[Milsurplus] NEM Sale - The End of an Era!

[Jeff Kruth]

I attended the NEM sale on Friday March 8, 2024. It was an 8 hour drive from Morehead Kentucky, where I now live, to Baltimore. Long way to go in 24 hr. stretch, but worth it to participate in the last hurrah! It was held in the old Westinghouse  Storage warehouse where I used to buy stuff from old programs (A-12 anyone?).  I was in on the original creation of the "Westinghouse Museum", back in 1984 time frame (IIRC) and the guy who ran it was Bob Dwight, a really nice fellow. It grew into the Historical Electronics Museum and eventually was moved into a building off Elkridge Landing road that had been the Westinghouse "print shop" (again IIRC, its been a while). ). It morphed into the National Electronics Museum. It was quite popular and grew & grew. I donated a lot of old WWII stuff to HEM, microwave widgets to MTT and military books (Janes) to the library. I had friends, like Don Davis and John Roberts (all gone now) who, at my suggestion, donated stuff as well. When I moved to KY in 2005, my participation ended.
I have not seen the new place, but it is sort of out-of-the-way a bit, up in Hunt Valley, North of Baltimore, not near the Airport and I-95.The fact that Northrop-Grumman pulled their support in favor of other more "PC" approaches to "STEM" really kiboshed the place. There is all sorts of stories that "they needed the space", "the money dried up", etc. The truth may never be known. But it is a total shame: It really was a National treasure: It housed the NEM collection, a great library, fun to browse, the MTT Microwave Historical Collection (Something I helped Dr. Steve Stitzer with, a really great guy and prime mover in the historical stuff), and the Association of Old Crows (of which I am a life member) historical collection (which is now largely gone). This was a world class museum, and those of you who didnt get to see it really missed out. A lot was owed to folks like Dwight and Stitzer who often worked long hours to see we had some look at the history of the technology of the modern age. Its a damn shame modern folks care SO LITTLE about the history, as when it is gone, its gone. A lot of the stuff sold will be in a few private collections, at hamfests and on eBay. I saw a lot of resellers there, knew a few of them from over the years.There was an AWACS HV supply, a complete F-4 APQ-120 radar test bench with the radar(!), a big chaff dispenser, an X-ray machine (early W?), a large S-Band 100 kW (or more) GE Klystron, several E-O targeting pods, a complete Long version of a Raytheon  ALQ-184 ECM pod (rebuilt  West. ALQ-119 pod, boy, I wanted that bad, probably going to the scrap yard 1500 pounds of tech), almost a complete ALQ-153 Tail Warning Radar (I worked on that program!), and stuff from deceased engineers from all over!I saw my first ever Mk II No 19 High Power add-on amp for the Mk II Xcvr, oh, so many things. Its a shame. I asked some of the museum guys how they felt and the universal response was "Sad".BTW, it  the SCR-270 was not the radar from Pearl but another one, it was recovered from a scrap model found at a University Ionosphere Research Station in Canada. They rebuilt it from basically nothing(!) into a beautiful display piece. Also from Canada,I found them a complete Navy destroyer radar in crate from a museum up there, owner called me and asked if I could remove the (still) crated units from their parking lot (they needed space), I passed it to Mike Simon, who was the most recent director at NEM.  He was super happy to have it and, assembled and restored, it was a prize display for them, they had no Naval unit like it.They used to have a HUGE X-band lensed radar mount outside, as well a Giant Wurzburg. One of their best pieces was an SCR-584, completely restored and working. It was used for a NOVA program "Echoes of War" and filmed at Logan tracking A/C on final approach for the WBGH program. A guy I knew from Westinghouse days, Heru Wombsley, a fellow ham and neighbor of mine in Ferndale MD, right around the corner from Westinghouse (and the airport), was instrumental in rebuilding it. He operated it at Logan (guy with the mane of white hair!). I am told they have no space for it at the new location, and its going to the old Glenn L. Martin facility at middle river, where it can be housed and displayed inside a hanger they are putting together as a historical museum!For me, who loves technical history, particularly ECM from WWII, it was sad as well, the end of an era. The internet is mostly forever, and so maybe some of this info will survive (Hi Heru!) Hope I didnt bore you too much!  Jeff Kruth                          
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