[Milsurplus] [MRCA] Three week review - Caution Opinion / Rant

[Rob Flory]

Do you think the vibe of this statement makes anyone want to come out of
their basement to meet you?

"Suppose in these days of Email and web pages you can find some fulfillment
in staying in your basement and never venturing out to Hamfest, reenactor’s
events or events like Aberdeen and Gilbert but at least in my book if you
don’t take part you missed out.
At least that’s how I see it, if your situation is different well then
that’s your thing isn’t it. "

RF

On Wed, May 23, 2018 at 10:22 AM, Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
wrote:

> Afterthoughts and echoes.
>
> Its Wednesday and starting to get back to my regular rhythms or patterns.
> In the past three or four weeks have had an almost nonstop series of
> events, first the two day event at Fort Miles that was an radio operation
> only followed by three days at Aberdeen that was a mixture of radio
> operation and buying and finally the big event at Dayton that includes
> things like the side trips to Fair Radio and the US Air Force Museum.
> Selling, buying and radio operation.
>
> In filling out my time sheet at work yesterday I only had four days at
> work in the past two week pay period. Good thing is that I work for a
> university and have been here forever so I get lots of vacation time.
>
> As everyone may know by now I operate my M151A1 with its complement of
> radios including the huge AN/GRC-106A, VRC-12 and assorted smaller VHF FM
> radios in the field whenever I can. At Fort Miles and Aberdeen everything
> was transported to the site via car trailer and had some real fun setting
> up and operating. Somehow have more fun getting there and setting up the
> radios along with getting them all working and all the logistics involved
> that often from working on the air. This year at Aberdeen used the external
> MEP-025 for an added level of complexity. The more components and
> complexity the more fun, will at some point have to look at running
> everything over telephone remotes just to add another level of difficulty.
>
> The other and perhaps the greatest benefit of getting out in the field is
> that you have the opportunity of getting together with all of the people
> that make this hobby and somewhat obscure field of military radio
> collecting possible. New friends and old both local and from far away along
> with new groups like the MMRCG coming on line to further develop the hobby.
> I know I have implied this before but have to say it again that if you
> don’t come out to events like Dayton and take part, then you have missed
> out.
>
> Suppose in these days of Email and web pages you can find some fulfillment
> in staying in your basement and never venturing out to Hamfest, reenactor’s
> events or events like Aberdeen and Gilbert but at least in my book if you
> don’t take part you missed out.
>
> At least that’s how I see it, if your situation is different well then
> that’s your thing isn’t it.
>
>
>
> Significant purchases this last couple weeks included a British PCR2
> invasion Broadcast receiver, although I only had it a couple days now
> already know it was not intended as an entertainment receiver but was to be
> used as a receiver after the D Day invasion to provide information to
> military units. It’s an interesting looking receiver that’s the size of a
> WS-19 with a minimum of controls that will make a great addition to the
> collection and will require me to build up the necessary power supply and
> do a hundred other things to get that back into shape. I had no intentions
> of buying one but it’s turning up and being unusual to me just sucked me
> into buying it. Tried my best not to purchase it by offering the seller a
> stupid low amount but when he accepted had to buy it and now that I have it
> and in doing the research and learning about it find it was worth twice
> what I paid for it in providing me with this new project that I never saw
> coming.
>
> Speaking of education and the cost of it, the PCR2 is a good example of
> something that at the time you buy it grows on you and turns out to be a
> real value but there are other items that you become educated on that are
> somewhat different. Back at FrostFest I bought a Motorola HT-1000 handheld
> radio and convertacom. For years I have had some strange desire to learn
> how to build code plugs and program Motorola radios. Think I paid $20 for
> the first Motorola and then $30 or so for the Motorola software and
> programing cable and then discovered that I had to build up a 386 system
> running DOS to effectively use the software. No big deal at first being I
> have several vintage military laptops running 286 to 486 processors but
> like everything else I decided that I need to build up a 386 system just
> for this function and before it was over had to spend another $20 for a new
> ISA controller card for the system that I was throwing together for that.
>
> Now that I can read, write and modify code plugs on the handheld I have
> decided that my life won’t be complete until I have a full size radio for
> my work truck. The same vehicle that is used to pull the car trailer and go
> to events. Looking at what others have been doing it looks like the
> Motorola Spectra is the radio to have. So while at Dayton was walking
> around buying tons of Motorola Spectra stuff.
>
> Forgot some of the most basic rules of Hamfest, First: buy everything
> together. Think I bought a radio here, a cable there and someplace else the
> mounting bracket. Although everything was in the $5 to $20 price range it
> all starts to add up. Second: Buy it when you see it. My wife always tells
> me that I am stupid to the extent that when I see something that I want I
> should just go ahead and buy it. Instead what I will do is look at it, talk
> to the seller and then walk away and think about it and by the time I
> decide to buy it its gone. Could have bought a milk crate full of
> everything I needed for $50 but because I did not do it ended up spending
> more for all the items separately and that had its own issues.
>
> Third: Trust No one! What is it that they say? “Everything works at a
> Hamfest” bought two separate Spectras that were both allegedly VHF sets to
> get them home and discover that one is an 800 MHz trunking radio and the
> other is on 900 MHz making both radios useless. It’s not just the thing
> that I am out around $50 for threes two useless radios but if I had known
> what I know now about disassembling the radios to see what range they are I
> would have been easily able to purchase the correct radio at the event.
> There were tons of Spectras there being these radios are not compliant with
> the new FCC rules on bandwidth and I don’t see any opportunity in the near
> future for picking one up now short of EBay. So I figure I have about $200
> sunk into this ongoing Motorola software boondoggle with no clear end in
> sight but am just going to figure that it’s a cost of education.
>
>
>
> The good thing about Dayton is that it is the place for selling military
> radios, I sold all three of the R-390A receivers that I brought. Two
> working receivers and one parts radio that will provide an education for
> its new owner and just about everything else that I brought with me. So
> some items that you never anticipate things like the PCR2 receiver that
> turn out to be big wins but other items like the Motorola project can still
> frustrate but have to say at the end of it all its way better to be doing
> this then just sitting around talking about doing it or watching TV or some
> other useless pass time.
>
>
>
> Ray F/KA3EKH
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> MRCA mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/mrca
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:MRCA at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20180523/43b12c46/attachment.html>