[JMS] AWA 2007 Conference Report

[Don Buska]

Good day fellow JMS'ers,

Well I'm home safely from my road trip to Rochester, NY for this year 
AWA Conference.  I will have pictures of the JMS members in attendance 
on our website shortly.  Just a mental headcount tells me we had eight 
JMS members at the show.  Ed Gable K2MP provided us all with an 
excellent presentation on the history of the RME company and their 
products during the Amateur Radio Forum.

I only saw one Millen product, beside the many small components, at the 
fleamarket.  That being the 92101 Antenna Matching Preamplifier.  It was 
complete with 20M, 10M and 6M tuning plug-ins.  Sorry but I didn't catch 
the price on this item.  As always the older National stuff did show up 
including a few HRO's and one NC-100XA.  One fella had several HRO's in 
both the Jr and Sr variety.   However, based on condition and 
accessories I personally felt he was asking to much for them.  I think 
they were all still at his table the last time I went through the area.  
So I guess my price assessment wasn't to far off!

In the early pre-dawn hours of the first day a nice Browning Drake 
receiver was being offered.  I slept in but JMS'er Scott WA9WFA told me 
he was right there when it sold in front of him.  As most know those 
receiver-tuners used the early National Regenaformers.

The auction brought one nice National HRO-5TA1 receiver to the block.  
Scott WA9WFA was able to snag this one for $175 (or was it $185).  It 
was in very nice shape and came with the standard A,B,C and D plug-ins 
(coil box provided).  BTW, since Scott flew into Rochester from the 
Minneapolis area I offered to haul back his stuff to my QTH.  Scott I 
just checked and all the coils for your HRO are a matched set with the 
same serial numbers matching the main unit.  A truly good find!   The 
one missing item was it didn't come with the  697 Dog House power 
supply.  So if anyone has an extra to sell you might want to contact 
Scott as I'm sure he will be interested.

The AWA conference auction is often a great place to find ham gear at 
reasonable prices.  Just a few items to perhaps tempt more attendance 
next year was a complete Hallicrafters SR-400 transceiver, with matching 
HA-20 VFO, Power Supply, SWR Bridge, cables and a nice EV desk mic.  
This setup was also in very nice shape and it sold for $375!  As a 
reference folks a HA-20 VFO sold for $500 alone on eBay a couple of 
weeks ago.  Another item that  caught my interest was a nice looking 
Collins KWM-380.  It had all the books and cables.  Sold for $1600 which 
is also well below the current market price.

As always I had a great time.  Wonderful programs, lectures and a super 
tour of the AWA Museum and Annex.  Also it is a yearly opportunity to 
catch up with good friends and to meet new ones.  I hope more JMS 
members can arrange to attend next year.  You won't be disappointed.

If others in attendance want to add please feel free to do so.

73

Don N9OO