Arado 130

I just received an Arado Model 130 from someone and was wondering what they are worth. This one is in excellent physical and operational condition and even has the original manual. I know that they are rare, but have no idea how much they would sell for. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Pine,

You are correct, the Arado 130 in working condition with a Manual is a rare one.

Value? That would depend on where you live and the currency you use because it's a British machine, so any value would be in GB£ pounds Sterling.
To the right buyer it might net around £260 tops?
Recent adverts for the Arado 120b, the model before the 130, have been asking for around the £130 mark.

Funnily enough, I had three Arado's: a 120b, a 130 and a 95
I always thought the 120b was 'a better detector' and others agree with that finding too.

They were manufactured in Southern England in Carshalton, Surrey by 'a boffin' named Paul Spenser.
I met him on a few occasions, the first when I went to the offices for a Service job... he was sitting on a table legs crossed while engrossed in fiddling with a PCB
He was a nice man and some considered him a bit 'eccentric'. He sadly passed away a number of years ago.
The last time we met was at a Detecting Rally in the UK where assisted by his daughter, he had several detectors 'on hand' to show.
Like I said, he was a very nice and thoroughly engaging person with detecting knowledge that superceded anything I knew!

Much has been written about "Arado's", as they were considered the "CTX's", of their day.
I'd agree with that as they were very good and ahead of their time.

Enjoy it.

Des D



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2017 12:40PM by Des D.

I still own and use 2 mint condition Arado 120b the 130 was for some reason not accepted as well as the 120b versions,Des is not all that far out price wise for the 120b models,price wise for the less desirable 130 model that i am not sure about,but gut feeling it could well be less than what Des has suggested,of course condition is paramount with these old timers,to get top dollar for them the plastic has too still be white as over the years most became slightly yellow coloured which distracts the desirability of these machines.

One major problem is if anything goes wrong with them they are 'nearly' impossible to get repaired as Arado had a habit of covering the circuit boards so hiding what the components are so that no competition could copy these machines,for the most part this worked but some boffins have worked out what was used,these detectors are very agricultural looks wise,basically like a small 8'' frisbee on a bit of old gas pipe and a massive car battery box strapped on the end of the rod but the ironic thing the detectors worked very well,and in the day they had been like the CTX3030 is today and about the same weight as well.

Price wise its a very limited market,basically only old timers would look at buying one for a trip down memory lane etc,i will stick my nexk out here and say that if its in very good nick and the plastic is still white rather than yellow then about £175 top whack,reduced if the plastic is yellow.

They were Imported into the United States by those who bought directly from the UK
I remember speaking to one guy about it when I was living on Cape Cod in the early '90's, he asked me about it? How we came to " meet " I have no idea?

The Arado 120b was a 'non-motion' IB. w/8" coil running @ 4.5kHz, run by 2 x 9Volts.
I heard what made them 'so good' was each coil was calibrated and paired to it's own control box' (don't know if true?)

The previous models, the 120 and 90 were out at the same time around '78/79'
There was a 65 model also, a TR machine and the 65, 90 & 95 models had 'a good reputation' for finding rings on wet sand!
They were 'championed' by a professional detectorist called, Tony Hammond
There were around 15 retailers for them but the most sales were garnered by Mike Longfield from Coventry in the Midlands.
Before I bought mine in 1983, we had many telephone conversations and we are still friends today and the last time we met was at the funeral of Trevor Austin from the NCMD in England.

The detecting scene back then in 1985 was much like it is today!
Arado's USP (unique selling point) was "A British made detector for British conditions!"
Magazines had powerful adverts and the main competition to Arado came from, C Scope (also a British brand) with it's Promet & Metadec models, Saxon 2, Tesoro was beginning to make inroads with its Silver Sabre, Fieldmaster (another UK brand) Compass with the Gold Star 1000 and advanced Challenger X-70 model, Garrett Freedom 1 & 2, White's 6000D Series 2, and the fabulous Fisher 1265-X
There were many others and when the White's XLT was introduced, many Pro Arado users switched to it.

The Arado's method of operation on the 120b and 130 was a large meter divided into Red left and Green right.
The three controls were an ON/OFF switch Gain control, Threshold and a Meter Center control. You had to get the needle to stay in the middle and when it dipped left ferrous is indicated and right for non ferrous. Sometimes the needle might not move at all and after removing some soil then it went whichever way? If the needle just barely went left it might be a coin next to a piece of iron? It was supposed to ID foil correctly but it didn't.
It had poor ergonomics and the non-motion method of operation made it prone to 'drift', so constant re-tuning was necessary!

I had a pal with a second hand 'Garrett ADSII' and I used whoop his ^** with the Arado 120b on pasture for silver coins and I was getting 11" easily with that infamous steady centred needle!
It drove him nuts and developed quite a complex about my beating him on finds! ( we don't speak anymore )
I also found record amounts of coins on beaches on the dry and semi/wet sand. Unheard of at the time from other user reports.

The 120b was 'around the £399.50' mark and in '1985/6', when the 130 came out it was priced @ £485.00
It promised:
• Better depth on small coins
• Less sensitive to iron and power line interference
• Even better stability
• Even greater detection efficiency

As I was repping for "White's", I had sold my 120b and some time later I tried to buy it back but the guy wouidn't budge!
So I bought a 130 and you know what, it 'didn't sound the same' and I didn't do as well with it as I had done with the 120b
So I sold that too.

Paul Spenser became involved with the British MOD and developed several models for them and ignored the hobby detectors.
But the last model he developed for us was the 'Arado 320', @ £1,295 so it didn't sell well. But it did address the poor ergonomics of the previous models.
I only ever saw 2 of them, one in Madrid, Spain and the other in Joan Allen's detector showroom in Biggin Hill in Kent, both 'barely used second hand's'

On a final note: I bought a second hand 'Arado 95' for around a £100 from "Detecnicks" in West Sussex while I worked with Minelab ( out of my own money ) and ran it against the first 'X-Terra 50' model we were developing at the time.
In a park setting the 95 went to 3" - 4" on coins while the 50 'smoked it' getting them much deeper!
It seemed 'non-motion' had it's day!"

Des D



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2017 12:49PM by Des D.

Retired mine many Centuries ago!

Des did you ever try the Arado 320 ?

"No. Never used one, haven't even seen anything written on it?"

Pine, did we help out with your questions?"

I have a 120 that was given to me because it was in pretty rough shape. I made it a bit more ergonomic and put the controls more accessible. I never used it beyond my test garden here in Canada. With the right offer I'd sell it if someone is interested? Email me at singularmirage@gmail.com