Well, it took a couple days to recover from all the excitement.
Hosstraders Spring 2003 meet is history. Got to meet a few listmembers I
hadn't met before as well as touching base with old friends like George
Rancourt K1ANX and Michael Crestohl W1RC, a.k.a. 'Mr. Mike'. Dale, KW1I
had his usual great military surplus goodies for sale including a
TBW(?). Got to meet Alex, AI2Q and John KB1FQG. John had his Amelco
R-390A along for sale. Very nice rig, clean and in great shape. Did it
sell, John? I never even asked what the price was to prevent being
tempted. Alex and I made tenative plans to get the URC-32 working on the
USS Albacore in Portsmouth, just to insure sure we had enough radio
projects to stay busy. Also met Bruce W1UJR and Larry NE1S who came down
from Maine.
George had some nice old military gear for sale with good prices -
ART-13s, BC-312s and 348s, a nice HT-9 and an SP-600 JX-17 he had picked
up with the original cabinet (no, it wasn't for sale). I saw one of the
ART-13s walking away in someone's arms later. Saw one other SP-600 for
sale by Chuck, K1KW. This was a later model without the crystal unit but
with ceramic disc caps throughout. John was hoping to buy this if he
sold his R-390A, but at the end of the day Chuck sold it to one of the
AM crowd for $200.
Saw a fair amount of old gear. Here are some examples:
Johnson 500 - $1500
Collins KWS-1 and 75A-4, $1500
numerous HQ-120, '129, an early SP (no prices and owner was off wandering)
Several Knight stransmitters, one with the matching receiver
KWM-2 w/Waters rejection tuning and 516F-2 supply, $900 (sold for $875)
numerous old keys and bugs, including a Vibroplex in a foam lined case
for $295 (he took it home)
SP-600 (mentioned above) $275, sold for $200
misc. hacked up Command sets, 1 ARC-5 HF/VHF receiver control box, misc.
dynamotors, a fair amount of mil surplus gear throughout
One thing I did not see this year were R-390s or R-390As. John's was the
only one I saw, and it was nice. There may have been others there as
well on Friday, I arrived early Saturday morning. Friday was another
washout, with high winds and torrential rains. I had thought about going
over and sleeping in or under my truck (last minute planning will get
you everytime), but one glance at the radar loop convinced me otherwise.
If it's any hint just how nasty it was, the Old Man of the Mountain rock
formation in Franconia Notch collapsed. For those who have never heard
of it, just look on the back of a NH quarter. Here's a link if you'd
like to know more:
http://www.mutha.com/oldmanmt.html
That must've been some storm!
Saturday was once again the better of the 2 days. Sunny skies, warm
temps, just beautiful weather. My tresures included some IERC shields
found in a box for $2 along with some military connectors that looked
like they might fit the R-390 power connector (right plug, wrong center
pin thread), a pair of 6080 tubes for $1, 5 NOS 40/450v x 2 Twist-Lok
filter caps for $1/ea., a nice old round mobile speaker from George
which looks like it might be an early Motorola unit ($2 w/bracket and
hardware), noise-cancelling hand mic for $2, pair of Navy 838 tubes
with porcelain bases for $5, misc, oddball tubes for $1/ea., an
absolutely beautiful Clegg 22er MKII FM from my Clegg benefactor Warren
Zeigler, K2ORS (ex NY2H) for $20 (he donated a Comet to me a couple
years back as well), and a nice Collins 26W limiting amp for the AM
station given to me by Joe, WA2PJP. Joe and I have sworn an oath to
reduce our piles of 'radio stuff' in the coming year. He's doing better
at it than me, though - which is why I stuck to picking up pieces and
parts only (other than the two units delivered to me there).
Ended the day at the 'AM Luncheonette' a few miles down the road with
Joe, Chuck, Tim (WA1HLR) and Jack (W1JS). This was at least as much fun
as the 'fest. Great food, great radio talk, great company. We solved
most of the problems in the world and amateur radio over lunch and a
couple beers. Topics included the pros and cons of ePay, property taxes
and antenna restrictions, and the upcoming Rochester NY hamfest.
For those of you who have never made it to Hosstraders, you really
should. It is held twice each year, generally the first weekend in May
and October. It's one of the best social gatherings for radio nuts in
the east. Plenty of old gear to go around, too.
73 de Todd/'Boomer' KA1KAQ
