[MRCA] Eisenhower Farm WW II Reenactment Event AAR

[Mark K3MSB]

Hi Ray

Thank you for your comments.  I concur that the MRCA, MVPA, collectors, and
reenactment communities share a lot more in common that we have with modern
Ham radio.

I think some challenges, based upon your email and those from others, is to
better communicate when people are going to be at various events and also
to help individuals not affiliated with groups to be able to display their
radios as solo exhibitors.

Nobody outside of my reenactment group knew I was bringing HF radios.   As
mentioned, one Jeep Owner with 29 Mc Green Radios installed in his Jeep,
told me he could have brought HF gear.   He didn't because there is usually
nobody to talk to.

Same with BC-611s.   People don't bring them as they don't think anyone
will be there to talk to.

I'm going to start keeping a list of people that have an interest in going
to events and make sure they know what events I'll be at,  and I hope those
people will advertise well in advance the shows they will be bringing gear
to.

Lastly Ray, I don't know what to say about WW II events not wanting Vietnam
/ Cold war era radios. Those that put on the events make the rules.   One
reason that they don't want non WW II items at WW II events is that if they
make one exception, they may feel obligated to make exceptions for others.
No idea, just offering that up as a possible explanation.

73 Mark K3MSB

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 9:44 AM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

> Great job, often think today we may have more in common along the lines of
> shared interest with the Military Vehicle and collectors and reenactors
> community then what currently passes for the Ham radio community. In these
> days of micro size transceivers and automated contacts. But at the end of
> the day if you want to use your radios on the air you got to have the
> license, and we do have a thriving Boat anchor and AM community.
>
> Doing just WW2 you have a harder road to travel. Your limited to AM or CW
> and unless you are using some level of power and a good antenna your not
> going to get much love on 3885 beyond local contacts. Hamvention always has
> a good turnout of local AM QSO on 3885 and MRCA Gilbert will be beating the
> drum this weekend but unless you are doing a medium or high power set up in
> the field would not expect any success. Only time I have pulled off a QSO
> on 3885 under twenty watts was at the home QTH with a good antenna. Least
> that’s been my results.
>
> If you move a couple generations up, like Korean War or Vietnam you can
> start to use way better radios . The T-195/R-392 (GRC-19) can give you a
> 100 watts in the field or in my case running a GRC-106 allows you SSB and
> high power and with that gear its more of a real possibility of checking
> into existing on air nets. I regularly take part in things like the MMRCG
> RTTY Net on forty and the 7296 and sometimes 5357 USB Nets on Saturdays
> from shows, just running something like a BC-654 into a small vertical is
> not going to get you much more then local communications.
>
> The issue I found is that the reenactor community can sometimes get sticky
> about things, maybe my biggest complaint about the Reading show where they
> push this WW2 thing only mantra. One of my favorite local shows is the
> annual Delaware Goes to War event held at Fort Miles and have been doing
> that for years now but the local historical group the Fort Miles Historical
> Association has strict rules about it being a ww2  only and because I work
> directly with the state park people I and several other post war vehicles
> are allowed to set up only on the periphery of the event but not in the
> main compound.  Talked with the people up at Reading before about bringing
> my Vietnam – Cold War road show up and been told no thanks.
>
> This weekend will be the event at Gilbert, the Red Ball MVPA Show and Sale
> and for twenty years now they have supported the MRCA and our military
> radio show and field exercise in the Howell building and we are a mixed
> event not just limited to WW2 stuff but will have equipment there and
> operating that represent all generations. The field exercises will feature
> a large sixty meter net on Friday that includes multipole backpack and
> field radios and the ability for them to net with distant stations at the
> same time. We typically have at least a half dozen local participants on
> air and at least as many distant stations take part. We will also have a
> 3885 AM Net but see that as being just a local thing like our 51.0 and
> 144.25 opps.
>
> Anyway its great to see what your doing and hope this encourages others to
> get out in the field also.
>
>
>
> Ray F/KA3EKH
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net <
> milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> *On Behalf Of *Mark K3MSB
> *Sent:* Monday, September 22, 2025 6:46 PM
> *To:* ARC5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>; Military Radio Collectors Association (
> mrca at mailman.qth.net) <mrca at mailman.qth.net>; List Milsurplus <
> milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
> *Subject:* [Milsurplus] Eisenhower Farm WW II Reenactment Event AAR
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi Everyone.
>
> I spent last weekend participating in the World War II Weekend reenactment
> event at Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg PA.
>
> Photos and videos:
>
> www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/setup1.jpg
> www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/df_1.MOV
> www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/df_2.MOV
> www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/cw1.mp4
>
> Objectives:
> Educate people on the HF radios used on Allied Bomber Aircraft in WW II.
> Describe the differences between the Command and Liaison radios.
> Demonstrate netting a receiver & transmitter using a frequency Meter.
> Demonstrate how a DF unit works, and try to receive a real navigation
> beacon.
>
> Equipment used:
