Michael Black wrote:

I've seen people point to an issue of "CQ" in the late fifties (when Wayne
Greene was editor), a letter or snide remark after a letter. I've seen
the bit, I'm not sure if that is the first use or not.

But of course, back then, "boatanchor" I think tended to mean "useless" as
well as "heavy". You drag this really neat thing home from the hamfest,
only to discover it is completely useless on top of being heavy. So it
has no value other than as a boatanchor. SOmething like that.

Amd there was surplus like that. Really heavy items with cases that made
them twice as heavy, and not really useful for much even with
modifications.

And then a decade or so later, a lot of stuff became "useless" because
nobody wanted AM and nobody wanted tubes, and nobody wanted whatever. So
the stuff, heavy but not extremely heavy, became boatanchors when few
wanted them. And you could get the stuff so cheap. I remember in the
early seventies being able to get ahold of all kinds of "junk" because
nobody wanted them at the time.


More like the person who dragged it home, wasn't smart enough to make
it work.


It was only later that "boatanchor" became an affectionate term, when
"that old junk" became desirable by people nostalgic for the old days, or
for the stuff they couldn't afford when younger. And by then attrition
had cleared out some of the supply, suddenly making the old stuff more
valuable than it had been decades before when nobody wanted it and there
was lots of it.

Michael VE2BVW


--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.