Photos: Today's annual Midwest Classic Radio Hamboree

[K5UJ]

A few photos I took this morning at the annual Midwest Classic Radio Hamboree, which was held in Elburn IL and organized by the Midwest Classic Radio Net (3885 Saturday 7:30 a.m. Central time) and hosted again this year by Frank KC9NMA (thanks Frank!)

Let me get the bad news out of the way first:  I completely missed getting a shot of what I was told was a beautiful Temco RA-150 that was there for $600 (Arrrgh!  I'm still kicking myself for that, but there's a pretty good photo of one from Vortex Joe's shack here:

http://www.amfone.net/Vintage%20Radio/temco_ra150.htm

I also stink at names so I can't identify everyone in these photos (a lot of them are of what's important, the gear, anyway).

The day started out well enough at 7:30 a.m. with this smiling fellow but it was hot and muggy and we had a downpour in the middle of the auction about 2 1/2 hours later.

[K5UJ]

More photos....

[K5UJ]

3 more ...

The last one is for you vintage SSB guys...

[K5UJ]

more ...

[K5UJ]

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[WQ9E]

I didn't bring my camera with me but here are some photos of a few things that followed me home.  After going through heavy rain at the Hamboree about 20 miles from home I was down to 15 MPH in the heaviest rain I have seen since leaving Mississippi.  I am glad I was in the pickup instead of the car because it would not have liked the flooded roads!

[WQ9E]

And a few more items.

[K5UJ]

I think this is it for now...

Hi Rodger, with all this Mississippi humidity I guess there was a lot of water vapor waiting to drop out there today.   I once had to stop and get off the highway in Florida because I couldn't see through the rain.  It was more like a waterfall.  I'm still cleaning and sorting and putting away the parts I got.  It was good to see you there.

[K5UJ]

Here's a few more of the auction:  starting outside, then the rain, and continuing inside.  Our auctioneer was Harry N9CQX....

[ke7trp]

Boy.. Some real nice old gear at that swap and swindle!

C

[K5UJ]

Boy.. Some real nice old gear at that swap and swindle!

C

Not only that but the auction prices were incredible.  A new or almost new in box Wavenode RF2 watt meter (new these things list for around $400) went for $75.  Someone got a nice Belar AM mod. monitor for around $70 or $80.  Big dry dummy load, six 12 or 18 inch long noninductive 300 ohm resistors in a frame with a feedline for $17.  That thing with a fan on it will dissipate a lot of power.   I made the classic noob mistake of showing up with a thin wallet.  I did get some nice parts so it wasn't a complete wash, and the goodies went to some great guys who will put them to good use.  If every hamfest were like this one eBay wouldn't have a chance.

[ke7trp]

WOW>. Nice gear and Not ebay prices!   At hour ham fests, all I hear is "I saw one of these go for $450 on ebay so I want $450 and no lower". 

C

[KX5JT]

WOW>. Nice gear and Not ebay prices!   At hour ham fests, all I hear is "I saw one of these go for $450 on ebay so I want $450 and no lower". 

C

Tell em "So put it on Ebay, this is a hamfest, by hams and for hams!"

[Opcom]

Great post! Very nice old iron there! Dig that blue Crosley! A good repaint.. But the red Drake is a bit much for my taste unless the receive performance and leenyar's been hotrodded! NC300? - that was a great RX. I had one and loved the sensitivity.

How much did that large black military tuning unit DSCN0060.JPG go for? There's a guy that wants to pay < $200. I think it's a better unit that that, I mean the radio it went with was very respectable, and the TU looks like a KW or even 1.5 PEP easy.

I like the old crinkle black Meissner-dial RX with Thordarson iron there - what freq range/bands with so small tuning caps? VHF?

Oh man, I'da given you 3X on that 6-shooter dummy load!

haha great prices! yeah, the fishmouthers here are also always quoting the ebay prices for their junk at swaps.. But when they come to your table, they don't want to hear it, oh no, your stuff is crap. One-way only with them. Sort of like those guys are "price rectifiers", er, recumfiners, er, or maybe just azzhouls, well, whatever they are. We got 'em here in Texas, seems like that's most of what we got for hamfest sellers here, think everyone else is a rube. "put it on Ebay" yes sir that's exactly what to tell them after "No thanks, " Got to be polite. I swear they just want to display it, not sell it.

