[MRCA] Gilbert Meet Critique

[Radio Station KW1I]

Breck,

Thanks for the critique.  I appreciate all the effort you put into the 
weekend; the radio display, the "Wag-a-Talkie", presentation and your unique 
sense of humor!

On Friday's field exercise:   Each year I have the same problem getting all 
the puppies in the box for embarcation.  The flea market is a strong 
distraction.  By time I track down one set of individuals , someone else is 
off the reservation.  At some point we had to move out.   Everyone else was 
lined up with engines running.  Maybe next year I'll publish a firm schedule 
with a form up and departure time listed.   I can have some maps made up for 
those that aren't there when we leave.  Hopefully, they can catch up or at 
least keep track on 51 mHz either direct or through base.  The following 
year anybody who was miffed at being left behind can be there at schedule 
time.

Because of the squeeze on time on Saturday morning in the future I am 
thinking about a group breakfast at 0800 and then doing comm team insertions 
in the immediate area only, so we can be back for the published schedule 
time for presentations (BTW - thanks for being flexible with the reschedule 
of your presenation)   Friday will be the longer range ops day.  For that I 
am considering teams goint to the two state parks that we had teams to this 
year on Saturday.  They are a bit closer than Big Pocono and maybe it is 
time for a change.  But, there is no reason we can't send a team to Big 
Pocono as well.  Then we will have less RF interference at each site and 
more locations to work.  Unfortunately, the two other locations do not have 
a 51.0 mHz propagation back to base.

I didn't bring my BC-474 to MRCA because I had a melt down on the power 
supply the night before I left.  I was trying to correct a small 
irregularity and created quite a large flaming and smoking irregularity in 
its place!  Since I have been back I got it going again and it gave me great 
service at the NEARfest event on Oct. 3,4.  I brought the ladderline from my 
130 ft doublet directly to the BC-474 antenna/ground terminals and it tuned 
up nicely.  I got good reports from Long Island, NY to Auburn, ME from our 
location in central NH with typcial mid-morning 75 meter propagation.

Hope to hear you on soon.

Dale





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B. Smith" <smithab11 at comcast.net>
To: "Military Radio Collectors Association" <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 7:51 AM
Subject: [MRCA] Gilbert Meet Critique


> I've had some problems with email etc but offer these comments and 
> critique
> items:
>
> First when we left for  Mount Pocono and the Field Exercise on Friday we
> all most left Joe Munson behind, I mean I am talken Joe Munson. I spotted
> him returning from the flea
> market as the convoy was pulling out, I am glad I was tail end Charlie---  
> I
> mean leave Joe Munson behind, good grief. Lets get real. He had to ride 
> on
> my tailgate of the war wagon in order  to catch up with the convoy.  Joe
> Munson. Next time gentlemen have a roll call and then mount up. Haste 
> makes
> waste. No one left behind on my watch.
>
> During the field exercise on Friday I am happy to say that
> I established the MRCA URC-4 distance record, I finally got to
> set a new MRCA field exercise radio record that Mark, KD3ZK had not all
> ready accomplished.
>
> I spent a lot of time talking to Bill Fizette who is the "Receiver" author
> for AWA and past president . He brought two HRB receivers to show and also
> brought me some 832's for my ARC-1 project and then Rob Flory talked me 
> out
> of two of them. But I caught the HRB fever and am now working on one.
>
> I enjoyed making my first contacts with the BC-474 and on 80 and 40.(very
> easy conversation to 40 and reversible) my tiny switching power supply
> survived the meet and worked perfectly.
> I enjoyed watching  folks crank the CRT-3 at my URC-4/CRT-3 display.
> The CRT-3 was modified to transmit on 570 Kcs on the Broadcast band and
> was also 7160 Kcs able.
> The "Wag-A-Talkie" worked flawlessly on CW  and I finally found out what 
> the
> loud squeal was when I was on phone, the switch was on A2, duhhh.
>
> Unique accomplishments at the meet:
> Rob Flory ground his CR-1 crystal on site to adjust the frequency of his
> ARC-1, I mean took the crystal apart and ground it using # something
> sandpaper.
> He also modified his son's crystal set so that it would cover 75 meters 
> and
> his son could listen to the HQ station on 3885Kcs. Rob has a lot of 
> patience
> with his son and I watched him carefully explain what he was doing. A+
>
> Best War Stories were from Joe Munson, he had lots of stories about burst
> keying from Thailand.
>
> Best hands on working display was Joes'  WA2EJT.
> Best foreign radio display was by Chuck, WD8AXA
> Most useless radio award went to K4CHE for his CRT-3 on the broadcast band
> and also on 40 meters 7160 Kcs.
>
> Personnel Observations:
>
> The most patient:  Ted, W3PWW, especially durin the Field Excercise on
> Friday.
> The most polite: Dean, KK1K
> The most energetic Dale, Kw1I
> Most reserved, calm, and methodical Al, N3FRQ
> Most helpful  during the field exercise was John, K1KHP
>
> Also I would like to thank Al, N3FRQ for turning out that "light".
> Thank you Steve, Al, Dale, for the event.
> The best buy at the military flea market was GRC-39B's for $20 a pair.
>
> I enjoyed the meet and has usual I returned to Chickenland with a hundred
> new ideas for projects. That's all I need is another project.
>
> Z
>
> _______________________________________________
> MRCA mailing list
> MRCA at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/mrca


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