Cost of an AVO in 1966

Nov 09, 2020 Last reply: 5 years ago 26 Replies

Just looking back at an old record of department purchases since 1957. Tracked done one of our remaining AVO's 8 mk III and ,atching serial number it seems we bought 6 of them for £128 in Aug 1966. So about £22 each.



Just found it interesting wonder how you would factor in inflation and what they would be in todays money.



We've just bought a scope for £31 each last week :-)



Think I have another 10 in the post room today to collect.


They were about £1000 from RS when they last sold them, as I recall. That would be about 2008.

I bought a mint condition Mark 6 for about £90 a while ago.

AKA A Sick Meter if you pismronounce AVO Meter as A Vomitter

£2029 according to this website
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In 66, a reasonable weeks wages would be about £10.

Perhaps a little towards the low end? I was getting 5 bob an hour at a petrol station in 1966 as a sixth-former. That would easily cover a gallon of petrol. Ordinary bitter was about 8p a pint. My student grant in '67 was about £100 per term.

More like £15/wk, I'd have said. My grant was about £120/term for the period

64-67.

In message snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk>, "Dave Plowman (News)" snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk> writes

In 1961, I got £4.8/- but petrol was 4/6p

>

Very early 60s, I had a part share in an Austin 7 Ruby. It cost us £15. You could fill it - 5 gallons of commercial petrol (2 star) - for a quid.

In message snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk>, "Dave Plowman (News)" snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk> writes

My Morris tourer was £25!

According to:

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that GBP22 would have been GBP412.93 in 2019 adjusting for inflation.

Nick

I got 35p per hour in 1974, again as a six-former.

69-72 the grant was £365 pa; £1 per day for the whole year.

I think my Anglia in 1972/3 was £15, but the fibreglass mat and resin to fill the rust holes might have cost more ;-) It's a matter of great retrospective relief that I didn't hit anything in that car!

by then I'd upgraded to a new Cortina. Which I kept for 13 years!

In message snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk>, charles snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk> writes

I acquired a Morgan series 2 when I was 20. Managed to keep it going (engine/gearbox upgrade, new chassis and complete rebuild plus several re-sprays) until I was 35. Had to grow up sometime:-)

>

I remember that a lot of the cost was calibration of the analogue meter and indeed the very high quality switches and plating used inside it, all of which was not cheap. If I could see, I'd still need an analogue meter since there was nothing as revealing as the wobbling of a reading to indicate where an intermittent fault might lurk. Digital are fine for steady state work of course, but for fault finding they were of limited use. Brian

Yes that sounds about right. Just look at the cost of a house in the 1960s compared to now. It is frightening, but we still needed to have a mortgage back then. I remember my hi fi, the various components were all priced in guineas, and there was purchase tax of 25 percent. Some things never change, Guineas were used in a similar way to the old

99.99 is these days, to make stuff look cheaper.

On the Avo though I found the leads tended to have short lives. Covered in a rubber and with push on ends, one soon found that the wire inside could get damaged. Mind you the treatment in the average TV factory was not exactly careful, I have to say with them being dragged over sharp edges of steel chassis etc. Brian

I do have an AVO 8, but it stays in its beautiful leather case. The number of times it would be better for fault finding rather rare.

Brian Gaff (Sofa) has brought this to us :

Yep, that's why many digital meters now include an analogue display too.

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