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Author Topic: NearFest Reports  (Read 20596 times)
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W3GMS
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« on: October 10, 2014, 07:02:58 PM »

Any reports from the NearFest gang?  I am sure right about now the AM dinner is happening at Johnson's Seafood & Steak! 

Joe, GMS
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Carl WA1KPD
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« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2014, 07:54:58 PM »

Excellent wx, nice turn out and a lot of good stuff So far,so good
Carl
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« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2014, 08:06:35 PM »

Excellent wx, nice turn out and a lot of good stuff So far,so good
Carl
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Thanks for the report Carl.  Sure wish we were there! 

Joe, GMS
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« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2014, 10:04:16 PM »

  Drove up from the South Shore, Kingston, MA. with a high school friend who is interested in amateur radio. It was a LOVELY England Fall day, 50's when I arrived at 8:40 and in the low 60's when we left at 1 PM. Would have liked to stay longer but had a family affair to attend that night. Didn't know about the AM Dinner until I got home today. Maybe when I make my annual visit next year which will likely be for a month instead of over two weekends.
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« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2014, 09:45:48 AM »

  Drove up from the South Shore, Kingston, MA. with a high school friend who is interested in amateur radio. It was a LOVELY England Fall day, 50's when I arrived at 8:40 and in the low 60's when we left at 1 PM. Would have liked to stay longer but had a family affair to attend that night. Didn't know about the AM Dinner until I got home today. Maybe when I make my annual visit next year which will likely be for a month instead of over two weekends.

No doubt you had a great time Tom.  I have been to many Ham Fest over my 50 years or so into this hobby and I have never found a Fest I liked more than NearFest.   

Joe,  GMS
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AJ1G
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« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2014, 02:20:00 PM »

Excellent wx, nice turn out and a lot of good stuff So far,so good
Carl
/kpd
A great WX day for sure, good to see everyone, as usual the stuff is secondary to the socializing.

Carl , thanks for that Carter Genemotor, it turns out the input voltage is 5.5 DC, so it will work great with the homebrew mobile for a '46 Ford I may build someday.  Or I could run it on 12VDC and crank out over a KV!

Did score some nice stuff, a nice WS19 MK II dyno PSU from Jeff, W1AEA.  Mine has been making rockcrusher noises for as long as I have owned it, so maybe this one will be a little quieter. A VERY buzzardly WW1 aircraft intercom carbon mic with a breastplate and straps, at first I thought it was very early Navy sound powered mic. Also a very nice German 2kHz to 18 MHz frequency selective voltmeter, similar to the RYCOM sets, always wanted to play with one of those in the VLF  part of the spectrum, now need to make up a good loop antenaa for it for that purpose. 

Next time my GE Progress Line 2M CB/Doorstop with GLB synthesizer goes up to Deerfield it's free for the taking...place your orders now.  But you have to take the GE box along with the GLB!
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Chris, AJ1G
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« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2014, 02:54:24 PM »

It's a funny thing: when you're at Near-Fest for a particular item, everything else just seems to fade into the background. I just picked up a KWM-2A for MARS, and I needed a power supply for it, and there was nothing resembling a 516F-2 to be found.

While I was traipsing around searching for a Collins-cane-metal box, perhaps a 312B-4, I passed by a very nice T4-X that had been rehabbed, and of course when I went back it was gone. I was surprised to see very few boat anchors from the days of my youth; there was an HQ-180A that I passed by several times, very slowly, and finally decided against buying, and a Drake 2-B with the Q-multiplier/speaker, but nothing else caught my eye.

A friend pointed me to a table where there was a PM-2 supply, which I got for a good price since the owner had bought it for parts. I'll have to dig into it and get some locking screws for the KWM-2A, but that was the only Collins power supply to be had.

There was, however, a high note: TimTron brought a Globe Champion which he gave me, and all I need to do is finish my Class E build, and I'll be an AM Gangsta! ;-) I spent an incredible amount of money on a Johnson 122 VFO that needs a new cord (Octal plug and cover, $4, thank Ghod for the vendors), since Tim had already set up the Globe for a 122.

W1AC
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« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2014, 03:01:00 PM »

Next time my GE Progress Line 2M CB/Doorstop with GLB synthesizer goes up to Deerfield it's free for the taking...place your orders now.  But you have to take the GE box along with the GLB!

OMG, do they still make vibrators for those?  Wink

W1AC
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« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2014, 03:06:18 PM »

It was a LOVELY England Fall day, 50's when I arrived at 8:40 and in the low 60's when we left at 1 PM.

