[Hallicrafters] Festival of Pork Products

[jeff]

It was 11pm last night and time to catch the weather report.  It had
rained all day, as is its custom here in the Philly area, but there was
no mention of any precipitation for Sunday, the day of my first hamfest
of the season.

My ancestors were groaning at me when the alarm went off at 6am, but I
told them to shut up and go back to sleep.  After another 20 minutes,
the wife stirred.

Checking to see if I needed a coat, I discovered the weather forecast
was right on track - it was raining.  If they told me it was going to
get light around 6am and dark around 8pm, I'd bet against it.


Firing up the scanner, we got the news that the vendors were already in
place and it was worth the drive.  Good news at last.  Of course it was
still raining when we got there.

Looking around at the outdoor vendors, one got the sense of general
doom, with rain soaking a lot of old gear, and others packing up and
leaving.  A quick circuit provided little to see.

Back inside I shopped with the smarter vendors, who paid more to be out
of the rain.  No boatanchors, few tubes, and little else I was motivated
to take home, aside from some of that nice LMR400.  Never saw it before
- it sure is a LOT larger than RG58.

During a momentary rain stoppage we managed to get outside.  Saw a Halli
S-95, which would look great next to my 94.  The vendor said he serviced
radios but was really afraid of this one, being an xfmrless design.  I
asked him what fun would life be if you're not kept alert by the
occasional threat of electrocution.

We commiserated with another vendor about the weather.  This guy had A
Theory.  His theory was that they made the same mistake every year by
having it on the same day because it rained.  This fellow studied it
(somehow) and came up with the fact that it would NOT rain if the event
were held 3 weeks in either direction.  I bid him adieu before he could
explain the science behind his statement.  Nice gentleman, though.

Saw a couple of S36/38/40's in not so hot condition. A ton of commercial
HT's.  No audio tubes, no cap meters, few BA's at all.  My wife got a
really neat pen that lit up in colors, so all was well in that
department.

It's 11:30 and the SUN is actually out.  This means I need to stay
inside and string up some LMR400 :)


Checking the ARRL hamfest calendar, I couldn't find Timonium, which I
remember people talking about as being pretty good.  There's Memorial
Day in West Friendship, MD, but I was there last year and it wasn't all
that hot.  Any recommendations for under 2 hours from Philly?  Dayton's
a bit far.

Not on the calendar is the Delaware Valley Historical Radio Club's meet
in Kutztown, PA, on 5/13+14.  The brochure says `Ham and Audio welcome.'