G-Berg and Giants of the past

[KA3EKH]

With the lamenting of past Ham Fest and the like a question comes to mind. At the old Gaithersburg Ham fest before the end times, I remember that there was a significant AM presents at the venue. From what I recall there was a group that dragged out a BC-610 every year and set up and operated under the trees. Big set up, one time I looked and they had an AM Opti mod in their audio chain. Maximum effort by those Hams of Old.
I was just a punk kid back in the late seventies and eighties and at that time had a technician license and these were the years before the Tech Plus so I only cared about Motorola Motracs and GE Prog Lines.
Funny how things change. Anyway, before all the “Old Timers” out there go to the big QTH in the sky, I would like to be educated about the old Gaithersburg and the AM events that took place there.
Pictures would also be interesting.

[Steve - K4HX]

The FARFest was one of the larger (for one day attendance) fest on the East Coast in the late 90s. Some of us AMers through the help of a FAR board member gained access to the site the day before the fest to set up an AM station and camp out overnight. We set up the station on Saturday afternoon and were on the air continuously until Sunday afternoon. IIRC correctly, the stations were as follows:

1995: Modified Viking II (same one used by the Dobbins Island Expedition in 1993) from WB3HUZ (now K4HX) and R-390 receiver from WA3VJB. Don't recall the antenna but it was likely some sort of dipole for 75 meters and maybe another for 40 meters or maybe an open-wire line fed doublet.

1997: T-368 from Dennis, W7QHO (then WA3YXN) and R-390A receiver from either QHO or VJB. The antenna was a multi band trap dipole from W7QHO

1996:Homebrew rig from Jeff (call escapes me), receiver??, antenna ??

1998: Modified BC-610 from W2APE (now W2VW), receiver ??, antenna ??


The years were 1994 or 1995-1998. I may have a few of the stations/years incorrect but 1997 is correct for sure.

The FARfest moved from the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, MD after the 1998 fest. As far as I can determine, 1998 was the peak attendance with over 10,000. A FARfest official told me that they printed 10,000 tickets and they ran out!

A much smaller FARfest was held at two different locations in subsequent years and we had AM stations at those and again when they returned to Gaithersburg in 2003 or 04. Those stations featured a home-brew 4-1000 rig by KB3AHE and the last year at Gaithersburg a Johnson Invader 2000, and various receivers and an open-wire fed dipole with a Johnson KW Matchbox. One other stations featured a Viking II and a Drake R-4B. I don't recall who provided the equipment.

At some point in this latter period the fest was called Fall Fest.


http://w2dtc.com/2005-0910-farfest-2005-page.htm

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=18376.0

http://www.amwindow.org/pix/htm/farfest00/bowiebill.htm

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Here's a crew from 1996:



Here's me at Bowie 2000 Farfest in the middle of the night:



And then the fog rolled in:



It wouldn't be complete without this:

[KA3EKH]

Ok, stand corrected. It was called FARFest, I always knew it as G-Berg. I thought I saw AM Activity going back at least to the seventies and eighties. Perhaps I am mistaken.
Other notable AM activities would have to include the old broadcast transmitter dragged out to Dayton Hamvention at Harr Arena on 3885 one year. We also use to run a GRC-19, T-195 and R-392 every year at the Red Ball MVPA show up in Gilbert PA on the early morning 3885 military radio net, that started around six in the morning and although I was on site would always do my best to sleep thru it.
And still do a regular 3885 AM Net at Hamvention at noon on Saturday, this year whimped out and ran a relatively modern Harris Falcon radio as NCS but have used lots of other vintage equipment at that event. It’s a local net where people use all assorted military equipment like GRC-9 and BC-611 WW2 radios.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Here's a group photo from Farfest 1997 around 10 PM Saturday night. Remember the actual hamfest was on Sunday. Note, the white sort of rectangle in the upper background is the reflection off my mini-van license plate 
Of course, back then you would sleep on a chair under a tree in the AM corral, in a car or truck, or on a car or truck, or pitch a pup tent in the grass, BS all night with other flea market vendors, play cards all night, or play radio all night, or other things depending on who you were with.