I was perfectly prepared for the morning, but then it actually got warm in the afternoon, so I went to my car and put on the only short-sleeved shirt I had handy, which was the emergency-orange "Volunteer" shirt from WRTC2014. Being a subtle, reserved kind of guy, I elected to wear the medal that I had picked up from Tom at the WRTC2014 booth, so those of you who remember an orange guy with a medal, well, that was me, being subtle.

W1AC
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« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2014, 04:21:28 PM »



OMG, do they still make vibrators for those?  Wink

W1AC

Well they worked last time I had that beast running about 20 years a ago.  Been a lot of traffic on the WS19 list about someone making up solid state replacements for the ones in the WS19 Mk III PSU.
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« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2014, 05:37:14 PM »

OMG, do they still make vibrators for those?  Wink

W1AC

Well they worked last time I had that beast running about 20 years a ago.  Been a lot of traffic on the WS19 list about someone making up solid state replacements for the ones in the WS19 Mk III PSU.

I had a brief stint fixing "pre-prog" and Progress-line radios for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1972, and there were transistorized plug-in replacements for the vibrators even then.  I always like the Progress-line units: I thought they were easier to work on than the Twin-V units we had, and a lot roomier than the Mastr II transceivers which we were using to replace the tube-type gear.

This ties into the thread about Near-Fest, too: I saw a lot of tables with Motorola and other commercial FM gear, and I was thinking that someone could do well if they had a shop set up to offer such "retired" commercial gear to hams. After all, didn't every young ham want to be Brokerick Crawford at least once in their life? Wink

W1AC
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AJ1G
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« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2014, 06:26:34 PM »

Quote
This ties into the thread about Near-Fest, too: I saw a lot of tables with Motorola and other commercial FM gear, and I was thinking that someone could do well if they had a shop set up to offer such "retired" commercial gear to hams. After all, didn't every young ham want to be Brokerick Crawford at least once in their life? Wink

I have been seeing all those commercial FM sets for years and always wondered if anyone actually buys that stuff and why.
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« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2014, 11:02:19 PM »

Regarding all the commercial gear on the tables at NearFest, some of us adapted commercial gear to FM repeater service but the trend today is to buy ready mad repeaters or adapt rice boxes to repeater service.

I'm sure there are still folks out there that would still do that but what with the reduction of interest I wonder.  Back in the day, our radio club was basically born out of the rising popularity of repeaters. I came involved when our club was using the GE Progress line - tube stuff.  After a while I was given several RCA 500 and 700 series systems.  Two 500s  I converted over to 2  meter and 70 cm service.  A 700 series was converted over to 2 m service.  All that's left is a 500 series on 70 cm and a 700 series on 2 m. One in the care of a friend of mine on 70 cm and the 700 series in coordinated under my call.

My point is that I wonder if there is really an interest in the challenge of converting these commercial beasts over to amateur service - hence the tables loaded with this stuff from year to year.


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« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2014, 11:34:04 AM »

Hi:

I could not attend Friday and heard the weather was FB then. I attended Saturday AM and got about 1/2 hour in before the rain started. I should have brought a heavy coat and gloves (it seemed to be in the 40s), but did have an umbrella. It was difficult to see what folks were selling as most of it was under tarps by that time. I did purchase a K7DYY Senior transmitter for $60. Hope to try it this evening.

Saw a few folks, but left around 11AM due to the rain and chilly temps. Happy the car has a heater!

73,
Dan
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« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2014, 05:15:49 PM »

I wonder if there is really an interest in the challenge of converting these commercial beasts over to amateur service - hence the tables loaded with this stuff from year to year.

No doubt it would have been easier when the FM repeaters were first getting popular, but I think there would be a market if a club or radio shop would set them up and support them in a given area. We've all tried the Chinese rigs - I dropped my UV-5R at the fest, and now it's dead - and the ruggedness and reliability of the commercial designs would be a welcome change, if there was a place to take it for programming or crystals and tuning.

I got the idea when I read about a club in Chicago which had put together 160M mobile kits for its members, way back in the 30's. As long as there's someone to talk to, and someone to call if we can't figure out what went wrong, I'd bet it would work.

W1AC
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« Reply #15 on: October 12, 2014, 08:19:55 PM »

 My employer is sitting on a bunch of surplus GE Master II base stations, most are set up as simplex bases on 150 but there are also a few on 450 There are a number of local clubs that would like to get their hands on them but they need the paper work to prove they are tax exempt.
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« Reply #16 on: October 12, 2014, 08:29:42 PM »

Nearfest was a lot of fun.

