The AM Forum

To you guys lucky enough to go how about some reports, reviews, etc, etc?  May the gat gods of the flea market smile upon thee!

TIA.

73,

Michael, W1RC

Walk On By: http://w5kub.com/

Hi Mr. Mike,

I be here with my buddy Pat.  We are celebrating 50 years as licensed hams by attending Dayton for the first time.   :o

Mayham at Dayton!!

http://www.noiseblankers.com/hijinks/2013/5/17/confused-protestors-picket-dayton-hamfest-then-leave.html (http://www.noiseblankers.com/hijinks/2013/5/17/confused-protestors-picket-dayton-hamfest-then-leave.html)

HA! Some funny stuff on that site.

Does anyone remember the guy last year that ran his cam to and from the fester, he also gave away prizes and was live as well at the fester?  I thought he was using cell towers but it turns out that he has a sat fone.

I looked on the site and there is no mention of him??

answered my own question. Here is the link.

http://w5kub.com/ (http://w5kub.com/)

The bluegrass dudes were there again this year:


Part I (http://www.youtube.com/embed/4xZkGLyKW0M)

Part II (http://www.youtube.com/embed/F7VUYZyCKDY)

That open back banjo gets lost in the mix.

Thanks for posting -- nice to see & hear them again.

Steve, the guy in the gray shirt works near you in NN although he's an 8.  I looked him up a few years ago and told him about the earlier version.

He passed the link around and they all got a big kick out of it.

If I saved the email, Sam you can have the honors this time. Will PM ya.

It's been reported that Flex announced that the Flex 5000A has been discontinued. Manufacturer of case assembly is discontinuing that type of work. Redesign, retooling, and retesting for a new case design, at this stage of the Flex 5000 life cycle, probably didn't make much sense to do.

The Flex haters will be happy.

For you diehards.

The 24th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards
Thursday
September 26, 2013

Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Memorial Auditorium

Raleigh, North Carolina

followed by

Wide Open Bluegrass Festival
September 27 & 28, 2013

Raleigh, North Carolina

Red Hat Amphitheatre, Raleigh Convention Center, City Plaza

It will probably drive the used market up. From what most people say who own them, it seems like a fine radio.

And I thought my students had good excuses for not doing homework.
This is from the company that promised the 6000 in 4th quarter 2012 and made you pay a hefty deposit for the priviledge of waiting AND STILL WAITING

Mine is outstanding on AM.

The Flex copy(in duplicate) of the QS1R, Persus, et al with slightly higher sampling rate hardware I think is ready. It's all the skyware /software that's the hang up.
Slices, chunks and promises are somewhat harder to deliver in seven simultaneous second comings.  ;D

Anyway, who all went?
What goodies did you acquire?

I've heard several similar on the air, but they were mainly SSB aficionados.

PM'd you the email addy of the feller with the banjo.

He and his fellows will probably get a kick out of seeing this footage.

At Dayton this past weekend, I visited the Morse Telegraph Club stall, and an interesting subject came up, a rumour that the FCC had outlawed the use of the American landline Morse Code on the amateur bands. Jim Wades, WB8SIW, told me this was started by a retired FCC official who writes a monthly column in a ham publication. The first name to come to mind was Riley Hollingsworth, whose column appears in CQ magazine. Jim said no, it was not Riley, but he couldn't think of the person's name. It immediately dawned on me that it was probably Johnny Johnston, who wrote a monthly column in the now defunct World Radio magazine. That jogged Jim's memory, and he said yes indeed, that's who it was.

This smelled just like Johnston, who is apparently still trying to pull punches and screw over certain classes of amateur operators he doesn't like, even years after retiring from the FCC. John B. Johnston, now W3BE, was chief of the amateur rulemaking division of the FCC for over 25 years, starting in 1973, until he retired in 1998. During his quarter-century watch, we saw a lot of damage inflicted on the amateur service via radical changes in the FCC rules, even though some of the more outrageous docket proposals were dismissed due to widespread public opposition as expressed in the comments submitted.

My first introduction to Johnston was at the Dayton FCC forum circa 1974, when he introduced the amateur community to Docket 20777, the infamous "bandwidth" proposal that would have redefined sub-bands and permissible emission modes in terms of signal bandwidth rather than emission type. The official title of this proposal touted the word "Deregulation", but the proposal was worded in such a way as to preclude double sideband AM on all phone bands below 28 MHz, as well as fast-scan TV in the 440 MHz band. After the forum, a group of AM and FSTV enthusiasts tried to further discuss the proposal with Johnston, but he quickly turned away and said he didn't have time to talk about it because he had to leave to go to another forum at a CB get-together.

It was Johnston who ushered in the 1983 revision to the amateur power limit, defining legal power in terms of p.e.p. output. One of the side effects of this change appears to theoretically reduce the legal power limit for AM phone to about one-half the previous limit, while doubling the limit for certain other modes, including RTTY, which Johnston had previously said was one of his preferred operating modes . Several individuals as well as the ARRL submitted Petitions for Reconsideration, that would each have in some way, grandfathered in the old AM power limit.

At a subsequent Dayton FCC forum emceed by Johnston, he revealed that the Commission had pulled out an old Petition for Rulemaking submitted by a ham in Texas that had lain unacted-upon for several years, and assigned it an RM-number, asking the FCC to outlaw AM phone on the amateur bands. The subject of Johnston's presentation that year was that the amateur community, with their newly-acquired computer word processors, was wasting the Commission's time by flooding them with frivolous rulemaking petitions.

He used as an example, the AM power issue. His line went something like this: "Here, we have two petitions. One, submitted by an individual in Texas, wants to eliminate AM altogether, while another, submitted by the ARRL, seeks to CHANGE THE RULES to allow AMers to run TWICE AS MUCH POWER AS EVERYBODY ELSE." Johnston's deceptive strategy was to imply that the FCC was going to be even-handed in the matter when they dismissed both petitions.

