[MRCA] Hagerstown MVPA Show AAR

Mon May 16 16:39:43 EDT 2022

Good report Ray, it was nice to work you while you were at the Hagerstown
show.

The RATT Net was tough as you noted but you were Lima Charlie for the MMRCG
and MRCA Nets.

Ken

KD2GFM

From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Ray Fantini
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 3:49 PM
To: MMRCG at groups.io; MRCA at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [MRCA] Hagerstown MVPA Show AAR

What was supposed to be achieved by this project?

The 48th Annual Blue and Gray Military Vehicle Show, at one time known as
Aberdeen was this last weekend. Starting on Thursday and ending Saturday.

I have attended this show for around twenty years now. This year the show
was hosted by the museum located at the old Fairchild/Republic plant at the
Hagerstown airport. 

What was actually achieved?

The plan for Saturday was to operate RTTY on 7.087 at 0900, MMRCG Net on
7.296 USB 1000 and MRCA M&S Net at 1200 local. And also knew that the annual
Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test. 

I arrived Friday and unloaded the mutt. With a laptop running MITTY software
and the GRC-106 I set up a test beforehand Nick K4NYW and that all worked
well. Did do a couple calls on 7.296 but no joy there.

All day Friday was misty and rain and a lot of the vendors decided to pack
up and go home. Because of this I was able to relocate closer to the center
of the event and packed up the mutt and relocated there.

Saturday morning arrived on site at 0800 and started getting everything
ready.

Checked into 7.087 RTTY Net just before 0900 with solid copy of K4NYW and
some of the others but did not have good copy on Ron K3TZJ or Ken KD2GFM,
the net went on for at least a half hour and by that time the battery for
the laptop was just about flat.

The 7.296 MMRCG Net was a challenge with NCS being out in Colorado and I had
week copy on him, but I did check in and was able to interact with just
about everyone.

After the MMRCG Net dropped the 40-meter inverted V and ran up the 60-meter
V. Was monitoring 5.357 knowing that WAR at the pentagon would be operating
and it was one of the handful of simplex channels they would be using.
Worked three different operators at WAR and also had several Hams that were
at the show operate the 106 so they were able to take part with the exchange
along with working as control operator for a couple veterans who worked with
radio in active duty and enjoyed the opportunity to work WAR. The operators
at WAR were also happy to have contact with the MVPA Show and the veteran
operators.

The 1200 5.357 M&S Net ran without issue having good contact with almost all
stations and just about everyone hearing me.

Had the URC-110 set up to monitor the Hagerstown tower on 122.30 and that
was popular with people at the event.

What aspects of the project work?

All the radios worked. The GRC-106 with inverted V antennas for forty and
sixty, the URC-110 for VHF/UHF, the big RT-524 along with the PRC-77 for
51.0 although did not hear anyone on that band. Think Tom was there and
attempted to call me on 51.0 but had the generator and the 106 running and
with all the noise did not hear the big VRC set.

The GRC-106 has no issue running extended duty cycle for RTTY and the only
limiting factors were the internal battery on the laptop and the noise from
the MEP-035 generator.

What didn't work and why?

If you have never used a MEP-025 or 035 generator its hard to understand how
loud they are. They start, run and make electricity just fine but they are
perhaps the loudest generator ever built, not just exhaust noise but the
3600 RPM engine screams while it running. I always try to keep it fifty foot
away from where I am but still it's an issue. Because of the noise I was
told that I was not allowed to use it and if I ran it again would be told to
never come back to this event!

The MEP-035 is a period correct generator to go along with the M151A1 MUTT
so that why I have been using it but looks like it will not ever be at that
show again.

Ended up having to run the engine in the MUTT to keep the batteries up for
running all the radios.

The laptop that I used for RTTY was an old Dell that I had and after wiping
decided to wipe all the programing on it and do a fresh install of XP, all
the sound and video drivers and MITTY only. Its maybe ten years or twelve
years old. The battery sucks due to its age but had a AC adapter and just
came across a 24 to 120 volt inverter so assumed I was going to be able to
use that. The two things that I did not count on were the wall wart for the
laptop or the inverter generating huge amounts of radio noise and never
expected the inverter to go crazy every time I transmitted so I was limited
to what time I was able to get using a very old laptop battery.

What would you change if given a second chance?

Not take the MEP-035. Test the RTTY set up before hand and work out system
for powering the laptop or maybe best to think of how or what to use for
field operated RTTY. Think a UGC-74 is just way to heavy to deal with. Do
have enough parts to maybe throw together another UGC-129 and that's half
the weight and uses standard typewriter ribbons.

Submitted by Ray F/KA3EKH

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