[MRCA] Gilbert
Lou Ribble
n3od at frontiernet.net
Tue Sep 27 18:21:14 EDT 2011
-----Original Message-----
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
It was great being able to attend the Gilbert meet again. I am finding out
that this old body of mine is not as resilient as it once was. I really
congratulate the people who went out on Friday's field exercise-The weather
reminded me of the rainy season in the Republic of Korea-mud and all. They
used to tell us that weather like that was "Good Training". I don't know
about that but it is a good test to set up and maintain communications under
less than ideal conditions. I am confident that the group that was there are
more than ready for almost any emergency contingency. It was great meeting
face to face some of you who are old friends on the air. It was also great
to find out that some of you and I had similar interests not related to
radio.
I wish to thank those of you who helped me troubleshoot my PRC 47
which although immaculate, did not transmit at all.
Although, I enjoy the operating events and the displays-in my
opinion the most important thing at least to me is the camaraderie of the
hobby. I promise to come better prepared with sleeping gear next year. A
special thanks to Breck for tucking me in (so to speak) Friday night. I hope
to see you all next year- the good LORD willing and the creek don't rise.
Lou n3od
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:33:37 -0700
From: David Ross <ross at hypertools.com>
Subject: Re: [MRCA] Gilbert Reflections
To: MRCA <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <4E81DEC1.4030805 at hypertools.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Thanks for the excellent report Breck!
What a fine show!
73
Dave Ross N7EPI
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:56:35 -0400
From: "Bill Fizette" <w2dgb at ptd.net>
Subject: Re: [MRCA] Gilbert Reflections
To: "B Smith" <smithab11 at comcast.net>, "MRCA" <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <C7CACEEF1804409AABF26C421FBF9F9C at BillPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
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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