Who knew that Sears once sold amateur radio gear?
On the CWops mailing list this morning, someone posted a link to the Sears 1940 Radio Amateur/Test Equipment/Sound Systems Catalog. I knew that Sears sold lots of things in the past, but I”d never heard that they sold ham equipment.
This catalog features gear from a lot of major manufacturer of the day, including:
- Hallicrafters
- National
- Meissner
- Hammarlund
- Stancor
The prices look pretty good, too. On page 7, you see that the National NC-100 costs only $120. But, wait a second, that’s in 1940 dollars. Most inflation calculators say a 1940 dollar is worth $18.61 today, so that makes the price of that NC-100 $2,232 in 2021 dollars, and for that price, you’re only getting the receiver. Don’t worry, though. As you can see, you can buy that radio on Sears’ Easy Payment Plan.
Sears also parts, like tubes, crystals, capacitors, and coils. An RCA 807 21 W transmitting tube sold for $3.50. An 806, which had a maximum plate dissipation of 150 W, went for $22.
Sears sold test gear, too. The catalog includes 12 pages of test equipment, including gear from Triplett, Weston, Hickok, and RCA, but also lesser-known names, such as Precision Apparatus, Radio City Products, Supreme Test Equipment and ReadRite. I’d never heard of these last four manufacturers, and I consider myself somewhat of a test-equipment geek. Below is a page showing testers from Precision Apparatus. As you can see, Precision Apparatus made a wide variety of gear, including voltmeters, signal generators, and tube testers.
Many items are reasonably priced. One of my friends commented that the Speed-X keys were very economically priced. The top of the line straight key—the Speed-X 320—cost only $1.91, while the Speed-X 545 Speed Key, or bug, was only $5.44.
There’s lots of other cool stuff in the catalog, too. Download it, browse through it, and let me know what you found interesting.