Fortunately for American Morse enthusiasts, someone contacted the people presently in charge at the FCC, and they essentially told him that Johnston didn't know what he was talking about, no longer has any official standing  at the Commission, and that American Morse is still legal on the amateur bands, as long as the stations identify using the regular International Morse Code.

For more on this story, go to:

http://www.kb6nu.com/american-morse-ill ... ham-bands/


http://www.kb6nu.com/more-on-american-m ... dio-bands/

Note: the individual in question is John B. Johnston, not Gary Johnston.

I've posted about 400 photos of Dayton boatanchors at
http://www.virhistory.com/ham/dayton-13.htm
cheers,
Nick K4NYW

The flea market area was awsome.I picked up a handfull of unobtainium[pt243 crystals in the ham bands that are at least grindable for usable AM frequences]for a buck each and a 35 watt HT amp for 10 bucks that works.We met Gordon West.For a famous dude he is very freindly.Phil kc4vwu filled the back of the jeep with wonderful boat anchors.It was my first time and it was a blast.       Mike

Nice job, Nick.  Quite a lot of gear to look at.

The last eight pics...  Robert / W0VMC has one of the prettiest combinations of commercial cabinetry, homebrew additions and modifications I've seen.

T

Thanks for recounting some history important to our part of the hobby, Don.

For years, Dayton was "the" venue for announcements from the FCC affecting the Amateur Service. Although Johnson is clearly a has-been, did you get a sense there was anything newsworthy from current staff this year?

A runner-up to the regulatory Hall of Shame has to be ex-ARRL staffer Paul Rinaldo, for much the same approach that the former K3BNS took when he was at the FCC.  Fortunately, most of Rinaldo's push failed.

Where DO these people come from?

The flea market was great. I wound up with three Viking II's. I just couldn't say no the price. Also a unidentified National receiver.See attached pic.

73 John N8QPC

Looks like an AC/DC R-115 used by the US Coast Guard. Similar to NC-200 less bandspread and crystal filter. Identifying plate on the left side is missing.

Thanks for the info. It came to me as part of a package deal. It don't look too bad inside, but it won't win any beauty contests.

John

Pete any idea where I may find a schematic for that receiver. A service manual would be nice but I would settle for the IF frequency.


73 John N8QPC

And the burning question: Did it rain?

I don't think it did but the sewer was especially smelly this year. It has something to do with the aging ham community per the stink squad :-X :-X 

We talked about this receiver briefly back in 2011: http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=29847.0
Have no clue where you could get a schematic. Use the NC-200 info. National made few dedicated service manuals. Any service related information came in their operating manuals.
Hey, its got four 117N7 tubes in it and it's AC and DC; that's cool; watch what you ground; personally, I would have dumped it as quickly as I got it.

Pete I tried to get rid of it but no one would bite. I am going to see how it will play with a little TLC. I figure it deserves a chance. It was part of the best deal of the swap. It was late Saturday and some fellow had the receiver and two Johnson Viking II's stacked by his car. He was getting ready to leave and offered me all three for twenty bucks. So that was the cause of another year I brought home more than I took with me. When will it end?

John N8QPC

There was no rain on friday but it rained off and on saturday ,hard at times. I got pretty wet but it felt good in the heat.Fleamarketiers covered their stuf for a while but nobody left.I cant tell you about sunday because we left saturday night.

I was there on Friday and Saturday, went up to Fair Radio on Thursday being that I was in the neighborhood. Did rain on Saturday and think that drove attendance down on Saturday but Friday was good day. Saw lots of R-390 receivers including several parts sets and a high number of R-388 receivers along with all the usual overpriced Collins stuff. I took a truckload of junk and sold all of it, but also bought a bunch of junk and brought it back with me. Not a bad year, and considering that the Hara arena is still a dump with the parking lot being a sea of pot holes have to say there’s no other Ham fest that I have been to that compares.

How's the "new" location for Fair Radio? 
I was at the old location a couple times, wow, was that a gold mine.


Surprising that you saw so many R-390, usually they are outnumbered by R390A.
I'm sure you know they are vastly different inside.

My mistake, think they were almost all A series. Never been to the old Fair location, just the new place off 75 that use to be a lumber yard. The front of the building is nice being there is light but the back half is full to the ceilings with rows of stuff but you have to use a flashlight to see anything. There is also a lot of stuff piled up outside.
 

There are a bunch of Hamvention 2013 videos on youtube.  Heres a video slideshow from the guy that posts one of these every year.


Hamvention 2013 slide show (http://www.youtube.com/embed/-R5yCF1GlRw)

I saw 3 or 4 R390s.  To me that was an unusually high amount.  At a lot of fests I go to there isn't a single one.  All 390As.

I took a batch of photos at Fair Radio on last year's visit - will give you the flavor of the "new" place.
http://www.virhistory.com/ham/fair-12.htm
cheers,
Nick K4NYW

I purchased an RX-1 Mohawk for 50 bucks that works! I have it on the bench right now warming up for an alignment. Also purchased an HQ 129-X for parts fo 35 bucks. Its going to help restore mine. A few odds and ends and also picked up most of the accessories i needed for my BC1000 packset. Great times!

Well THAT was magic -- I opened up your page Nick and I smelled MFP & dust.  Amazing.

Thanks for the shots. I guess Sellati made the right move.

I went all three days, and it did rain on Saturday for a while.   The arena areas were PACKED  for a couple hours so I just sat in the seating above the crowd.  I got a nice 141T with three RF and a pair of IF plug-ins.  Also bought a junker HT32.

I AGREE 100% 8) 8) 8) 8)