AntennaCraft Look what I Found.............

[rja1]

So the Mrs. & I are at the HAM EXPO fest in Marlborough, MA. last Friday & Saturday. I'm out looking around for bargains & find a bag of 17 Weller copper soldering iron tips for a few bucks. Great deal, as these were the solid copper tips, not the velveeta alloy tips they sell now. Anyway, I did the whole circuit a couple times & picked up a few odds & ends. Wife & I are sitting at our tables & I see a guy on the opposite side of the aisle, 3 spots to the right of where I am set up. Under one of his tables I see a long box like what on old OTA TV antenna would come in. Didn"t think much about it....till my curiosity got me to go check it out. I walk over towards his spot & see "RADIO SHACK" and the word "SCANNER" on the box! The RS version of the ANTENNACRAFT Scanner Antenna.
Talked to the guy for a while & ended up getting a brand new 20-042 Rad Shack antenna in a still sealed box for.................Wait for it......................$35! Home Run!!

Bob
K1ERP

 

[W9WSS]

There was one for sale on the RR classifieds section for $100. Not sure if it's been sold yet.

 

[dave3825]

Hopefully the box was kept inside all those years. Cold weather and sun take their toll on the plastics.

 

[rja1]

Several years ago, I've seen them go for over $200 on Epay.

There's no question in my mind that this antenna was kept indoors. The cardboard box is not dried out nor is it sun faded.

 

[dave3825]

Understood, but hopefully it was heated indoors. Mine is on the back burner but needs new plastics. Will be using epoxy and most likely Lexan.

 

[bharvey2]

Understood, but hopefully it was heated indoors. Mine is on the back burner but needs new plastics. Will be using epoxy and most likely Lexan.

Run of the mill Lexan or polycarbonate isn't UV resist so look for some with a UV resistance coating. UV resistant HDPE (the most common is mixed with carbon black) works pretty well and is fairly easy to find if you have a decent plastics house around.

 

[KJ4DHF]

There's no question in my mind that this antenna was kept indoors. The cardboard box is not dried out nor is it sun faded.

Good find.Good Luck

The boxes on my Avanti Sigma IV and Moonraker IV have been in garage since they were new. Not heated or cooled and they are showing signs of drying out getting deteriorated from many moon's of storage.

 

[phask]

I have one of those stored in a shed; it hasn't been in the air for over 25 years. I did not bother putting it up when I moved, as everything but a few freqs. are in the 800 range, and I did not think there would be any real advantage to what I have.