Dayton Hamvention May 18th and 19th, 2007

This is a selection of some of the pictures of this years activities of the 3885 AM "World War Two" and the 51.0 FM "Cold War" military radio nets on Saturday at the Dayton Hamvention. Not a lot different from last year so this time I will include my "milsurplus" posting from the Hamvention.

Thursday, Shopping day!

The new tradition, at least for the last two years is to get out to Ohio a day before the Hamvention and hit all the surplus places. Couple pictures and the copy of that days posting to the reflector.

Midwest Surplus Electronics, right outside the Air Base in Fairborn. Tons of parts at good prices.

The Mother of all Surplus stores "Fair Radio Sales Co" wanted to take lots of pictures but the camera battery died right after the first picture.

Thursdays posting:

Tomorrow will be the first day of the 2007 Dayton hamvention, I arrived in Dayton yesterday and spent today visiting Midwest Electronic Surplus and Fair Radio. If you ever attend the Hamvention I would strongly encourage visiting both locations. Midwest is located in down town Fairborn right across the street from one of the base entrances. They have a large selection of just about any parts from vintage to modern at very reasonable prices; I bought shock mounts, some bridge rectifiers and capacitors, not many large test equipment items or military radios but tons of parts. Then went up I-75 to Fair Radio and once again was amazed by the amount of items their. Not just all the stuff in the show room that’s in their catalog but tons of other items back in the back warehouse. They have about twenty ARR-41 chassis and I did try to build a complete unit but did not find an IF deck. They tell me that they had someone build one this week from parts back their and sold it for $225.00 The back room contains enormous amounts of ARC-5, ART-13, BC-346 and R-390 part radios, looks like much of their business these days is selling parts for people restoring stuff, they still have lots of other stuff that’s not as collectable in abundance like ARC family of radios apart from the ARC-5 stuff and if you go their plan on spending at least half a day. Will try to post something tomorrow about the hamfest and am looking forward to the “cold war” and 3885 net on Saturday.

Ray Fantini KA3EKH

Fridays posting:

Dayton has all types of weather, almost all of it involving rain. Today was the exception. Clear sky with scattered clods in the afternoon with it between sixty to sixty five degrees. That being said let me say that the turn out today was good, not as crowded as some times in the past but a good turnout none the less. Items and prices, R-390 were selling for around $400 to $700 each, with one person purchasing two 390 for $500 I saw two PRC-47, one with power cable and speaker, they were selling for $100 and $150 ART-13 were selling for $200 to $300 each with many parts units for less. Also saw BC-348 for $75 to $80 in fair condition with a BC-342 for $100 and a BC-312 with RA-20 for $70, LM meters were high being anywhere from $50 to $80 for one in wooden case with canvas. PRC-25/77 were everywhere for $200 to $350 but not selling, speaking of not selling VRC-12 mounting trays were $20 and saw one in trash pile. Their was the usual Watkins Johnson, Racal and ITT Mackey stuff for big money, dose anyone really buy that stuff for two and three grand? And their was an R-1051H and G receivers for $500 each. Also a couple RT-618 transceivers without amplifiers for $350 was surprised to see lots of TCS stuff some with and some without mounts for $30 to $50 each. A GRR-5 very clean with the accessory bag with all the cables, antenna and book for $225, same person had a ABS receiver and transmitter for $40 for both and WS-19 with all accessory’s very clean for $500 and sold two WS-19 with connectors for $150 each. Saw three RF-301 transceivers, one very clean with remote and all cables for $200 Many, many ARC-5 sets and carcasses with part radios being $5 to $25 and clean radios being around $100 and saw a clean MD-7 sell for $150 What I thought may have been the buy of the day was a AXT-2 television camera and transmitter sell for $200, I saw them early that day and did not ask the price assuming they would be stupid expensive. Myself I did buy a ARC-38A for $40 for spare parts for my 618S1 and a 180L antenna tuner to go with it for $50, also picked up old APN-4 for Mr. Smith, it will look good in his basement and only cost $3 This is not meant to describe all that was their but just what I saw, did see three or four places where people have bought up almost all the common military stuff and had in big piles for transport, saw lots of BC stuff, some sunair GSB-900 sets and couple SP-600 going that way and also see that there are several people who specialize in buying up everything and then putting it back out for sale at big markup. There are two types of people dealing with this stuff these days, the first and smaller group who want to see the radios to go to good homes and be used and the second group who appear to be more interested in how much that can make by turning this stuff. The ratio of the second group appears to be becoming larger but fortunately Dayton is still too large for them to get everything. Tomorrow will be the 3885 and 51.0 nets and the opportunity for people to show off their radios. If you look at my web page: www.ka3ekh.net  you can see the photos of last years show. Will be taking more for this year.

Ray Fantini KA3EKH

3885 Kc AM Net, Twelve Hundred Hours Local

As always Joe Munson WA4VAG served as net control for the AM net. Here are a couple shots of his TCS Net control station

3885 Group With Radios after the Net

Saturdays posting:

Today’s weather was improved over yesterday. Some clouds in the early afternoon, clear in late afternoon and no rain (for a second day). Almost all of the items I listed yesterday were gone today with the exception of the high dollar stuff, the high priced LMs and about half the ARC-5 stuff. Did see many people walking out with ARC-5 carcasses. My tailgate space is located by an entrance. Did not see the 1051G or H (same seller) but did see that the RT-618 sets and about half the R-390 receivers were still their at the end of the day. People were also buying PRC-25 and 77 sets although their were plenty left for sale when I left. Did not notice any sellers today that were not their yesterday, their must have been some but I did not see anything different. The crowd today was about two thirds the size of yesterday. If your planning on going to Dayton plan on being their on Friday or plan on missing out. The 3885 AM net was hosted by Joe M. W4VAG operating a complete TCS station out of his van that included radios, dynamotors chassis and remote control head. Their were 24 station who checked in to the net at noon, this included 11 stations using BC-611 radios, the “crazy frog” French GRC-9, a truck mounted GRC-19, some PRC-70 and PRC-138 and a couple of people using Racal’s and I also have to mention that the Japanese Type 94 set was back again this year and in operation and in addition to this I used one of Joes MAB transceivers, complete with silly helmet hat. Their were some stations using modern “ham” transceivers but they don’t get written up. At 13 hundred hours their was a “pack net” on 18.1575 with KI0PF as net control using a PRC-70, couple of the other PRC-70, PRC-1099 and Racal users were their along with lots of check ins using modern radios. At 14 hundred the 51.0 “Cold War Net” rolled out with 38 stations participating. Good scattering of PRC-6 sets with the same PRC-70 sets that had been working all day checking in again. By this time the battery in the net control was running down so W4VAG brought out the peddle crank generator and passer bys were put to work charging the PRC-70 for net control. Most stations were running PRC-25 and 77 sets, also their were a couple using PRR/PRT 9 sets with one RT-70 running in a shopping basket with batteries and home built antenna brought by Marty, guess that’s how they do things down in Atlanta. Myself I use my PRC-68 not having any time this last year to build up something special for Dayton. Maybe next year I can build up something in a shopping cart. Prices did come down on things today, I did buy a rack mounted 28 volt power supply for $5 and had someone give me a URC-35 with no case and in bad condition that I removed the power transformer and filter choke from and placed by a trash can and someone else took it from their. As usual I will be leaving tomorrow morning and not going back to the hamfest. Will be a full day of traveling with a truck load of junk.

Ray Fantini KA3EKH

51.0 FM Net, Fourteen Hundred Hours Local

51.0 Group With Radios after the Net

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july 07