1950's Ham radio, and variac, any point in keeping?

[treserious]

picked up a national nc-98 http://www.io.com/~nielw/nat_list/nc98.htm
ham radio with its speaker, and a variac today.

they were destined for the bin at work, and I felt obliged to bring 'em home.

I know the variac is useful, it just needs the fuseholder changed, as the one that's on it has broken pins, so it doesn't lock into the socket.

the ham radio is neat looking, all grey hammertone. it looks like a relic from the second world war.

I dont have much use for it though, and was considering letting my buddy cannibalize it for parts for a scratch guitar amp build.
but on the other hand It would be a shame to cannibalize this thing, perhaps I should trade it to a collector of ham radios for the parts my buddy could use.....

what do you guys think?

 

[Fisherdude]

There are plenty of collectors of National shortwave radios. Clean it up a little, take some nice pics, and sell it.

There aren't enough of the right kind of parts in there to make a guitar amp, and you'll end up with something that has 1/10 the value of the radio.

 

[treserious]

it has some pretty good looking iron in it though...

 

[Sandy G]

NOOOOOOOO !!! DON'T "Bogart" the National ! NC-98s were pretty good performers, & got many a wide-eyed boy started in shortwave....I love mine !

 

[spartanmanor]

I sold a vintage ham radio that I found in the basement of our house left by the previous owner for some serious $$$$, they have value.

 

[merrylander]

Tell me about it, I got outbid every time I went after a National or Hallicrafters.

 

[ablethevoice]

Yeah, what everyone else says! Don't tear up the old National! He's just as good as any comparably priced Halli or Hammarlund from the same period.

 

[electronjohn]

Absolutely! That NC-98 was about the last of National's immediate post-war designs. Use the Variac, bring 'er up slow, give 'er a whirl. Pots will probably need cleaning, along with a shot of Deoxit on the bandswitch, etc. Should be a decent SW performer, with nice AM audio to boot.
I wish I'D find one destined for the trash!

 

[treserious]

well, I have no use for the thing.

I did fire her up last night(yes on the variac), and aside from some scratchy pots it works. it even lights up

got some Hispanic radio stations from Cuba or south America(some of it did sound very commie, they were talking about Americanos and capitalismos...), I also managed to pull in some Italian stations.

it was amusing for about 15 minutes. then it got boring looking for stations.

it has a sticker on the bottom with 1946 on it...but according to the web it was only manufactured from 52-54....

 

[luckyed]

That is a cool looking radio.