[Milsurplus] A few things seen at NEAR-Fest

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 10/13/07, J Forster <jfor at quik.com> wrote:
> This is just a brief note of things seen at NEAR-Fest in Deerfield New
> Hampshire this Friday and Saturday.
>
> Friday:  It rained in the morning gradually shifting to intermittent
> showers in the afternoon. From memory, items seen included;
>
> VRC-524 with second receiver, but lacking mounting trays and accessories
>
> ARR-8A VHF ELINT receiver
> ART-13 with below average paint

Just for the record (if anyone is keeping track), those units were
mine and both sold. The ARR-8A was complete and unhacked, just dirty.
Cool receiver, but with all my other projects, the chances of getting
to it in this lifetime get lower each day. Priced $100. Sold for $70.

The ART-13 was actually sold before the 'fest and delivered there,
previously modded for AM use decades ago. Fortunately the damage
looked to all be reversible by replacing a couple of plates and
missing tubes. Priced/Sold for $100.

I did see a unhacked R-23A ARC-5 receiver needed for my station, but
it was just too scruffy for the price the seller wanted. So I passed.
K1ANX was selling R-392s Friday for apparently low money. I passed 2-3
of them on my way to his tables, and saw the last two sell as I was
standing there. George always has some excellent stuff, with very good
prices.

Gave away my spare Hallicrafters R-649 to a friend along with the
matching cabinet for his ITT MacKay 3010 receiver. Brought home a
reasonably decent NC-101XA for $100. That was all I bought. W3JN up
from Maryland gave me a nice old panel-mount meter from an old buzzard
transmitter and a couple of Broadcast Magazine issues from the 1920s
in nice shape. Mission accomplished, load lightened considerably.

Side note: As Chairman of the Forums, Workshops, and Special Events, I
was busy much of the time but well-rewarded with the results. Among
the speakers were George Rancourt K1ANX doing a workshop on the R-390A
and Dr.Tom Perra W1TP giving a talk and slide show on the German
Enigma and Code Breaking in WWII. Both were absolutely incredible, and
will be back in the future. Tom even let as try out the Enigma
machine. It was great!

Hope to see more of you there in May '08.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