Saw a bunch of people including some I have not seen in over 20 years.

Friday's wx was way too nice for that area, that date.

Saturday started OK but light rain blew in before 10AM.

There was a lot of old AM equipment at bargain prices. More than I've seen in a long time.

Drove the old Crown Vic a total of just under 17 hours. There were about a half dozen ex cop car P-71s and not one burst into flames the whole time.
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« Reply #17 on: October 14, 2014, 12:01:36 PM »

There was a lot of old AM equipment at bargain prices. More than I've seen in a long time. 

That stuff must have been brought in on Saturday: on Friday, all I saw were a couple of Rangers, a Hallicrafters novice rig, and a DX-100.

W1AC
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« Reply #18 on: October 14, 2014, 12:13:48 PM »

There was a lot of old AM equipment at bargain prices. More than I've seen in a long time. 

That stuff must have been brought in on Saturday: on Friday, all I saw were a couple of Rangers, a Hallicrafters novice rig, and a DX-100.

W1AC


More stuff showed up on Sat but Friday was when I saw the majority.
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« Reply #19 on: October 17, 2014, 07:26:59 PM »

Friday was glorious. Bought few goodies, variables, some knobs, enamel wire, crystals and such. Just a great day to walk around and see all my AM and Military collector buddies and all my old work friends.
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« Reply #20 on: October 19, 2014, 04:32:15 PM »

Will there be a Bert video for this fester?
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« Reply #21 on: October 23, 2014, 05:26:17 AM »

My point is that I wonder if there is really an interest in the challenge of converting these commercial beasts over to amateur service - hence the tables loaded with this stuff from year to year.
There is still a fair amount of interest in converting commercial surplus radios to amateur service.  However today the conversion consists of reprogramming the radio with software to operate in the amateur bands.  There is a wonderful group of  VHF/UHF enthusiasts called GEMOTO here in the Northeast and they are a very knowledgeable and active gang of guys and gals.  

The big playground these days is Digital Mobile Radio, aka DMR. It represents state-of-the-art technology and is a system of linked repeaters and radios that roam as you travel selecting the best repeater for your location.  Probably the most popular radio is the Motorola XPR-4550 which can be had used for under $300 and once you have learned the basics it's pretty cool stuff.

I picked one up on fleabay and am awaiting its arrival.

There was a DMR forum at the fester.

To keep on topic NEAR-Fest XVI was great as always, despite a bit of rain Saturday morning.  Attendance was down which we attribute to it being on Columbus Day weekend again.  Most of the usual suspects were there, including Todd KA1KAQ and family.  Next year the fester will be the weekend after the holiday which should be better attendance-wise but it may be colder.

Hope to see you, Joe and Martha, in 1015.  See you all in the Spring at the FreeFester.

73,

MrMike, W1RC
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« Reply #22 on: October 23, 2014, 06:31:28 AM »

Drove the old Crown Vic a total of just under 17 hours. There were about a half dozen ex cop car P-71s and not one burst into flames the whole time.
There are always a few P71 Police Interceptor ex-cop cars around, starting with mine, currently a 2009 ex-Vermont State Police green Crown Victoria.  Others include Will, N1PXA's nice black and white P71[, Warren's all-black "Fed" Crown Vic and several others.

Wonder why hams love Crown Vic's?  Peobably one of the reasons Is the 210 Amp electrical system and, probably the best reason is that they are very inexpensive to buy at the auction.

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« Reply #23 on: October 23, 2014, 08:38:51 AM »

Hope to see you, Joe and Martha, in 1015.  See you all in the Spring at the FreeFester.
73,
MrMike, W1RC[/size]




We hope to make it in 2015 MrMike.  Major withdraw symptoms for us this year since we were not able to attend  Sad .

73,
Joe, GMS
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« Reply #24 on: October 23, 2014, 08:42:10 AM »

Drove the old Crown Vic a total of just under 17 hours. There were about a half dozen ex cop car P-71s and not one burst into flames the whole time.
There are always a few P71 Police Interceptor ex-cop cars around, starting with mine, currently a 2009 ex-Vermont State Police green Crown Victoria.  Others include Will, N1PXA's nice black and white P71[, Warren's all-black "Fed" Crown Vic and steel others.

Wonder why hams love Crown Vic's?  Peobably one of the rasons Is the 210 Amp electrical system and, probably the best reason is that they are very inexpensive to buy at the auction.



They are an excellent value. The other black and white parked near the OD green area was mine.

That alternator is not really easy to find in a hurry.
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