[MRCA] Dayton day two

[Ray Fantini]

Today’s weather was improved over yesterday. Some clouds in the early afternoon, clear in late afternoon and no rain (for a second day). Almost all of the items I listed yesterday were gone today with the exception of the high dollar stuff, the high priced LMs and about half the ARC-5 stuff. Did see many people walking out with ARC-5 carcasses. My tailgate space is located by an entrance. Did not see the 1051G or H (same seller) but did see that the RT-618 sets and about half the R-390 receivers were still their at the end of the day. People were also buying PRC-25 and 77 sets although their were plenty left for sale when I left. Did not notice any sellers today that were not their yesterday, their must have been some but I did not see anything different. The crowd today was about two thirds the size of yesterday. If your planning on going to Dayton plan on being their on Friday or plan on missing out. The 3885 AM net was hosted by Joe M. W4VAG operating a complete TCS station out of his van that included radios, dynamotors chassis and remote control head. Their were 24 station who checked in to the net at noon, this included 11 stations using BC-611 radios, the “crazy frog” French GRC-9, a truck mounted GRC-19, some PRC-70 and PRC-138 and a couple of people using Racal’s and I also have to mention that the Japanese Type 94 set was back again this year and in operation and in addition to this I used one of Joes MAB transceivers, complete with silly helmet hat. Their were some stations using modern “ham” transceivers but they don’t get written up. At 13 hundred hours their was a “pack net” on 18.1575 with KI0PF as net control using a PRC-70, couple of the other PRC-70, PRC-1099 and Racal users were their along with lots of check ins using modern radios. At 14 hundred the 51.0 “Cold War Net” rolled out with 38 stations participating. Good scattering of PRC-6 sets with the same PRC-70 sets that had been working all day checking in again. By this time the battery in the net control was running down so W4VAG brought out the peddle crank generator and passer bys were put to work charging the PRC-70 for net control. Most stations were running PRC-25 and 77 sets, also their were a couple using PRR/PRT 9 sets with one RT-70 running in a shopping basket with batteries and home built antenna brought by Marty, guess that’s how they do things down in Atlanta. Myself I use my PRC-68 not having any time this last year to build up something special for Dayton. Maybe next year I can build up something in a shopping cart. Prices did come down on things today, I did buy a rack mounted 28 volt power supply for $5 and had someone give me a URC-35 with no case and in bad condition that I removed the power transformer and filter choke from and placed by a trash can and someone else took it from their. As usual I will be leaving tomorrow morning and not going back to the hamfest. Will be a full day of traveling with a truck load of junk.
Ray Fantini KA3EKH