Vhf cost in 1980s?

[oldharry]

IIRC the first ;cheap' (i.e sub £100) multi channel vhf in the early 80's was marketed by Ladyline - one of the first marine supermarket companies. It was Russian and unrepairable if it packed up as it used transistors not available in the west. It also had a several CB Channels. Mine worked quite well on the two occasions I needed to use it!

'Radio check please' hadnt been invented in those days!

 

[DanTribe]

Can't do 1980s at moment, but in Nov 1978 Folkestone advertised Seavoices for £285 or Sailor for £485.+ 12.5 % vat.

Just re read my post. Of course that should read Thomas Foulkes.
Leytonestone cavern of delights,

 

[Frank Holden]

I bought my first VHF in about 1989. It was a Standard Horizon ( a Yaesu company) and cost $AUD 200 - about £100 at the time.
My current boat - built 1985ish - came with a big Husun.
So I would suggest the change came in the late 1980s.

 

[fredrussell]

I remember the large green enamel Sailor radios from those times. Pretty expensive and a fair percentage of annual salary (possibly 6%-7%)…

My dream is to have one of those Sailor VHF sets on my boat, ideally the one with a telephone handset. I love them - I think it’s mainly that shade of green that does it for me. Trouble is I think one will look a bit out of place on my modern-ish boat. They still command quite a premium second hand. This one ‘somewhat’ overpriced, but a thing of beauty:

SAILOR VHF RADIO TELOPHONE - TYP RT144B - A/S S.P. Radio | eBay

 

[Mistroma]

My dream is to have one of those Sailor VHF sets on my boat, ideally the one with a telephone handset. I love them - I think it’s mainly that shade of green that does it for me. Trouble is I think one will look a bit out of place on my modern-ish boat. They still command quite a premium second hand. This one ‘somewhat’ overpriced, but a thing of beauty:

SAILOR VHF RADIO TELOPHONE - TYP RT144B - A/S S.P. Radio | eBay

That takes me back we went to view a boat in late 1985 and it had one of those fitted. The owner had managed to combine quality gear with an expensive yacht to produce something to turn buyers off. It was a Southerly 95 and the louvred cockpit doors looked neglected. The sailor was mounted prominently on the starboard saloon bulkhead with a thick white cable hanging down underneath, plugged into a 230V 13A surface mounted socket. The antenna hung in loops above our heads to the mast compression strut. I'm pretty certain there were sodding big nuts without washers in the forward cabin.

I took genius to combine these bits to make something horrible.

We bought a Southerly 95 elsewhere a few months later and kept her for about 23 years. So glad we didn't buy the one with the Sailor radio even thought I thought it was a brilliant piece of kit.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

My dream is to have one of those Sailor VHF sets on my boat, ideally the one with a telephone handset. I love them - I think it’s mainly that shade of green that does it for me. Trouble is I think one will look a bit out of place on my modern-ish boat. They still command quite a premium second hand. This one ‘somewhat’ overpriced, but a thing of beauty:

SAILOR VHF RADIO TELOPHONE - TYP RT144B - A/S S.P. Radio | eBay

I gave away a green yottie Sailor about ten years to a mate with a rustic type of boat which looked the part.

I really miss the handset . Particularly with the engine running. I think I only paid about £50 for it from ebay. At the time, they weren't very cool and rather old hat.

 

[uniqueusername]

I remember weighing up between a VHF and a HF SSB radio for an offshore cruising boat in 1977. By the time I got a few channels in the VHF it was more expensive than the 6 channel HF. Can't remember the price but I think it was about A$900. The HF was a great radio until you hit the tropics where lightining static mad it almost unusable.

 

[pandos]

My dream is to have one of those Sailor VHF sets on my boat, ideally the one with a telephone handset. I love them - I think it’s mainly that shade of green that does it for me. Trouble is I think one will look a bit out of place on my modern-ish boat. They still command quite a premium second hand. This one ‘somewhat’ overpriced, but a thing of beauty:

SAILOR VHF RADIO TELOPHONE - TYP RT144B - A/S S.P. Radio | eBay

Wow. That is a saucy price...

When I was skint a few years ago I sold a matching pair of a transceiver and an entertainment radio (that had the most fantastic tone.) For about 350 euros for both.

They had been fitted new in 1980 on my HR 352. They we're still working perfectly, I had the output checked by the local ships radio guy.

Luckily I bought a transceiver for about 50 quid a few days later, which needed a safety diode snipped/replaced.

Maybe I'll sell this one...or maybe I I should try to replace the entertainment radio.

I had been keeping them for the man cave in the house I had hoped (still hope) to build... (I hear God laughing as I write this...)

 

[lustyd]

For reference, in 1979 my salary (an entry-level professional academic salary) was £4500, and a 2-bed end-of-terrace house in a village near Cambridge cost £18000. So it's equivalent to a 4 figure sum today; probably at least 6 times as much.

According to the Bank of England calculator £285 in 1979 is now £1338. Your salary would be £21100 and home £84500. For some reason young people are struggling to get on the ladder with an almost identical starting salary and the same house costing 5 times as much in real terms! All on the thread agree the VHF was expensive, but at least you could afford boats

 

[AntarcticPilot]

According to the Bank of England calculator £285 in 1979 is now £1338. Your salary would be £21100 and home £84500. For some reason young people are struggling to get on the ladder with an almost identical starting salary and the same house costing 5 times as much in real terms! All on the thread agree the VHF was expensive, but at least you could afford boats

The problem is that the BofE uses the same rate for all calculations. Of course, inflation in house prices has far exceeded the RPI rate of inflation.

