[NJARC] Fwd: [CC-AWA] Re: Any reports from AWA Rochester?

[oldradio at comcast.net]

Hi Gang,

Here's a report on the conference by Robert Lozier, read all the way down.

73, John


 ----- Original Message ----- 

From: kd4hsh 
To: cc-awa at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2010 4:58 PM 
Subject: [CC-AWA] Re: Any reports from AWA Rochester? 

Folks, 

Just taking a break before the banquet on Friday night.. I thought I'd make a 
few comments on the AWA Conference.. 

For me, the meet was a resounding success within minutes of arriving Tuesday 
evening. Geoff Bourne told me that he had found a radio I have been looking for 
some five years and it was in his van... Turned out, he was more than right! 
I have every intention of exhibiting it next year.. 

Tuesday evening you could preview the Babcock estate items and there certainly 
seemed to be 1920's items of interest even to advanced collectors. Wednesday 
from 9AM to 4PM Rich Esties auctioned without a break.. By the time it was 
over, about $94k was realized. 

It was obvious that the prices realized are down quite a bit from just a few 
years ago. I was able to pick up a couple of items so came away happy. 

Wednesday evening there was a pizza party with 4 piece band in the hotel.. At 
any one time there were 100 or so folks in the room... They had wanted to have 
it in the HUGE! Flea market tent but the Henrietta town noise ordinance is 
reported to have squelched their plans.. Still folks seemed to be having a good 
time. 

The tent erected in the back of the flea market was indeed huge and guaranteed 
that there would not be a rain-out. As it turned out, the weather was pretty 
close to fantastic. 

There were good items to be found in the flea market but it was clear that the 
participation of sellers is low. I would estimate that the good news is that 
the participation is on an upward trend for the second year in a row... 

There was plenty of time to enjoy lectures during Thursday & Friday.. 
The contest participation was good with a number of never-before-seen items. 
As is usual, the Friday flea market fell flat pretty soon and the hard-core 
buy/sell/traders were packing up after lunch. So more time of socialization and 
attending the lectures. 

Still looking forward to the banquet and the General Auction tomorrow morning.. 
It will be interesting to see how many folks show up here for the Rochester 
hamfest on the grounds tomorrow.. If nothing else, it will be an interesting 
experience. 

By mid afternoon I'll be on my way to an overnight stay in Harrisburg and then 
the drive back to Monroe on Sunday.. 

Will I be back?.. You bet! 

     Update - Saturday evening.... 

I'm in Harrisburg and looking to an early bed time.. Was up Friday to Midnight but out on the lot a little after 6AM. I just had to know how the Rochester hamfest was going to work out.... 

Errrr... What hamfest???? 

There were no hamfest people there AT ALL as far as I could tell. 

More than strange.... It will be interesting to find out what happened. I heard someone remark that they were wondering why it had not been listed as a ARRL sanctioned event in the last couple of issues of QST. 

The general auction Saturday morning was smaller than last year but there were certainly a number of interesting items available at generally lower than expected prices. It took Rich Esties and his crew right at 4 hours to move it through... 

A little strange on the timing.... The sale started at 9AM and it was pretty clear by 11 AM that the selling could be wrapped up by 1 PM but they stopped at Noon for lunch.... A lot of folks like me decided to bail rather than hang around to 2PM or so.... Note that the Babcock auction did not take a lunch break... 

There were a few interesting items yet to sell like a not-so-spiffy Mercury Super 10 (but a rare version) and a very fine looking A-K Model 50. I figured that both would be out of my budget range... 

Maybe other folks will now have some time to comment.... 

I'll still hope to be able to return next year for my 38th time in 39 years... 

Robert 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Roy Wildermuth" <w3rlw at ymail.com>
To: cc-awa at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2010 10:47:03 PM
Subject: Re: [CC-AWA] Re: Any reports from AWA Rochester?

  The local club that had promised to support the AWA Saturday event backed out at the last minute. Without their support the event failed. This was regrettable as the event could have been successful with the large amateur population in Rochester.