The AM Forum

I made the trek to the Shelby, NC hamfest this weekend. I stopped off first at Todd - KA1KAQ's new QTH in NC first. Joe - WA2PJP (who was QRV from the mobile with his G76 during the trip down and back- see photo) joined us there and we spent the night before heading to the fest. After checking out some of Todd's cool radio stash (KW-1, 30K and 300G - the big items among many others), Todd made some killer steaks on the grill for dinner (see photo).

The WX was perfect all three days with temps in the 80's, lots of sun and low humidity. This was the first time for all of us at the Shelby Fest. It is a very good one. It is quite large and there seemed to be a higher boatanchor quotient than many other fests. Check out the photos in this post and the following ones too. It was well worth the trip and I highly recommend the fest. I plan on attending next year.

TNX to Todd for hosting!

The fest is held at a park that has facilities for campers/RVs. There was a ton of them there. Some people show up well before the fest in their campers, so the fest actually begins days before the Saturday/Sunday official dates.

Lots of boatanchors and other good stuff, like parts. Check out the rare Squires Sanders Bandscanner.

More goodies. Check out the not often seen Sonar VFX 680. It was in the rack with a homebrew RF power amp. It was probably used as a driver.

A 250TH (there were several 304THs seen too) and a GPR90. I also recall seeing several DX-100s, a Viking I, several Rangers, and lots more receivers including a nice SX-62 with the speaker. I'm only scratching the surface. I'm sure Todd and other will remember some of the other good stuff.

Finally, Todd and Joe snagged some nice Voice of the Theater speakers. Each will take one and use it for the receiving audio in their stations. Can you say STRAP!?!  I knew you could.

Hi Steve and everyone !
       Shelby was a blast this year! I made it down about 2:00 PM on Friday and set up. In the grounds 1 pic, I can see the blue top of my easy up right underneath the first tree from the left. Friday night was a little bit of a challenge though as there was not much of a buffer betweem me and the ground; sleep was rough and very little. Tent camping for older people does require an air mattress or cot! However, as the sun grew a little brighter and a few stopped by to chat, my crankiness wore off and it turned out to be a great day. The sunburn pain has diminished somewhat also.
        Boatanchor stuff was good this year too. The amount of CB gear was NUTS! Geez, where did all that come from! You can't really rule out ALL of it because some of the stuff does have some really nice useable parts for HB stuff.
        I managed to score a decent shape ARC 5 tx for 5 bux. I did a little trading with WA7LYO for a BC-342 (am I in trouble here?), acquired another HQ-120 (my 5th one in the collection), and found a Cannon plug for my ART-13. As always, the advice, stories, tall-tales, and general you-know-what that usually goes on at gatherings like these is the greatest "find" to be had. Time to see and talk to old friends and to meet new ones.
I can't wait till next year!

73, Phil
       

Sorry we missed you Phil. I didn't wear any call sign hat or badge so we could have passed right by each other.

Yes, there was a ton of CB stuff. I don't think I've ever seen that much at a hamfest before. I must have seen 5-6 Browning Golden Eagle sets!

Hi Steve,

That looks like a great hamfest.  Reminded me of the Hamboree but much much bigger.   Steve tnx for all the photos which really help give an account.  There should be no problem hearing an AMer from any part of the house with one of those Voice of the Theater speakers.  The 75A2 looked real nice too. 

73

Rob K5UJ

Sure wish I was there...

Nice photos Steve !

Looks like everyone had a great time.

73,
Ken W2DTC

Need a D-104?

Good to see some BA stuff out there, even a GPR90...wow!

Was there much stuff like modulation and power supply iron, oil caps, bread slicers, panel meters, tubes, sockets, wirewound power resistors, etc, the kind of things you would need to build rigs?

Yes, tons of that stuff. I could have filled my car with bread slicers and oil filled caps. Todd even snagged one for his 32V power supply.

Yep, same footprint but an inch taller due to it being rated for 5KV vs 2KV for the original. Should fit OKFINE, though. Keep your eye on the zorching transmitter, it varies by the week.

