[Sandy G]

I'm LUCKY enuf to actually HAVE a few of the "Onesies/Twosies" type of radios-One is an RCA AR-60 from 1935, their TOTL set. Picks up from 1500 KC to about 18-20 MC. It was $495 in '35, when you could buy a NEW Ford V-8 that year for $650 or so. They THINK there may be 6-12 or these Bad Boys still around, out of 2-300 actually made. Another one is my Collins R-389 from 1955. Again, they THINK 700 of them were made, possibly 350 still around. They were about $4500-$5K in big, round, 1955 dollars. Finding the ACTUAL cost of these things is very difficult, because its about the ONLY aspect of these fabulous machines that the Gummint STILL keeps "Classified". Why the price/cost of a 60 yr old radio should STILL be classified is beyond me, but Uncle Sugar THINKS it should be, so there you go. My last radio surprise is the Rohde & Schwarz EK-07, the West German answer to our R-390. Supposedly 1000 of these remarkable machines were made 1958-73, most in the 1960s, they were roughly the equivalent of $6K each then. Like the R-390 series, it is generally known, but NEVER confirmed, that these are STILL in Gov't use today. What IS known is that there are only 3-4 dozen known sets on OUR side of the Big Pond.. The easiest way to describe these sets is to say a Collins R-390 is a Cadillac or Lincoln, & the R&S set is a Mercedes or BMW.. All I know is that I have, in conjunction w/my KIWA MW loop, pulled in AM daytimer one lunger stations WAY beyond where I should have been able to pick them up..