[MRCA] MRCA/Gilbert AAR
W2HX
w2hx at w2hx.com
Mon Sep 18 17:07:29 EDT 2017
Oops. Premature emailation occurred.
I also wanted to thank Steve KD3HT for doing yeoman's service on KP duty!
________________________________
From: W2HX
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 5:01 PM
To: Ray Fantini; Military Radio Collectors Association
Cc: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: MRCA/Gilbert AAR
Great summary, Ray!
Let me add a big heart-felt thank you to Dale KW1I who continues to make sure everyone is welcome and having some kind of radio activity fun. Myself, WD8INC (and 2nd harmonic) and W3GRD were at Penns Peak playing with a PRC-2200 and Grintek 178b and fun was had by all.
Thanks to everyone
________________________________
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 11:20 AM
To: Military Radio Collectors Association
Cc: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Milsurplus] MRCA/Gilbert AAR
MRCA joint Gilbert Red Ball Meet after Action Report:
This year’s goal was to set up a display explaining the care and feeding of the AN/GRC-106 transceiver along with the standard field operations that take place annually at the event.
This year’s event included AM operations on the eighty meter band in addition to the usual operations on six (FM) and sixty (USB) meters.
My available resources included the M151A1 with the combined VRC-12/GRC-106A, AN/URC-110 and URC-200 and a PRC-68 New for this year was the addition of a 28 Volt MEP-025 generator so I did not need to run the engine on the mutt the entire time the big radio was in operation.
I arrived at Gilbert on Thursday afternoon and unloaded the mutt. I set up a table in the Howell building across from several tables that were already there including the tables for the frequency measurement contest and the always popular Amish chapter of the MRCA.
Beyond this much time was spent erecting the crew tent that I was provided by a friend and learning all that involves. Don’t think I did any radio operations on Thursday being most time was spent trying to figure out the tent, set up the 106 display and other support task for Friday’s events. May have played around with 144.250 AM with the field radios a bit but not as a scheduled activity.
51.00 FM was used as an informal Net for MRCA and it was use quite a bit on all three days. I used the VRC-12 system in the mutt but several others were there using radios like the PRC-25 and 77.
Friday morning I did the equipment sales part of the event and although there were not as many vendors as last year perhaps due to the threat of rain but there was still a good selection of dealers and equipment. Saw several VRC-12/RT-524 transceivers in the $150 to $400 price range along with lots of the older GRC-67/68 family of radios along with mounts and cables. Also saw a SCR-610 (BC-659) complete for $750 remember when you were not able to give one of them away? Lots of other similar equipment like SCR-508 components and systems but priced way lower.
Jeff brought his SCR-245 and had that up for sale and the BC-312, BC-223 transmitter and PE-55 dynamotor were things of beauty, he had all the connectors too. anyone who reads my post know I have some weird unnatural thing for that set and would have bought it but he sold it just over three hundred dollars before I would make a commitment. I was playing the “if it don’t sell I will buy it at the end of the event” game and sometimes when you do that you don’t get anything.
At two that afternoon the main event was planned, the massive deployment and field operation. Over a dozen operators and stations took part. All up and down the Alleghany valley. Base of operations was Walt at the MRCA base complex at the Howell building, I transported the mutt to Beltsville State park about fifteen miles away and established a camp there. After getting everything in place including the push up mast for HF and the VHF mast and beam established good communications on the sixty meter band along with secondary communications of eighty meters AM. Tried to establish FM simplex between MRCA base and that location and although I was at times able to copy the base they did not always hear me. Did establish good FM simplex between Pens Peak and several others but not the base back at Gilbert. Maybe next year we will try setting up at Pens Peak and feel that from up on top of the mountain can nail down FM simplex with no issues. The operating site at Beltsville is in a valley and there is a mountain between us.
The weather detreated on Friday around six or so and that’s when the rain started. Did rain that night but ended Saturday morning. Beyond that weather was not an issue.
Did not do the M&S Net on Saturday being tied up in running around the flea market, also the show and tell component of the displays in the Howell building takes place around eleven so not a lot of time to get set up for the Net.
The following things were learned. First, like my wife says the time to buy things is when you see them. If you want to sit around and think about it they may be gone by the time you are ready to buy. Not just things like the SCR-245 set but other items like the two pin slave cable that was just $20 but I thought I would get it on the way back. Bad decision.
Second, VHF FM won’t go around the mountain. Have had some success doing FM Simplex shots in the past but in this case this is the second time using the big VHF antenna was not able to establish good path back to base. Third, has nothing to do with radio but remember to close the flaps on the tent when being gone for the afternoon. By the time we struck the field opps in Beltsville and headed back it was raining. The window flaps on the tent were left open so there was a good half inch of water in some parts of the tent. Real joy to deal with.
Overall did have some success operating on sixty, eighty and six. Did try seventeen meters but did not establish any contacts. Also did manage to buy some items like new set of tires and wheels for the mutt at a price that’s way better than anything that can be done on line. MRCA/Gilbert will still be one of the high points of my year and continue to be so.
Ray F/KA3EKH
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/mrca/attachments/20170918/998ec366/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the MRCA
mailing list