[MRCA] Gilbert Reflections

[B Smith]

Gilbert was a great meet. . . it was easy to 
ignore  the rain as there was so much going on
in the Howard Building.  We are very lucky to have 
the use of the Howard Building
and special thanks to Steve, Dale, and Al  for the 
coordination and set up. In many way the rain 
enhanced the meet  and we had a great  midnight 
SLS gathering. You feather
merchants that stayed home because of a little 
rain missed a great meet.   :-)

It was fun calling in on the 51.0 Mc  push  while 
driving en route  to the Fair grounds Thursday 
afternoon and getting a talk  in from Al. 
Al maintaining a listening watch on the frequency 
and "sorting things out".

It was interesting  exercise watching the building 
fill up on a rainy Thursday night and Friday
morning  with enthusiastic attendees some with 5 
or 6 different  sets, each with his
own specialty and interest.

It was hard keeping an eye on Pat Lombardi   and 
watching him bounce around between the
vehicle  folks and the radio people. Pat was like 
a Bouncing Potrzebie  as they used to say in "MAD 
magazine"  He  seems to know just about everyone.


It was refreshing to observe  Rob and Eugene's 
sons(Martin and Max) blend in with  everyone, and 
listening to  the two boys and noted how polite 
the boys were just
like their fathers, and  noting that Rob  had the 
foresight and imagination
to bring a set  of Field Phones for the younger 
troops (and some of the older ones) to play with.


It was very interesting watching my 50 amp 
switching power supply blow
two fuses and  let out  all the magic smoke late 
Friday evening  and then I had to
drag Ted's  45 pound JATO Retrorocket power 
supply  over to power my
ARC-3 display. It was scary just turning it on - -
so .  .   .    I will not make fun of Ted's Retro 
Rocket
modified vehicle  battery  charger  power supply 
ever, ever  again.

It was absolutely marvelous waking up at o-dark
thirty   in
my 86 War Wagon Suburban
after having the roof  being bombarded all night 
by falling
hickory nuts, however it got me up ahead of my 
0500 schedule  so
I could  walk around the compound  and then return 
to watch Ted check into the Old Military
Radio Net.

Standing there watching Ted on the  0500 net and
wondering where are the Feather Merchants, all
of them in their  racks sleeping. Maybe we should 
have an MRCA
reveille.

- - - -but it was fun watching some of the early
risers  later slowly drift into the building with 
sleep
in their eyes and slowly adapt to the light and 
the
new day.

I hated watching "Al Klase shrug off the lost of
his hat and the Vietnamese  Atomic Chicken  Pin 
Award(Signal Corps
term)   that he earned and I  hope that he finds 
it upon returning  to his
quarters. I hate the thought  that there is a 
thief that infiltrated our area
and stole something.

I enjoyed Listening to Dave Kormanicki  at 0530 in
the morning , he was  excited and all pumped up 
about
the new day and remembering and  spouting  off 
more military radio  nomenclature
numbers items then  is humanly possible. He is 
currently obsessed with
finding  several CX-1334 headset extension cord 
with a U-77
connector on one end and a JJ-026 connector on the
other end. Dave is a walking, talking, military 
radio encyclopedia.


After the hickory nut episodes, Taking my morning 
0430 constitutional walk out to
the main highway, noticing that it was not raining 
and several stars could
be seen peeking through the clouds and also noted 
that security guards were
missing in  action and that the gate was  wide 
open, and  then I thought we don't need any
security, there must be a couple of hundred 
weapons inside the fairground compound - - -no 
gang or thieves would dare violate our space.



And continuing with my walk around just before
0500 net and watching  a vehicle collector open up 
his
field kitchen which has 4 or 6 stoves, listening 
the
the enthusiasm, talking about collecting and 
assembly an
entire system.

Walking around the all most empty building at 0510 
Saturday when Ted was on the
Old Military Radio Net, anyway walking and looking 
at the displays.
Very modern HF  and VHF sets  contrasted by the 
older WWII equipment-  -   -
all in all covering 70 years of military radio.