 

[lustyd]

The problem is that the BofE uses the same rate for all calculations. Of course, inflation in house prices has far exceeded the RPI rate of inflation.

As far as I can tell that calculator uses the actual rate of inflation over the years, not a fixed rate. Either way I think it shows that a VHF would have been pricey but not beyond reach by any means.
Yes house prices are crazy, it's good to show examples like this as it slows down the "if kids just saved..." crowd a bit

 

[AntarcticPilot]

As far as I can tell that calculator uses the actual rate of inflation over the years, not a fixed rate. Either way I think it shows that a VHF would have been pricey but not beyond reach by any means.
Yes house prices are crazy, it's good to show examples like this as it slows down the "if kids just saved..." crowd a bit

Sorry - didn't mean a rate unchanging over time, I meant that they assume that all goods experience the same rate of inflation. Of course, the price of electronics has historically increased much more slowly than the headline rate would imply, and the price of houses has increased much faster.

 

[doug748]

The problem is that the BofE uses the same rate for all calculations. Of course, inflation in house prices has far exceeded the RPI rate of inflation.

I always feel these affordability studies fail to account of the low base, especially for general household goods. To a certain extent it could apply to boats and dgadee's VHF as well.
To put it succinctly, there was so much stuff you wanted but did not have, to single out one item gives a false perspective. The "why did you not just buy one?" approach does not quite take this into account, masked as it is by rising general standards and the doubling of disposable income over the period.

Anyway. My Feb 1981 copy of Yachting Monthly tells me you could buy a Mini Seavoice for £245 or a Seavoice RT 100 for £179.
But probably there was a whole lot of other stuff, becoming available, on your shopping list as well.

.

 

[SaltyC]

As far as I can tell that calculator uses the actual rate of inflation over the years, not a fixed rate. Either way I think it shows that a VHF would have been pricey but not beyond reach by any means.
Yes house prices are crazy, it's good to show examples like this as it slows down the "if kids just saved..." crowd a bit

HMMMM, my glasses my be a little opaque. IF it wasn't beyond means why did so few have one in the 79 Fastnet?

''Yachting' was very much in the minority in the 70's and 80's as people did not have the disposable income. Yachts were individually built, not production line when prices fell completely. Affordability and the explosion in boating arrived.

I remember boats hitting £1k / foot. (late 70's?) In the mid 90's? I was in London when the last Earls Court Boat Show took place, Thursday night late opening, I ran - why? if boats had hit £1k /foot a 30 footer now it would be Circa £100K, totally unafordable to me.

I attended and found Bavarias at Circa £42K for 32 foot with a Ballroom for a saloon. The affordability of boats and electronics had moved.

In 15 years we had gone from a family cruiser at 25 foot, with instruments of a Seafarer echo sounder and some had a log to a starter boat at 30 foot plus, Electronic depth, speed, wind speed and direction and VHF, many also had Radar and a certainty of position with GPS.

In real terms VHF was 'affordable' in actual terms it wasn't. Not many had access.

 

[alahol2]

Bought a boat in 1983 and fitted a Quasar ME780 56 channel transceiver at the end of the year. It would have been second hand.

 

[lustyd]

IF it wasn't beyond means why did so few have one in the 79 Fastnet?

Probably the same reason all the moany old sailors tell people they don’t need GPS now.
Having the means and making the choice are different things. I imagine the next race would have been a different story.

 

[doug748]

HMMMM, my glasses my be a little opaque. IF it wasn't beyond means why did so few have one in the 79 Fastnet?

''Yachting' was very much in the minority in the 70's and 80's as people did not have the disposable income. Yachts were individually built, not production line when prices fell completely. Affordability and the explosion in boating arrived.

I remember boats hitting £1k / foot. (late 70's?) In the mid 90's? I was in London when the last Earls Court Boat Show took place, Thursday night late opening, I ran - why? if boats had hit £1k /foot a 30 footer now it would be Circa £100K, totally unafordable to me.

I attended and found Bavarias at Circa £42K for 32 foot with a Ballroom for a saloon. The affordability of boats and electronics had moved.

In 15 years we had gone from a family cruiser at 25 foot, with instruments of a Seafarer echo sounder and some had a log to a starter boat at 30 foot plus, Electronic depth, speed, wind speed and direction and VHF, many also had Radar and a certainty of position with GPS.

In real terms VHF was 'affordable' in actual terms it wasn't. Not many had access.

Indeed, the winner of class 5 in that Fastnet was a modern boat but had only traditional nav equipment and no VHF, few smaller boats did except the pro and semi pro racers. With less wealth, boaters were on a shoestring, new kit was a luxury and a very considered buy.

I have an interesting article from Yachting Monthly published a few years before, with the title: Where to Spend Your Money. Their suggestions for fitting out a new boat were enlightening. Among the highly desirable included:

Dodgers and a pram hood for the companionway
Barometer
Liferaft
Handbearing compass
Genoa
Oilskins

Luxury Items:

Radio Direction Finder
Heater
Outboard for the dinghy
Autopilot

A VHF was so wild it did not make the list but they had a real picture of one under the heading: The Ultimate Luxury : -)

.

 

[Stemar]

A VHF was so wild it did not make the list but they had a real picture of one under the heading: The Ultimate Luxury : -)

When the proverbial hit the fan, you were expected to drown like a gentleman...

 

[lustyd]

When the proverbial hit the fan, you were expected to drown like a gentleman...

Under a glorious fireworks display the like of which the coast has never seen before...

 

[WindyWindyWindy]

Given the electronics world has got smaller, cheaper, and faster everywhere else, it's surprising that the retail price of a basic VHF has kept pace with inflation so well.