Well, I bit the bullet, my friend & I drove up to Fair yesterday and back, to visit with Phil and have a last look around. It is 4 hours from the QTH to Fair so an 8 hour round trip and about 3-1/2 hours poking around. Also went over and looked at the Lima Tank factory where Phil's dad worked during WWII. It is still in the same place, has an M1A1 sitting out front, called the Joint Center now, I figure it builds hardware for everyone. Last time I saw it, it said General Dynamics on it.
Fair has been well picked over. All the tubes gone, lots of the complete hardware radios missing. The outside yard has been cleaned out, mostly to scrap. First thing I noticed, driving in from I-75 was the Radiosonde dish pedestal that sat right in front of the outdoor yard is gone, just sold 3 week ago and shipped to Atlanta, GA to feature in a Sci-Fi movie (look for it). I am sure those of you who have been to Fair have seen it, it has been a feature of the new place since Fair moved there over 15 years ago! Was all green painted (of course!), had about a 6 foot dish on it and was used to receive 1700 MHz Radiosonde data from weather balloons. Being a Microwave Engineer, I must has looked at it every time I went up! But tons of stuff for parts left! Pallets of partial R-390's, some ART-13 stuff, plenty of command sets. A few things that were marked experimental. I saw a Raytheon L-band (WR-650 waveguide in/out) cross-field amplifier sitting on a skid - WOW a big fella! Even some of the Watkins Johnson, MicroDyne, and NSA stuff I took him years ago, although a lot has been sold off. A couple of guys where there picking around for bits and pieces. My friend, who was also my student until recently at the school, just got a job to work in Cedar Rapids for Collins Aerospace (Collins Radio), as did both my girl & boy who just graduated. I took the opportunity to show my buddy a ton of Collins stuff: 618T, R-390, ART-13, boxes of mechanical filters (fun explaining how those work to a modern nerd) plus all the little "red stripe" avionics boxes and test sets. He took pics to show to the guys out in Cedar Rapids when he starts work.
I found one little trinket, a new-in-box radar jammer antenna for one of my WWII sets! So I brought home a memento!
Phil invited me to the auction in mid-August. Now that I am retiring July 1 from the university, I may go. if I knew how to post pic's like the wonderful job Nick does with hamfests, etc., I have a few shots. Maybe sometime. 73, Jeff Kruth, WA3ZKR