Blue and Gray MVPA Show (Hagerstown) AAR October8/9 2021

What was supposed to be achieved by this project?

Set up and Show M151 and other assorted Military Radio equipment along with operating both MMRCG and M&S Nets at the annual (47th) Blue and Gray Military Vehicle Association Military Vehicle Show now located in Hagerstown Maryland.

Available resources included my M151A1 mutt with AN/GRC-106A, VRC-524 and URC-110, along with PRC-77, PRC-108 and Russian R-107

What was actually achieved?

Arrived around nine Friday morning. After some issues with locating an operating location set up next to the operations tent but between the noise from the MEP-025 and the lack of space for doing a large antenna set up relocated to the back row of the event next to the fence line.

In that location was able to set up inverted V antenna for forty and sixty meters and operate the MEP-025 without issue.

Had table with camo tabletop and PRC-77 and Russian R-107 set up for display. Used the 524 for local coordination on 51.0 with people who showed up and wanted to find my location and used the URC-110 for monitoring the tower on 120.80 so people were able to hear the air opps in the background. We had some Blackhawks show up on Friday and a number of historic aircraft on Saturday.

The 106 preformed without issue except for the time when I missed my turn on the net due to talking with people around the mutt.

What aspects of the project work?

The Washington Blue and Gray group were great, they were very supportive and great host allowing me to relocate and set up along the fence line where setting up antennas and the generator noise was not an issue. Saturdays nets were all successful being heard by everyone and hearing almost everyone.  The first net was the 7.296 MMRCG Net hosted by W6MP at 10:00 local and then at noon the 5.357 M&S Net run by KK1K

I did long transmission describing the location at the Hagerstown Aviation Museum and the event itself and along with Walt (KB3SBC) promoted the upcoming Able Archer 83 event next month. Was called by W1NZR but unfortunately had struck the inverted V and moved over to the whip antenna on the mutt and was not able to answer him after the net. Did QSY to 18.150 using the whip antenna to try to work Walt directly for the PA QSO Party but did not hear him. Did work W6MVT on 18.152 and his “Parks on the Air” event in California, usually Walt uses the 106 in the mutt on twenty to operate Beltsville Park as a Parks on the Air station but this time I was on the other end of one of those operations.

Had a table set up next to the mutt with a PRC-77 and a Russian R-107 and was surprised how many people wanted to come up and see the 77 and recalled all the stories on how they use to carry one or how that radio saved their life and the like. Also had a number of people who had similar stories and feeling about the mutt and its radios but the PRC-77 and its similarity to the 25 was a huge hit.

Most people in the military vehicle collector community who served were in during the sixties and beyond and have a direct connection to the radios from that era. Although many have WW2 GPW and other vehicles the equipment of the sixties, seventies and eighties are big items at these shows so you don’t get trapped into the weird cult of the WW2 re-enactors where it has to be WW2 only or they don’t want it around.

With all the vendors saw tons of accessories like antennas, intercom systems a couple 524 sets along with tons of mounts, speakers and microphones couple people selling RT-68, RT-70 stuff along with power supplies and lots of telephone equipment including lots of field wire.

Did buy a TA-838 analog telephone for $15 and a AT-803 beer can antenna for $40 that I will need to figure out how to mount it on the mutt for the 220 to 400 MHz monitoring.

What didn't work and why?

The MEP-025 is loud. Worked without issue this time but was a real problem in first location in annoying the neighbors. Maybe a muffler can be added but have been told the noise is a result of the engine itself and not the exhaust. Bernie tells me he was able to clearly hear the generator running three rows over and a dozen spaces down from my location!  Discovered that the water pump on the mutt is beginning to fail so did not want to run that for the entire time while operating and running the external generator fifty feet from the mutt is way better then running the motor in the mutt but just need to resolve the noise issue.

Yes, I know that a modern generator would be less noise but the problem is that everything on the mutt is period correct but if I start using some Harbor Freight generator then why not just go ahead and use a modern radio and at what point why bother to do anything at all.

The generator was left on the car trailer that I use to carry the mutt and connected to the slave connector on the mutt by a fifty foot power cable with the mutt being maybe thirty feet from the trailer and generator and I parked my truck between the trailer and the mutt and that did a lot to cut down the noise in the mutt but do need to think up some form of period correct noise suppression for that unit.

Ray F/KA3EKH