[Milsurplus] God Bless Riceburner Operators!

[Ben Dover]

Howdy!

>snip<

Fifteen years ago I had a guy come up to me at a local hamfest all in a 
dither because he had heard from someone else there that I had available 
all of the seven connectors that are used with a complete AN/ART-13.  I 
quoted him prices.  He looked me squarely in the eye and stated that the 
connectors could not be worth more than the transmitter.  And turned and 
walked off.  I later learned that he had paid $20.00 for the transmitter 
to some worthless rice burner addict.

>snip<


Tho some of these Appliance Operators can be good for a laugh at times, I
can't badmouth the Rice Burner Addicts too badly...  not after one 
experience I had about 12 years ago.

My habit is to hit hamfests EARLY (before the rest of the other surplus 
nuts get there and clean the place out), but circumstances had conspired 
to get me there at 8 AM instead of my usual 5:30.

As I pulled into the packed parking lot (of an indoor fest) I spotted an
opening next to a van that was being unloaded & swooped into it. As I got
out of my pickup, my eyes bugged out; the guy in the van was struggling to
unload (among other things) a TCS transmitter, receiver, control box, and
cables, along with a HUGE homebrewed AC supply! I took a look; clearly it
was a MARS issue rig that had MATCHING SERIAL NUMBERS, with no extra holes
or visible mods... MARS had sent this thing out from NEW STOCKS.

Immediately I asked the guy what he was asking. As he set a Yaesu on top of
a pile he was loading on a handtruck, he said "You want it? You can HAVE it
for FREE! Damned thing is TOO heavy, ugly and old for me. I'm getting rid of
it for the widow of a buddy...   she just wants it GONE! The only catch is
that YOU have to move it by yourself; I've hauled it around all I'm gonna!" 

Needless to say it was inside of my capper in nothing flat, while I "helped"
him unload the rest of the stuff in his van. There was an LM frequency meter
with original manual (took a pass... I've already got 2 of 'em, with the
book),
and a lot of SSB CB and ricebox rigs being sold out of this gentleman's shack,
along with some odds and ends from the deceased surplus rig owner's shack.

The TCS is still in my shack, with a better (and MUCH smaller) power supply on
it. A local had the antenna loading coil box lying around, and it has been put
into service with the rig.


A couple of years ago I hit almost the same sort of deal at another hamfest. A
riceburner operator sold me, for $5.00 each, a BC-348Q in good shape, WITH the
shockmount and dynamotor, unmodified, and a Hallicrafters ARR-7 (again,
uncut).
The ARR-7 was quite welcome because I'd recently sold off another one that a
previous owner had removed the autotune mechanism from (hacksaw job... UGH!),
and for the princely sum of $2.00 he threw in a J-37 key on the mounting plate
for the BC-654 I've got socked away...  tho the plate needs the key cover.

The BC-348 has been cleaned up nicely with the help of a parts rig that
donated
it's better looking cabinet. The dynamotor is still in place, and after brush
replacement and after flushing out and repacking the bearings with grease it
runs very nicely on a small 28 VDC supply. 

Then there was the guy with a cardboard box full of badly butchered Command
receivers at South Milwaukee, the whole box marked $5.00 . The radios were
junk
parts, but four of them had LOCAL TUNING KNOBS in place! I lowballed him with
a $3.00 bid; he was busy making sure his ricebox rigs for sale didn't walk
away,
and just to be rid of me he took the three bucks. Nasty, but I couldn't
resist a
try at it.   ;o)


I guess the moral of all of this is NOT "Familiarity breeds contempt",
quite the
opposite is the case. When they don't know what the rig is it becomes a Rodney
Dangerfield; gets NO respect whatever!

That's just fine with ME...   maybe that factor will keep the occasionally
good 
hamfests coming. :o)


73's,

Tom, W9LBB



PS- Sometime ask me about the Hundred Buck Johnson Valiant, and the FREEBIE
Heathkit DX-100... and the $200 Collins R-389!!!   ;o)