> SCR-247N.   Everything is dynamotor driven.
> BC-221-K Frequency Meter
> Bendix DU-1 Direction Finding Unit, ARA CBY-46145 Broadcast band (500 to
> 1500 Kc) navigation receiver, SCR-247N BC-453 Beacon band (190 to 550 Kc)
> navigation receiver.  All mounted on a $3 Hamfest special trashed-out
> FT-220-A    The dynamotor supplies power to the DF unit and either receiver.
>
> What did I expect to happen:
> Use the SCR-274N to talk to others at the event (or on 75 M)
> Use the DU-1 and associated receiver to illustrate how a pilot found his
> position, and give a general explanation of DF-ing.
> Demo the SCR-274N receiver when the generator was not on to power the
> transmitter.
>
> What Happened:
> There were no other active HF setups at the event for me to communicate
> with using the SCR-274N, and I was not able to raise anyone on 3885.
> Demo of the DF setup worked extremely well and was well received.    I was
> able to demo the MW receiver during the mornings as well as the BCB during
> the entire event.
>
> What went well and why:
> As at the Reading Airshow in June, the DF demo went well.  I had the ATA
> receiver tuned to an AM broadcast station and I explained how the operator
> would manually turn the DU-1 loop to find the maximum signal then report
> the bearing to the pilot (yes, I know they went for the null, but I didn't
> think that detail was relevant for my purposes).  I explained that the DU-1
> loop was normally mounted on the fuselage with an extension shaft to the
> operator's table, and I showed them the scales the radio operator used to
> determine the bearing to the station. I had an MN-36  Football next to the
> DU-1 for static display, and I explained that there was a loop inside the
> MN-36  that was motorized and worked the same way as the manual DU-1.
>
> I was delighted to be able to receive BZJ on 328 Kc during both mornings;
>  it is about 50 nm NE of the reenactment site.  I explained what an NDB
> was, how it was used, and the importance of IDing the beacon with the Morse
> identifier.
>
> I pointed out the dynamotor to the right of the Navigation receivers and
> the big TX dynamotor on the SCR-274N and explained their function – convert
>  28V from the aircraft electrical bus to the 200 volts needed by the vacuum
> tubes.  I used a pair of 100 AH 12V LiFePO4 batteries in series to power
> the receiver and loop.     I
>
> I used a 2nd pair of Lead/Acid batteries to power the SCR-274N receivers.
>   These were in series across my Astron 28V power supply to provide startup
> current for the transmitter (which turns on each time the mic button is
> pressed. in Voice mode.).   Without the batteries the breaker will trip in
> the Astron power supply.
>
> I explained the function of the command sets (short range air to ground /
> air to air) and contrasted that to the function of the Liaison radios (long
> distance). I showed them the inside of a command receiver as many of the
> younger people had never seen a vacuum tube. I explained what each box did
> and how they could be located in different parts of the airplane, and what
> the pilot's receiver and transmitter control boxes did.
>
> Instead of using my MFJ Tuner and my custom box containing a 4:1 UNUN and
> series matching capacitor, I just used a wire antenna and counterpoise.
> To determine max power, I used an old Heathkit field strength meter and
> tuned for max reading.  This worked well at my house with the antenna
> straight and the counterpoise running underneath it, giving me about 100 mA
> Ip on the SCR-274N.   At the event, the antenna was bent and the
> counterpoise only ran under it for about 10 feet,  and I was only able to
> get 50 mA of Ip.   Still,  50 mA of Ip would be sufficient to communicate
> over the event area......
>
> What can be improved and how?
>
> As already mentioned, there were no other reenactment groups on the field
> to talk to with the SCR-274N.  I made a point to look for BC-611's and
> found about 4 of them.    For 2 of them, the people watching their setups
> had no idea who owned the 611's or anything about them.  For the 3rd, the
> fellow had the guts removed and stuffed with a modern radio – I'm not sure
> to play a recording through or GMRS.   The 4th was owned by a fellow at a
> Navy display.   He knew what the 611 did and said it was original and he
> wanted to use it but needed to address the battery issue.   We discussed
> options on that.  He said he has two 611s but doesn't bring the 2nd as
> there is never anyone around to use them.  We exchanged emails and plan to
> work together for next year's event.   There was another fellow there with
> working radios in his Jeep,  but they were on 29 Mc which I don't have.
> He said he had radios that would work on 75M, but he never brings them as
> there is nobody around to talk to. So, I took down his name as well.
>
> It seems to be a common theme that people don't bring radios as there is
> nobody to talk to,  and of course there is nobody to talk to if people
> don't bring radios. I need to be more active on the reenactment social
> media pages and try to get people to bring radios to the various regional
> events so that we can have a net going.    I'm planning to do that over the
> winter.
>
> Get rid of the power supply in my BC-221K and use a battery with a DC-DC
> converter so that the unit will be portable.   This is a “nice to
> have”.....
>
> Conclusion:
>
> As with the Reading Airshow, the DF Demos were a hit, and people liked
> hearing CW from the 40M SCR-274N receiver.    The demos of netting the
> receiver and transmitter to the frequency meter were well received.
>
>
>
> In general people like seeing 85 year old stuff that still works, whether
> it's a radio or a Jeep.  I don't think they care if I can talk to anybody
> (but I do.....).
>
>
> I had one couple that were taking detailed photos of my radios as they
> said their uncle is 102 years old and was a radio operator during WW  II.
> I hope seeing the photos brings him fond memories.
>
> 73 Mark K3MSB
>
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