On Sunday I attended the 2008 Westford, MA Radio Meet with Larry NE1S and Tim WA1HLR. It was a beautiful day for a drive down from Maine, and the trip took about two hours. The Westford meet is always a welcome relief from the long Maine winter, and a chance to see friends, pick up projects or find complete sets. I was a tad bit disappointed in this year's Westford, like most meets as of late, the numbers seemed down, but I enjoyed chatting with some of the regulars. Missed Ed White W1NPL, but saw most of the other crowd, Ray W1RY, Dave Crocker, and Ray Chase. John Terry, the editor of Antique Radio Classified, the publication who organizes the meet, was on hand, also saw several other hams, Mike W1RC and Howie W1CL.
I was hoping for a nice 1920s set, a Grebe CR-18 specifically, but nothing caught my eye, so I loaded up on books. Found some nice vintage theory books, ARRL Handbooks, Radio Boy books, and a number of 1920/30s Radio News magazines. Found a nice very early Boy Scout's Radio Merit Badge book, and the 1928 and 1934 ARRL Handbook in hardcover. I have not seen the old handbooks in hardcover before, they are nicely done with gold colored embossed lettering. The info inside is the same, and as the price was about the same as the paperback covers, in the bag they went. Also came across a very nice National FB-7 receiver instruction sheet, the early gear did not have "owner's manuals" per say, and a early National catalog from the 1930s. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I came across what I think is the correct replacement transformer for my Utah Jr. transmitter project, still in the Utah box!
Ran in my friend and the gentleman who writes the "Vintage Radio" column in QST, John K2TQN, he's quite a guy, and really does a super job getting the vintage radio interest play in QST. John and I share similar interests in the early days of the amateur service, mostly pre-war gear. He had found some goodies at the meet, but as I believe they may be mentioned in a future article, I won't spoil the surprise here, suffice to say that I was quite impressed! I believe that Larry NE1S came back empty handed as he was mostly on a parts hunt, and parts were few for the picking at this meet. Tim found a old GE console radio, looks like a early RCA set, understand that GE used to build for RCA, so Bessie hauled that back up to Maine.
After the meet NE1S, WA1HLR and I headed up to Merrimac, MA to visit the grave site of Major Howard Armstrong, a most solemn and sincere moment. The Major passed away 54 years ago, the time variously given as January 31 or February 1, 1954. It seems to common to see January 31 in written literature, but the marker stone notes the date to be February 1. His wife, Marion, passed on in 1979 and is buried next to Armstrong. The cemetery is situated in a very peaceful setting, on the top of a small hill, and the large stone is appropriately marked "He Leadth The Way".
We had lunch at a nice Mexican place in Amesbury which was then followed by a trip over to Andover, MA and a most enjoyable visit to the home of W1ZB. Gerry has a very nice and well organized collection of vintage gear, Collins, Hallicrafters and homebrew, and he played the consummate host, think we spent well over 2 1/2 hours there.
Arrived back in Maine about 5PM or so, after a full day of radio and fellowship, and loaded with plenty of reading material to carry me out through the rest of winter, and no excuse now for not finishing up the Utah Jr. transmitter project! More, including the Utah Jr. project, at Bruce's Bench -
http://www.w1ujr.net/bruces_bench.htmPaying Respects To The Major
(Left to right): Tim WA1HLR and Larry NE1S
