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From: "Alan Melia" <alan.melia@btinternet.com>
To: <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
References: <AANLkTine7u4sKEcNgPxr2q7Bs=4HhMg8D5HaQ-Vp4Q7D@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 22:26:59 -0000
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Subject: LF: Re: 40 years (completely OT, but...)
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Hi Andy another one in a similar vein from even earlier. I had at one=
 time
(cant find it now) an orange Mullard valve box with the printing on th=
e end
saying "Valve OC70 =A33 6sh + Purchase Tax" I guess this was from the=
 late
1950s.

Transistors were becoming a lot cheaper by the 1970s. I am surprised=
 as a
penniless schoolboy you didnt buy a bargain pack from Bi-Pak or Bi-Pre=
Pack
(no connection to any other firm) in Ware I think. MMmmm Electronic
components seem to be about the only thing that has gone down in price=
.
since that period. I remember buying a large bag of nondescript uncode=
d
plastic NPN, 1000 for =A310......I am still using 'em.

I remeber an American at a Conference around that time (Las Vegas woul=
d you
believe!) saying to fellow attendee "Well we have learned how to sell=
 a
10cent gate..........all we have to do now is figure out a way of maki=
ng
them for a profit!"

Alan G3NYK


----- Original Message -----=20
From: "Andy Talbot" <andy.g4jnt@gmail.com>
To: <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 7:19 PM
Subject: LF: 40 years (completely OT, but...)


40 Years ago today decimal money was introduced to the UK  It was half=
 term
hols, and at the age of 12 I went into one of the electronics shops in=
 Hurst
St, Birmingham (a bit like London's Edgware Rd. back then)  to buy two
IN4007 diodes as I needed to make a PSU for some valve project.   Bein=
g
my first purchase with  the new money I remember exactly how much thos=
e two
diodes cost :   The two diodes were 50 new pence, (which probably soun=
ded a
lot less than ten shillings they were the day before)

Consulting an RPI chart shows about 1100% inflation since Feb 1971 whi=
ch
makes those two diodes something like =A35.50 at today's prices.
The current cost from Farnell for the IN4007 is about 8p, including VA=
T, for
two-off.

Now,  even allowing for the fact a local electronics shop  would have=
 a
massive mark up on components, the price from a catalogue supplier wou=
ld
still have been in the  15 - 20p (=A31.50  - =A32 now) region.

Were electronic components really so much more expensive back then -=
 it
wasn't an exotic diode.

Completely OT, and nothing whatosover to do with LF,  but about the on=
ly bit
of component pricing I really recall accurately from those days.

Andy G4JNT (or G8IMR  3 years after the big diode rip-off)