[MRCA] Three week review - Caution Opinion / Rant

Wed May 23 11:56:20 EDT 2018

Yes Indeed Ray & Dean, your commentary is appreciated.

73, Robert, VE3BE

On 23/05/2018 11:40 AM, dean.gagnon at juno.com wrote:
> Ray,
> Enjoyed the fest and was happy for every minute of nice weather. As 
> always, you had a bunch of interesting stuff, no wonder it all 
> (almost) sold. I agree with your wife, if an item looks like something 
> you may want, buy it as good stuff doesn't last long.
> I too enjoy wandering out of the basement from time to time. Events 
> like Dayton, Gilbert, Weare, Nearfest (fall & spring) and ... always 
> end up being fun both from an equipment stand point and providing 
> great contact with other like minded hams.
> Thanks for your comprehensive daily hamfest reports.
> Dean
> KK1K
>
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
> To: "MMRCG at groups.io" <MMRCG at groups.io>
> Cc: Military Radio Collectors Association <mrca at mailman.qth.net>, 
> "milsurplus at mailman.qth.net" <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [MRCA] Three week review - Caution Opinion / Rant
> Date: Wed, 23 May 2018 14:22:39 +0000
>
> Afterthoughts and echoes.
>
> Its Wednesday and starting to get back to my regular rhythms or 
> patterns. In the past three or four weeks have had an almost nonstop 
> series of events, first the two day event at Fort Miles that was an 
> radio operation only followed by three days at Aberdeen that was a 
> mixture of radio operation and buying and finally the big event at 
> Dayton that includes things like the side trips to Fair Radio and the 
> US Air Force Museum. Selling, buying and radio operation.
>
> In filling out my time sheet at work yesterday I only had four days at 
> work in the past two week pay period. Good thing is that I work for a 
> university and have been here forever so I get lots of vacation time.
>
> As everyone may know by now I operate my M151A1 with its complement of 
> radios including the huge AN/GRC-106A, VRC-12 and assorted smaller VHF 
> FM radios in the field whenever I can. At Fort Miles and Aberdeen 
> everything was transported to the site via car trailer and had some 
> real fun setting up and operating. Somehow have more fun getting there 
> and setting up the radios along with getting them all working and all 
> the logistics involved that often from working on the air. This year 
> at Aberdeen used the external MEP-025 for an added level of 
> complexity. The more components and complexity the more fun, will at 
> some point have to look at running everything over telephone remotes 
> just to add another level of difficulty.
>
> The other and perhaps the greatest benefit of getting out in the field 
> is that you have the opportunity of getting together with all of the 
> people that make this hobby and somewhat obscure field of military 
> radio collecting possible. New friends and old both local and from far 
> away along with new groups like the MMRCG coming on line to further 
> develop the hobby. I know I have implied this before but have to say 
> it again that if you donï¿½t come out to events like Dayton and take 
> part, then you have missed out.
>
> Suppose in these days of Email and web pages you can find some 
> fulfillment in staying in your basement and never venturing out to 
> Hamfest, reenactorï¿½s events or events like Aberdeen and Gilbert but at 
> least in my book if you donï¿½t take part you missed out.
>
> At least thatï¿½s how I see it, if your situation is different well then 
> thatï¿½s your thing isnï¿½t it.
>
> Significant purchases this last couple weeks included a British PCR2 
> invasion Broadcast receiver, although I only had it a couple days now 
> already know it was not intended as an entertainment receiver but was 
> to be used as a receiver after the D Day invasion to provide 
> information to military units. Itï¿½s an interesting looking receiver 
> thatï¿½s the size of a WS-19 with a minimum of controls that will make a 
> great addition to the collection and will require me to build up the 
> necessary power supply and do a hundred other things to get that back 
> into shape. I had no intentions of buying one but itï¿½s turning up and 
> being unusual to me just sucked me into buying it. Tried my best not 
> to purchase it by offering the seller a stupid low amount but when he 
> accepted had to buy it and now that I have it and in doing the 
> research and learning about it find it was worth twice what I paid for 
> it in providing me with this new project that I never saw coming.
>
> Speaking of education and the cost of it, the PCR2 is a good example 
> of something that at the time you buy it grows on you and turns out to 
> be a real value but there are other items that you become educated on 
> that are somewhat different. Back at FrostFest I bought a Motorola 
> HT-1000 handheld radio and convertacom. For years I have had some 
> strange desire to learn how to build code plugs and program Motorola 
> radios. Think I paid $20 for the first Motorola and then $30 or so for 
> the Motorola software and programing cable and then discovered that I 
> had to build up a 386 system running DOS to effectively use the 
> software. No big deal at first being I have several vintage military 
> laptops running 286 to 486 processors but like everything else I 
> decided that I need to build up a 386 system just for this function 
> and before it was over had to spend another $20 for a new ISA 
> controller card for the system that I was throwing together for that.
>
> Now that I can read, write and modify code plugs on the handheld I 
> have decided that my life wonï¿½t be complete until I have a full size 
> radio for my work truck. The same vehicle that is used to pull the car 
> trailer and go to events. Looking at what others have been doing it 
> looks like the Motorola Spectra is the radio to have. So while at 
> Dayton was walking around buying tons of Motorola Spectra stuff.
>
> Forgot some of the most basic rules of Hamfest, First: buy everything 
> together. Think I bought a radio here, a cable there and someplace 
> else the mounting bracket. Although everything was in the $5 to $20 
> price range it all starts to add up. Second: Buy it when you see it. 
> My wife always tells me that I am stupid to the extent that when I see 
> something that I want I should just go ahead and buy it. Instead what 
> I will do is look at it, talk to the seller and then walk away and 
> think about it and by the time I decide to buy it its gone. Could have 
> bought a milk crate full of everything I needed for $50 but because I 
> did not do it ended up spending more for all the items separately and 
> that had its own issues.
>
> Third: Trust No one! What is it that they say? ï¿½Everything works at a 
> Hamfestï¿½ bought two separate Spectras that were both allegedly VHF 
> sets to get them home and discover that one is an 800 MHz trunking 
> radio and the other is on 900 MHz making both radios useless. Itï¿½s not 
> just the thing that I am out around $50 for threes two useless radios 
> but if I had known what I know now about disassembling the radios to 
> see what range they are I would have been easily able to purchase the 
> correct radio at the event. There were tons of Spectras there being 
> these radios are not compliant with the new FCC rules on bandwidth and 
> I donï¿½t see any opportunity in the near future for picking one up now 
> short of EBay. So I figure I have about $200 sunk into this ongoing 
> Motorola software boondoggle with no clear end in sight but am just 
> going to figure that itï¿½s a cost of education.
>
> The good thing about Dayton is that it is the place for selling 
> military radios, I sold all three of the R-390A receivers that I 
> brought. Two working receivers and one parts radio that will provide 
> an education for its new owner and just about everything else that I 
> brought with me. So some items that you never anticipate things like 
> the PCR2 receiver that turn out to be big wins but other items like 
> the Motorola project can still frustrate but have to say at the end of 
> it all its way better to be doing this then just sitting around 
> talking about doing it or watching TV or some other useless pass time.
>
> Ray F/KA3EKH
>
>
>
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