[NJARC] Hamfests of the past vs. Hamfests now

[antqradio at juno.com]

OK, make me yearn for the old haunts in NJ and PA!  Next thing you will
tell me is that an AR-88 went unsold for $10.00!

Certainly miss the Hamfest every other week during the summer.  Not so
lucky here in the mid-south.  Only about 6 a year that are within
reasonable driving range.  Reasonable is defined as under 300 miles but I
do make the exception for the Belton, TX Hamfest.  It is usually a great
fest but the rain last week did cause a low turnout.  Nice that it is
twice a year though.

Since there isn't a radio club of NJARC's caliber here, (what am I
saying, I haven't found a club anywhere that can even come close), I have
a few fellow boatanchor collectors that I correspond with.  The following
is my Belton report, with comments to make sense of it, enjoy!

Greetings
There was a bit of rain on the way down, heavy at times, but otherwise
the trip was uneventful.  Arrived at 5:30 AM and walked around the
outside vendor area.  Lots of wind damage.  Tarps were blown off of piles
of equipment, upset tables, you get the idea.  Found out from survivors
that Friday night had a lot of wind, rain and even some hail.  I was able
to sneak in one entrance while it was unguarded.  The building was about
half full of vendors due to the bad weather.  I started looking around at
the uncovered tables inside.  Mark M. spotted me and said hi.  I asked
him if he had seen Don and James on Friday.  He said no and then
explained why there was no Don (needed a new stint for his ticker).  As
for James and Rick, I have no idea.
 
Mark said that he had just about sold out on Friday.  One buyer bought
several hundred dollars of connectors and attenuators from scrapped
equipment.  He had lost two ARRL books due to the rain but the rest of
his truck load of equipment was no worse for the wear.  Also talked to
Jim S. and reported the Don story.  He was set up in his normal location
with the usual mix of equipment and literature.  By about 8 AM, there
were more vendors in the building, the usual Saturday only vendors and
those who didn't want to brave the rain outside.  The place was starting
to look normal.  Spotted the usual good selection of Boatanchors but not
as much test equipment as in days past.  A 51J3 and 51J4 were available
for $300 and $350 respectively.  I didn't ask the price of the Drake
equipment but there were a few complete stations available and in good
cosmetic condition.
 
What I cam home with:
ARC-4 VHF WW2 transceiver with equipment mount, remote control and all
connectors, pre-cabled, $10.00!
BC-345 control-audio filter boxes, twobuckseach so I got three.
Something that looks like it belongs to an ART-13, a VLF antenna tuner?
$2.
Various vacuum tube test adaptors, a buck each.  I got five.
28 volt, 12 amp regulated power supply.  Came with a 5-5 guarantee (five
feet, five seconds) for $5.
A bucket of meters, hopefully the one I need for the BC-640, $4.
A box of water soaked parts, transistors and a dozed or so 7 and 9 pin
tube pin straighteners, $10.
 
I left at 9:30 to go to Nortex, in Fort Worth.  I found out that Lewis
(82 years old and still works every day!) was in hospital.  He had had a
minor stroke.  So I went to see him.  Fort Worth is confusing to me so
the 20 minute trip took an hour.  He was in his normal good spirits, his
speech was just about normal and he had good motor control.  He even
walked me to the door when I left his room and almost ripped out his I-V!
 So I told him I would be back in a few months when he was back at work.
 
850 miles in 20 hours, all in a days work,
Jim

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 21:20:44 -0400 peter A markavage
<pmarkavage at juno.com> writes:
> Great hamfest on Sunday. Even sold some stuff and probably bought 
> more
> than I should. Sellersville is also a great hamfest for stuff.
> 
> Pete, wa2cwa
> 
> On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 15:04:04 -0400 "Poli, Louis C (Lou)"
> <lcpoli at agere.com> writes:
> > Steve;
> >  I attended the PackRats Hamfest in Wrightstown on Sunday.