Last August I was asked to display some of my radios for a WW II lecture by a B-24 radio operator.
Here's a picture of the display:
www.k3msb.com/misc/Display1.jpgI had well less than a week's notice so I didn't have a lot of time to think about things.
At noon prior to the lecture I did an impromptu talk in the parking at work to interested Electrical and Software engineers. Quite a few attended and enjoyed poking around the radios. Some had never even seen a vacuum tube before.
During the lecture that night, the most common comment I and the organizers received about the radios was that people were very surprised that any of these radios even existed. They were more surprised to find out that most were restored and I used them on the air. ( The BC-375 is a recent acquisition and hasn't been worked on yet).
I was excited to do this display as I've been wanting to display/demo my radios for a while but never had the opportunity. This event went well (appropriate audience). A reenactor was present and asked if I'd be able to come the following weekend for a local event; unfortunately I had commitments for that date but hopefully I can attend next year.
I wanted to bring my SCR-274N system but that was impractical. My setup is built on a two shelf assembly that is 32 inches wide. All mounts are bolted to the shelves. That is just too heavy to easily move around. It seemed like a good idea 5 years ago, but being 5 years older..... not so much. I took note of how Dave AB5S has his system setup for display and I'm considering going to that type of setup. Dave, it looks like you do not have your transmitter mount, receiver mount and modulator mount actually bolted to your frame? Ease of transport?
I think letting people hear those dynamotors spin up would have been great.
I've considered doing a demo or display at some of the local hamfests. From the comments I've read on the “Big/Heavy Mil-Radio Dead” thread, it seems that there is little interest by hamfest attendees. I'm not surprised.
It would seem that lectures like I attended or re-enactment events are the venues to demo our military radios. Perhaps we need to consider our military radios as historical artifacts that utilize amateur radio, as opposed to demoing amateur radio using military radios. Just a thought.
I have a pair of BC-611's awaiting work. I was thinking of a demo consisting of one of those and a working SCR-274N or SCR-287. Let a youngster man the 274N mic and his friend use the BC-611. Let the young ones get some “stick time”. Maybe some not-so-young ones too....
Grand plans, but small steps first.
73 Mark K3MSB