Realizing  later on Saturday afternoon that 
perhaps my
biggest radio achievement
was using my BC-611 that had Pat Lombardi's board
inside  my case that I had I had pulled my board 
out and used
Pats "working" board in my old case.  Pat told me 
the story
 that he purchased the board years ago on Radio 
Row
where he pulled it out of a barrel of boards and 
with that
board  I heard several of the South East   net
members  in North
Carolina check into the Old Military Radio Net.
Thinking that the board
that left radio row and has been stored with Pat's
spare parts for all these years
was now back in operation after being stored, 
Anyway  I  knew that
the BC-611 had a sensitive
receiver but to pick up  those South East stations
inside the building  was what
I though an unusual "radio event".   At first when 
I heard
the stations  I thought
that perhaps I was getting some
residue coupling from the open wire line feeding
Teds BC-669  but  I  got far away
 to the other side of the  building and still
picked up John in North Carolina and some of the
other gang.

I did  bivouac (park my war wagon) away from the
big tree  this year as I learned last year after
listening to rain
shake off the leaves all night  but the
this year the hickory nuts  out foxed
me  they bounced off the roof of John's Commo
truck  continuing in flight and eventually landing 
on
the roof of my sleeping quarters. The Nuts won.

 I enjoyed it when one of the military vehicle
people  said that I needed " black out"reflectors 
for my
"radio bike"

Listening to the show and tell session  and
hearing the exuberance and interest  flow
everywhere over  about some of the more exotic 
radios.

Enjoying the two evening dinners and seeing others
come over to say hello after dinner in the bar. 
Maybe next year make the
"Dinner"  the official  MRCA  head quarters each 
evening.
But missing John playing the "honky Tonk" piano.

Sitting in  the cars of Pat  at one time going to
dinner and Gene  on the 2nd night
and noted they have the cleanest and nicest cars
in the world. My nicer than my 86 war wagon.

Talking with Lou  and the twinkle in his eye as he
filled me in about the mobile set up in his truck 
and the use of the Yaseu FT-817, and
my thinking how much radio has changed and how 
small the sets are.

Giving my short  "obsession" presentation and
looking out at the audience and only seeing two 
persons
with their eyes either
completely closed or rolled back and checking the 
upper
interior of their sculls,
 I through hmmmm    two out of 25  isn't too bad.

.

Listening to all the chatter after the
presentations and the show and tell, the 
hesitation
by the members to  not start packing up and  bail 
out and by everyone,
lingering not wanting  to end the event.

Watching Bob explain the mule and allowing
others to drive it after careful instructions , 
sharing with others what I am sure is a
prized possession. A real Gentlemen.

Watching Al fiddle with and exotic radio one
minute and then  passing by 15 minutes later and
noting that he was using  up a Korean War PRC-9. 
hmmmmm a
 50  year spread.       Al will play and fix 
anything.

Watching Lou camp out under the table, tired but
secure  in his mummy sleeping bag and  then after
he grabbed  4 hours of sleep  he was up with the 
big boys at 0500
that morning  bright eyed and bushy tailed. A real 
trooper.


And finally getting that URC-4  to URC-4 qso with 
Pete as I walked
 out the entrance of  fair grounds. Playing with
the low powered URC-4 and checking the directional
abilities of the antenna.

Returning  to my ARC-3  display Thursday   and
seeing a Federal Signal life boat emergency radio 
in a suit case
 sitting there left by Jeff and his knowing that I 
like that stuff.

Watch Bill and noted his excitement as we 
discussed 160 meter
coils for the HBR receiver and later watching him 
return with a FT  mount
for a command set control head, and thinking we 
all have so many
projects, how do we ever finish?

Walking past  Johns commo truck  on my way  to the
necessary room  and and listening to 75
meters come alive late Friday night and on
Saturday  morning it was wide open.


But the most important lesson learned is that  you 
can buy
ice at the  local grocery store for $1.49 but at 
the fair
grounds snack bar it was going for a buck and you 
do not
have to drive to the store.

Next lesson - - -  bring a back up 28 volt power 
supply, one that
does not let out all the "magic smoke"

Again it was a great event, so many names to try 
and remember.

73

breck  k4che