Steve and I operated on 40m here Thursday afternoon and worked a few folks before the transmitter decided it needed a rest. If it's not one thing, it's another. To Frank, 'SQP: you've convinced me now that it's all your fault. ;)

As Steve said, the Shelby 'fest was GREAT! Reminded me a lot of the old Hosstraders 'fests at Deerfield when they filled the entire fairgrounds. It just went on and on and on. We had a spot reserved for us in Boatanchor Row by Nick K4NYW but didn't bring stuff to sell this time. There was stuff galore, an amazing amount of equipment, parts, cables, wire, tubes...pretty much everything you could imagine and more. And we got there 'late' since we arrived Friday. The 'fest officially starts Saturday morning, but folks start arriving Tues-Wed, and Thursday-Friday are big days apparently. FB as this year was mainly a scouting mission so we're better prepared for next year.

Picked up 1 radio, a pair of NOS RCA 7558s, and a few trinkets, the best find coming Sunday morning. Four NOS Amphenol 80-MC2M mic connectors complete with the panel sockets, for $5 total. It pays to check those boxes of misc. scrambled parts! TNX Joe for getting us back over there before the trip home. Joe scored a NOS Johnson 833 socket with matching plate caps and straps for pocket change basically, still in its original box. Can't remember what you got Steve beyond those Mini-Dux coils, just saw you taking tons of pics.

We really had a blast, great hamfest partners along with plenty of laughs. The only way we could've laughed more was if 'JN had been in attendance. Enjoyed dinner Friday night at a nice little Italian place, Saturday at a Texas steak house. Had some local BBQ for lunch at the grounds and what seemed like a gallon of fresh lemonade. Our hotel was about a mile from the grounds and right off the interstate for easy access. And the WX was perfect - blue skies, sunny, slight breeze. Though it was a bit stuffy upstairs in the working Cotton Gin building. Slab, you would've loved it.

Can't wait until next year!

Nice pictures!  I enjoyed meeting Todd, Steve, Joe and several other BA people.  By then, then (Sat lunch), the hard core was packing to leave, but I enjoyed looking at the old stuff.  At 67, I'm trying to mature a bit and build up/use some of the stuff already here.  My main interest seems to be authentic old HB stuff, but there is VERY little of it around because it was mostly scrounged for reincarnation into other forms over the years.I had never seen an Invader.  What a bizarre style...goes with car fins and such.
I think a lot of what I might have been interested in was gone by Sat AM.  I certaiinly didn't see any modulation xfmrs, which I might have snagged.  I did buuy a speaker mic for my little HT...much more convenient for walking around.

Wilson

My grandfather was in the radio, sound, and TV business almost from the beginning, in Winston-Salem.  He had some Voice of the Theatre speakers in the basement of his shop building, along with 50W amps with 807s.  They would rock the place.  Later he got the speakers from the State theatre and put them down there.  There were two 18" speakers in each of twoo big baffles, probably 6' tall and 8' long.  Treble came from two cellular horns, 24 cells about 6" square.  They had their own power supply for the fields.  What an awesome rig for pipe organ misic!  It was best to use tape, to avoid acoustic feedback from the turntable.  Does anyone remember the big cast iron turntables on floor stands, driven through a belt several feet long from another stand with the motor?  A brute force way to eliminate vibration!
73, Wilson

It was great seeing you again too, Wilson. No surprise we found you by the cotton gin. That experimental 110vdc light plant was neat, pretty sure Steve got some shots of it. Only 7 ever made, and there was one, popping along nicely.

Yes, the Invader and even the newer Ranger II and Valiant II look a bit too 'new' for my tastes. But it's a neat rig, built in a time when legal limit desk-top rigs were all the rage, from the Hallicrafters Hurricane to the National NCX-1000. Like you, the older stuff has always been my first love since getting into radio back in the 70s. Didn't see much of it there, though that S-77 with the RCA clock replacing the meter and genuine imitation wood grain contact paper stuck to it was.....well, it just was.

What a great bunch of folks - made us feel right at home and left us looking forward to next year. Steve will be back down this way eventually to help with some aerial work, perhaps we can get together then and haul out some of the old homebrew rigs. Maybe by then, stuff will stop blowing up.

There was an NCX-1000 for sale at the fest.

The cotton gin and associated power plant were very cool. The big old Fairbanks-Morse beast just chugged along. The Silver Light engine was tiny by comparison but very cool.

More gin pix.