[WQ9E]

I like the old crinkle black Meissner-dial RX with Thordarson iron there - what freq range/bands with so small tuning caps? VHF?

The Meissner was called the "All Wave 14-5" with 14 tubes covering 5 bands from 540 Khz. through 60 Mhz.  using the 260 pf capacitor.  They made an almost identical unit that tuned from 140 khz. through 43 Mhz. (skipping the IF range) with slightly different coils and using a 410 pf variable cap.

It was sold as a kit consisting of the tuner unit with 8 inch dial and 2 speed drive, a matched pair of crystal filter transformers, a pair of "ferrorcart" IF transformers, BFO and AVC transformers, noise silencer transformer, and 5 shielded RF chokes,  The tuning circuit ceramic tube sockets were included also but it was up to the builder to procure the chassis and all other parts along with a front panel.

Mine also has a power supply filter choke and audio output transformer added to the original Meissner circuit.

[WQ9E]

The auction prices were very low and there was little interest in many items.  I bought 2 boxes full of new boxed tubes for $22.50 and got three 6JB6A, eight 6146B, eight 1625, six 6LQ6, and five 6HF5 tubes along with numerous rectifier and miniature 6 and 12 volt tubes.  I bought a box of transformers for $5 that had several heavy 6.3 volt filament types and it also had a Heathkit HD-10 keyer and manual in the box.  The Drake R-8 was $350 and came with the optional VHF converter and RS-232 interface.  At the end, it was pick a box for $2.

The other nice thing about this is the group consisted of users so you won't see this stuff popping up on ebay.  There was some interesting discussions in the swap area of several folk's experiences with a certain ebayer from Col. Sander's home state

[WA3VJB]

I had to look up that Mosley CM-1 because I never knew they made a receiver.

Description: The CM-1 covers the 80m-10m amateur bands plus WWV in seven 650 kHz segments, with a 12" dial scale. The receiver features an S-meter, noise limiter, variable BFO, and both AM and product detectors. Selectivity is rated at 2.5 kHz (-6db), stability at better than 500 Hz (after a brief warmup), and sensitivity at better than 0.5 microvolt for 10 db signal-to-noise ratio.

Thanks to James for the rundown and more photos --

http://www.miami.muohio.edu/president/personal/w8zr/vintage/receivers/mosley.htm

[WQ9E]

I hope someone bought the CM-1 because it is an unusual receiver.  I found one at a hamfest several years ago and have it paired with a Johnson Adventurer.  With the addition of a Q multiplier it makes a decent little receiver and is pretty simple.  Basically it is an 80 meter receiver with built in crystal controlled converters and you only need one spare tube type since all the tubes are the same.

I guess Mosley decided that it was best to stick with antennas.  My Gates BC-250GY transmitter came with a power reduction board (but no documentation) also manufactured by Mosley so they had some different ventures (and adventures) over the years.

[K5UJ]

Yeah, the CM-1 (I guess CM stands for Carl Mosely) was an eye-opener.  Rodger told me it was rare when we were standing around looking at it.  I don't know what the guy wanted for it.  I was in parts hunting mode at the time.  

Rodger, good you got the tubes.  I am ashamed to say I was getting greedy and peeved that I let some things get away.  Jack K9ACT got a bag of rheostats I was eyeing.  But I got a nice big buck transformer for $3.  I may have pulled it out of the box that you wound up getting--oops    I got a couple of boxes of resistors and caps, small ones, metal poly film, dipped micas, disc ceramics...

Patrick, yeah I dug the look of the Crosley receiver.  I have seen other Drakes with the red treatment.  There is something about that combination that appeals to some operators I guess.  I thought it made that photo look photoshopped but no, it was a completely un-touched photo.  the black wrinkle tuner was a BC939, the companion random wire tuner for the BC610 and another version goes with the T368.   I don't know what the seller wanted for it.  Maybe Rodger knows.  I have never used one but I have been told (I think Clark mentioned this here in some other forum lately) they aren't useful stock for anything other than tuning an electrically short wire.  A friend told me there was an article in ER in the past on modifying one for use in typical feedline matching Z ranges and I hunted my ER index for such an article but could not find anything.   I just like looking at them because they are so built.  Everything about them is incredible by today's standards.  If you ever hear a ham whining about why on earth would anyone want to mess around with all that "old junk," you could point to a BC939 and ask him to buy something like that new today.   There are three porcelain roller inductors in it, a massive ceramic rotary switch, two vacuum caps, ceramic shaft insulators, two or three turn counters with brass gears....I told someone I'd love to have all those parts but buying one then dismantling it for the parts to me would be unconscionable.  

