[MRCA] Gilbert Reflections

Tue Sep 27 11:56:35 EDT 2011

What a great summary, Breck!  Many thanks from this station, and I regret 
not showing up on Friday.  Guess I am one of the wimps.

Time for the M and S net.

73,  Bill  w2dgb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B Smith" <smithab11 at comcast.net>
To: "MRCA" <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 10:15 AM
Subject: [MRCA] Gilbert Reflections

>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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