Manassas, VA Hamfest, 19 June

[Steve - K4HX]

Anyone attending?

http://manassashamfest.org

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Gonna miss it by 2 weekends this year. Plan on next year, though. 8 minutes from the house. 

[Steve - K4HX]

Already rolling.

[Steve - K4HX]

And more.

[Steve - K4HX]

A few more.

[Steve - K4HX]

Some more.

[Steve - K4HX]

One more.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

A lot of good equipment there. I recognize the JHP Hallicrafters booth. 

That Utah transmitter looks pretty nice. Not sure about the knobs, but it sure is clean.

TNX for posting these. By the looks of the WX down this way, you had a beautiful day up there!

[w3jn]

I scored both the GPR-90s.  I can't seem to pass up an orphan piece of TMC gear...

[W3RSW]

 Some good looking gear at that fester Steve, Tnx fear posting. See any of the gang?

Yeah you don't often see a pair of TMC's.  Your one of the few that yearn anymore JN.  
SDR and the demise of those seeking older nostalgia rigs, rings in the perfect storm of the octal set squared.  Old BA's times many of us.  
Except for coolness and period desire, too big, too heavy and too limited. Tough going back except for the fun of duplicating the good and bad of youth.

Current crop of overweight SSB "plasti-Tres" will be the next on the block. Just like the AM dump in the 70's and 80's.  So if you've always yearned for a 5000, they'll be on car tops for $25 each real soon now.

Already boom boxes with a modicum of shortwave are the neo-nostalgia sets for our type and have been awhile for the FM/cassette aficionados.
Remember when the biggest box shoulder carry-able was king of the block in your hood?

[W3RSW]

That Utah transmitter with Jack selectable metering is really neat.
Knobs original without fiducials to match scales ? --look too small or was the whole thing kit-bashed with Utah parts, particularly transformers as a factory demo?

I can't read the model number, perhaps a real produced series .
I'll have to research it a bit.

Love those labels.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

That Utah transmitter with Jack selectable metering is really neat.
Knobs original without fiducials to match scales ? --look too small or was the whole thing kit-bashed with Utah parts, particularly transformers as a factory demo?

I can't read the model number, perhaps a real produced series .
I'll have to research it a bit.

Love those labels.

That unit is the Utah UAT-1, "Add-A-Unit" 80 watt transmitter kit.
Info here: http://www.radioblvd.com/1937Station.html

[W3RSW]

OK! Thanks for link Pete.
Very nice model series with detailed write-ups shown in the complete site.

[W3GMS]

Some great gear in some mighty fine shape! 

I am sure you had a great time. 

Joe-GMS 

[K4RT]

Steve - Great photos, thanks.

What was attendance like? 

[KB5MD]

I noticed the GPR-90 receivers and this question comes to mind:  How does the GPR-90 compare to the R-390 receiver? 
Are they about equal as far as sensitivity and selectivity goes?   I've passed  up buying a GPR-90 a couple of times because I already have a couple
of R-390's.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Having not owned one personally I can only relate what I've seen and heard. Very well built, pretty receivers, majority of opinions have claimed they are a bit on the numb side but who knows what shape they were in when tested. I do know of 3 users who have high praise for them including John/W3JN, and JP/K4OZY at the TMC Repository. They can give you a much better technical appraisal. I do think the matching SSB adapter is pretty damned cool.

[Steve - K4HX]

Apparently, attendance was down from last year. I think having it the same day as the BARC Fest (in MD) and on Fathers Day did not help.

It still was a nice fest with lots of good stuff.

Steve - Great photos, thanks.

What was attendance like? 

[K4NYW]

How does the GPR-90 compare to the R-390 receiver? 

The GPR-90 is handsome, but frankly to me it seems like a toy compared to an R-390A.
Toyota Celica vs BMW M6.
The TMC is certainly as good as any other ham receiver with an LC HF oscillator (i.e. somewhat drifty and sensitive to temp and mechanical changes). I think ham/commercial rigs with a xtal HF osc (like the SX-115 and Collins 75A/51J series) are always going to be more stable (and expensive).

Selectivity with the R-390A's mechanical filters is definitely superior.

I have an R-840/URR (GPR-90RX with USN ID tag) in my lineup and I do use it for casual listening - AM sounds good and it'll drive a speaker directly - but for RTTY and other serious use, I turn to an R-390A or other high-end military receiver. Those rcvrs originally cost 4x-20x the TMC and it wasn't all because of military gold-plated extras. I can leave those rcvrs on for weeks and +/-85 Hz shift RTTY be fine the entire time.

Other TMC gear I have is built to military standards of performance and robustness, but the GPR-90 feels more like an HQ-170 or NC-183D - fine receivers but not really professional if you get my drift. And the GPR-90 really wasn't intended to be otherwise.

K4OZY will probably never speak to me again for this slanderous opinion....
YMMV, Opinion Void Where Prohibited by Law, etc.