure could have been put to good use on other islands.

We never found anything interesting in any crates but we did get some new laundry for the boat and a goodly collection of usefull looking brass nuts and bolts etc, no tools.   Perhaps whoever owns the boat now wonders at the RAF crockery onboard.   We would have been delighted to have found a motor cycle but no such luck!

Of course we were just a couple of guys in a long stream of wandering nautical visitors.  The last thing did was fill our 20 gallon fuel tanks with diesel from a huge tank.  We heard a few months later that someone after us had felt it not worth their effort to turn off the valve and the rest was wasted.

I suppose it is quite possible there were crates of radio gear somewhere.  One of my most vivid memories was the ablution blocks at the US base.  The walls and roof had long since been blown away but there was a double row of WCs and wash hand basins standing on a concrete pad supported only by their plumbing.

[GrahamC]

His asking price may be a bit optimistic but collectors being collectors will spend whatever they think is needed to get whatever item they so desperately need.

It is a fine looking piece of kit and appears to have been well looked after over the years. Too rich for my pocket book.

Old time tube radio prices have skyrocketed in recent years due to their collectability. And another item that surpirsed me was the little electric outboard motors for kids toy boats. When I was a wee lad Dad would buy them for less than a dollar. I have seen some prices on eBay up into the several hundered dollar range. Here is one example

http://cgi.ebay.com/Evinrude-Outboard-Battery-Op-Toy-Boat-Motor-1950s_W0QQitemZ230395688254QQcmdZViewItemQQptZRadio_Control_Vehicles?hash=item35a4a7353e

and at it's current $69 bid is cheap.

and for a more extreme example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Toy-Outboard-Model-airplane-Engine-Indian-Silver-Arrow_W0QQitemZ170405103924QQcmdZViewItemQQptZRadio_Control_Vehicles?hash=item27acef8934

which is a real running miniature outboard and clear example of collectoritis.

I never had the opportunity to use the HRO's but do clearly remember a variety of Eddystones, Racal Ra-17 and Ra-117's

cheers, Graham in Ottawa Canada

[bogstandard]

Graham,

I have in my shop a Fuji 2.5cc glo outboard that was made in the very early 70's. I bought it while I was in the Gulf, and the first time I used it on the hydroplane I built, the paint just peeled off. So I finished the job, and stripped all the paint off, and it has sat in a waxed box ever since, awaiting the time it will be repainted and used again. It must be worth something.


Bogs

[GrahamC]

Indeed. Some of the IC outboards are quite collectable - Alywn, Sea Fury, (and other names I can't think of at the moment) and of course Fuji.

When I was a young pup I always wanted one of like in the photo - never had the money then and can't see myself paying the several hundred dollar collectors price they go for today. If I ever get around to getting set up to do some home casting I may just have to have a go at making my own.

cheers, Graham

[SKIPRAT]

I used to have a HRO receiver many years ago and was quite amused by the disclaimer on the ebay listing " This item will not enable a weapon to shoot and is not a part for a weapon " looking back i had the odd capacitor exploding now and again with a bang i shall have to rethink about that one! By the way my other hobby is amateur radio so some of my future projects wil be bits and pieces to do with this hobby.

Cheers Paul   73 G6FOW

[Bluechip]

John H

You'd have done well there, quite a lot of Duggie powered generators. Not the same as the bike engines, I think they were 250cc SV. Not sure tho. Piles of dead BSA M20? 500cc SV, all rusting away in the rain. Matchless/R Enfield, probably others I don't remember. Hundreds of new engines, incl. mags and carbs. Whole damn lot sprayed with green paint, HT leads, plugs, the lot   £3 each, IIRC. Do remember recon. Merlins, crated were £80. wonder what they fetch now?

I don't suppose the plumbing is still on your island, what with the price of scrap .. or what was etc. Lucky to be able to swan around the Pacific in a boat. I once had two weeks on the Norfolk Broads, not exactly 'Blue Water' cruising. Rained most of the time, so we frequented pubs most of the time. All was not lost ...  

Graham, John BS, looking at it as you say, yes, an item is worth what someone is prepared to pay. Nicely made marine engines, I don't suppose they are still produced? As far as I know, all the makers of up-market engines went pop. Morton 5, Taplin, Channel Island, more probably, I forget. I seem to remember a 4-stroke single (KB?) about 20 yrs. ago.

Skiprat, can you confirm it had an external PSU. I am pretty sure it did? But it was 40 yrs. ago. ... Yeah ... 'not part for a weapon' ...  you can tell North American history is a bit sparse     .... If it went back a bit further, the word 'Trebuchet' may have occurred to the vendor ...

   

Dave BC
 

[SKIPRAT]

Hi dave
yes it did have an external power supply i think the idea was to reduce heat buildup in the set and also keep mains hum to a minimum.The other strange design feature about the HRO was there was no band switching,to change band you had to pull out the full width coil pack and replace it with another one that was fine if you had a full set of coilpacks if not you where a bit restricted where you could listen.As for the Trebuchet yes the HRO could become a weapon if you put it in the pouch and used it as a projectile! they where quite heavy bits of kit!

Cheers Paul

[John Hill]

Dave, my Duggie is a 1951  80+  of 350cc and I believe at least some of the WWII generator parts can be used in bike engines so I presume 350cc.  Even our small country town in NZ had someone with a yard full of crated Merlins!

My friend and I crossed the Pacific Eastwards which is against the prevailing wind in a 30 foot wooden sloop, stopping at every available island.  It was an interesting and at times amusing experience.

[Bluechip]

John

Ah, that's not so bad then. I had visions of you sailing under an azure sky, Pimms and nibbles on the afterdeck, crystal lagoons, coconut palms, nubile maidens etc etc.
All day here it's been foggy, drizzle, cold, dark  and damp.  Absolute depression ...  awful ..
Funnily enough, about the first bike  rode was a +90, about 14, up the 'Quarries'. Off road, of course. Get an old bike, thrash it to death, then of the 'Big Wall' 30 feet drop into about the same of water. Then scrounge another, process repeated. Must be many old bikes buried in that quarry. Filled up years ago. Two youths killed diving .. as I know of, maybe more. Almost remember it's reg. No. Either ETP 938 or ETP983 ...

Zebedee calls, Sort out a Power Feed for my mill tomorrow. Discovered a Maxon geared motor in my heap of bits. 5:1 reduction box on it. Looks grunty enough, we shall see. Trouble is, no rating on it, but it turns with a reasonable torque on 6V, so it's got a job!!

Dave BC

[John Hill]

Blue skies, lagoons, coconuts, maidens.  Have you seen those movies where the naked girls swim out to the ships?

Maxon geared motor eh?  Were they used on Macaroni radar systems?  I think I have a box of them that a friend left me along with a heap of Selsyns and other neat stuff!

[Bluechip]

I dunno, naked maidens .. obviously raised in a superior environment to mine     

Not to worry, some 40 yrs. too late anyway ...

Back to Maxon ..

This is it, was salvaged from a defunct print works, probably not radar .. it was covered in some sticky gunge, bit like the brown Wellseal gasket sealer .. or similar. This stuff was really stuck on, eventually cleaned it off with cellulose thinner. .... Which took off the part# .... 



But it seems chip proof, and works fine.

We shall see

Dave BC