I think one of the more remarkable things was that a nice looking TS830 came up for auction at $125 or maybe it was $150 and went unsold.  

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I had the CM-1 version on the right. No differences except the front panel cosmetics. It was a terrible receiver for the upper bands. Also, strong 80 meter signals would bleed through when you operated any other band above 80 meters. Finally cured most of that by adding a tunable front-end HF preamp(I think it was an Ameco). Selectivity wasn't the greatest either. I think they used several neon lamps as voltage regulators. It may be rare, which is probably a good thing, but it definitely fell into the "it sucked" class of receivers.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Those CM-1s pop up from time to time. Probably not 'rare' per say, but certainly scarce. Always got the feeling the prices reflected the availability more than performance, like the SX-88.

Rob, Thanks for posting this info! It's great to see such interesting gear from the midwest area, with similar reasonable prices to what we're seeing back here on the east coast. The 'ebay' argument holds less and less water as prices continue to slide there as well. 4 years into NEAR-Fest, we've repeatedly seen an abundance of classic gear with 'reasonable' (to most of us) prices. I chalk it up to a combination of folks being sick of dealing with all of the ebay rules/nonsense and shipping hassles along with rediscovering the hamfest with its fun beyond simply 'the stuff'. I wonder if Bob 'RAN made it?

Rodger, that Meissner is sweet! What a piece of work. I bet 'JN and 'KPD will be drooling when they see the photo. A true old buzzahd receiver. Dare I ask how much it was? Please say it wasn't one of those $15 table finds.

[Carl WA1KPD]

 
Rodger, that Meissner is sweet! What a piece of work. I bet 'JN and 'KPD will be drooling when they see the photo. A true old buzzahd receiver. Dare I ask how much it was? Please say it wasn't one of those $15 table finds.

Please. please do not say it was a $15 dollar table find. If it was anything less then $250 please lie about the price for the sake if my sanity...
Carl
/KPD

[K5UJ]

Thanks Todd.  I'll bet the CM-1s get sold because they are unusual, then the owner is somewhat disappointed in the receiver operation depending on how they want to use it, so it goes up on a shelf.  Evenutally if they need some money, they sell it to the next fellow who buys it for the novelty.  It is an interesting rx design wise using all the same tubes for example.   Rodger got that Meissner at the end when they were giving things away.  Someone pressed it into his hands and said, "Just take it."  Okay kidding--i have no idea what he paid for it.

Yes Bob W9RAN was there, and we had a great time talking about broadcasting and the HT20 restoration.  He has his on the air and working FB.  So I'm motivated to get mine going.  Besides Bob there is only one other guy around here I know of who has one and that's N8UUH.  I wish I could have talked to Bob longer (that's true with everyone there).  The problem with these things is they last a few hours, and there are 50 people you want to visit with, so you run around and never get enough time with anyone.   I wish it were a day long thing, or an evening before and morning.

Rob

[WQ9E]

It was $150 but the prices have been dropping so don't feel bad  I really like the looks of it and that was the asking price and I didn't try to negotiate.  The Temco RA-150 was in the van next to the table where I bought the Meissner.  It was tempting but I really don't have room for a really big fairly low power transmitter.

I really have gotten stuck in the 30's lately.  As soon as I finish the SX-42 for my daughter the Meissner goes on the bench followed by a Patterson PR-10.  Someday I would love to find one of the Pierson Delane PR-15 to go with my other Karl Pierson designed gear.

[Carl WA1KPD]

It was $150, but the prices have been dropping so don't feel bad  

First Johnny picks one up in front of me for $40. There was one on ebay about a month ago that went for around $250 and one sold yesterday for $342. It's OK. I can deal with it

Carl
/KPD