First thought about the Hamvention and other things.

 

Thursday:

 

On Thursday unlike all the hard pack that do Wednesday at Fair Bernie and I went up 75 to Fair Radio. It’s not what it once was. Still had some cool items for sale but also a lot of junk and stuff that needs to be disposed of and a serious lack of lighting. Only a small fraction of original lighting works in that building and in a couple places in the back the roof is starting to go.

Still think it was worth the trip but next year will be at the Hamvention only, it cost around $30 worth of gas to go from Dayton to Lima and Phil makes it clear that although you may be there in person there is no cash discount or bundling and you are going to pay the exact same amount as what’s in the catalog.

 

After returning to Dayton did go to Midwest Electronics and bought a bunch of stake on connectors, heat shrink and capacitors.

 

Friday at the Hamvention:

 

We got on site early, worked for a little with the MMRCG crew in putting up the there big tent and camo cover and started looking around. Bernie picked up a couple R-392 receivers and a GSB-900 from our next door neighbors and we set a bunch of stuff out for sale and did well with that. One of the things I sold was the Harris RF-5022 that has been giving me fits with its failed A21 card but now that problem is solved! Used the money for that to purchase a AN/PRC-74 with the battery box, antenna and all the other accessories for $375.00 Lots of other radios were present including numerable BC-348 receivers from $75 to $300, tons of R-390/A receivers in the $350 to $700 range and more Collins S line stuff then you can imagine. There were a couple but not as many of the ARC-5 sets as has been in the past.

Somehow unloved items like High Band Motorola radios always turn up at my space and this year I was gifted three Spectras, I love that stuff so wont complain.

At three that afternoon we had the first AA-83 Net on 5357 with W3A as the net control station, had seven stations that checked in.

In addition to all the Harris stuff I had for sale also dragged out my AN/PRC-77 and had that on the table and that was a big hit with everyone wanting to look at it and tell about how they used that radio. One of the reasons I wanted the PRC-74 is that when I do all the different military shows with the mutt I always include the PRC-77 and now have the HF portable to go along with the VHF set.

 

Saturday at the Hamvention:

 

It rained overnight so we drug our feet on getting to the site. Everything was wet but no rain when we got on site around eight. Set up, walked around and all that sort of stuff. Oddly I did not buy anything Saturday but did sell a lot of small stuff. Well did buy a Motorola Spectra base station for $3 and also a couple low band Mitreks were thrown in for free!

Did not notice any more sellers and thought the crowd was a bit smaller then Friday.

At noon we had the annual 3885 WW2 Pack net and this year we had Joe WA4VAG as the net control station. We did have some issues with the microphone button sticking on the transmitter, it is a old T-17 microphone and has a bad habit of sticking on if your not careful so that’s my fault and do apologies for that and we also had some issues with a couple of the pack stations having extremely low modulation and others who mysteriously went away, maybe dead batteries and now know in retrospect that I should have provided headphones for Joe so once again that’s my fault so I will attempt to do better for next year. We had a total of around seventeen stations check in. Between running back and forth between my space where I had my PRC-103 set up and the MMRCG tent missed my second round participation entirely.

At two that afternoon the 51.0 FM Cold War Net was a lot less hectic, had a total of around forty check ins for that net with PRC-25/77, PRC-68, PRR PTT-9 sets and a good assortment of other sets including brought back Iraqi war trophies and old Soviet sets.

I used the PRC-77 that was on display at my table.

Around three that afternoon everyone started packing up and by five most departed. Saw maybe three or four people that were staying for Sunday but not many. We were on the road Saturday night and wanted Sunday as a travel day.

 

Well that’s what I saw, lots of us were there and as always will say that if you were not there you missed out.

Nicks pictures tell a better story then anything I can say:


 https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNIFTgUqiSTFyaPeZjt7-Whll5ZfxZkGc-sC4EVG5cIm6POmOBBppF67sC_4Fe9UA?key=QVhYZUNxNGI4UDdYdkRfd3kwY0RxZVpOaFhtcFhR


Ray F/KA3EKH