[Milsurplus] Golden years of collecting?

[Ray Fantini]

The prices are always better and there is never any shipping cost at a Hamfest. I have been going to fests for around thirty to thirty five years now and have seen many changes and every year hear the same lament; it was bigger last year and will be gone soon. Back in the eighties and early nineties everyone was convinced that it was all going to be computers and hamfest as we know them are finished, but as long as fest like Timonium and Dayton are there I will be too. EBay has provided me many items I would never have found on my own. The last couple months I have been buying antique computer hardware and can think of no other source, wonder what ever happened to the Trenton Computer Fest? The internet, web pages and email reflectors and maybe companies like EBay have only improved hobbies and collecting and have to wonder when was this golden age of military radio collecting and when were things so much better then now? Maybe in the late forties and early fifties there was a lot of surplus around but the armature community in general only wanted to hack that stuff and forgot about it as soon as store bought equipment became cheap and plentiful.
Ray Fantini KA3EKH