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THATS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT RIGHT THERE!!! They even have the propper outfits to blow the whistle when one or the other gets a little rough or outta hand!!! LMAO!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!!!!!

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""""was not thinking of a cber sat with his makita screwdriver winding round the presets untill his meter said s9+60db from a guy on a handheld 15 miles away""""

or who you can do...

We should get a group together and do the trip next year as a group??? Split the gas make a hell of an event out of it! What ya think? Rent a van or take a few cars?

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""""was not thinking of a cber sat with his makita screwdriver winding round the presets untill his meter said s9+60db from a guy on a handheld 15 miles away""""

the weather has cleared, hows about some outside pics of the fleamarket

I'm not sure I got any pics of the outside, but I'll check. Bill says that the outside flea market is a lot smaller than last year, maybe by as much as 1/2. While the inside what pretty slammed on Friday, today it's busy, but much more room to move around. It seems to have tapered off quite a bit. It sounds like the economy has really hurt attendance this year.

Here's a close-up of the Ameritron ALS-1300 1KW solid state amp.



And here's a pic of the inside top. You can see the filter board is on top:



It's a pretty nice looking amp, but you need a 50VDC power supply to go with it. That doesn't make it real practical for mobile operation.

That price just chaps my @$$ though. for that kinda money you can get a hammerin Tube unit I guess one would have to decide if the power or ease of use is at most importance when purchasing I LOVE my ALS-600 but your still talkinaround $1,500.00 when alls said and done and I think overall the tube amp with the extra ooooomf and push to get through the pileups would be a better choice at that price range

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""""was not thinking of a cber sat with his makita screwdriver winding round the presets untill his meter said s9+60db from a guy on a handheld 15 miles away""""

Hey Mole.

It was a pleasure to meet you,Hamer,and Mechanic at Hamvention this year. But you guys really didn't have to go thru all that trouble just to meet me.LOL!!! We had a good 90 min.s or so of ragchewing there I'd say. It's always nice to put a face to the handle and put to rest the impressions we have of one another. I had a great time and really would have enjoyed "bellying up" (literally as you know now!)to the bar w/you guys and throwing back some cold ones,BUT.

Thanks for NOT posting my ugly mugshot here w/the other pics.
It would probably crash the forum software and render it useless for life!!!
Now we all know we don't want that do we?

Don't forget to check into the forum shirt thing when you get settled back in and have the spare time! I thought that was a pretty good idea!

I wound up running into Mechanic a couple more times after we all parted ways! I wonder how many times we actually passed each other on Friday at times and didn't even realize it?

Well,I gotta get back to checking out my Hamvention goodies and watching the Nascar "Allstar" race and some cold bottle's of Bud Light!

Catch y'all later and thanks again fellas. It was a pleasure no doubt!

73.Slim.

Here are some shots of one of the most interesting and inventive products at the flea market outside. This guy manufactures and sells a Carbon Fiber Portable Antenna Mast system that breaks down into a bag. That doesn't sound like a big deal until you see it in action.

It comes complete with the tripod, mast, a couple of stand-offs to mount antennas on top, guy rope, anchors, and block and tackle system. To assemble this system, you put the tripod together, then insert a mast piece into the tripod and assemble the stand-offs and block and tackle. You then use the block & tackle crank to raise up the mast from the center of the tripod and add mast pieces from the bottom. It was so easy that you could raise a portable antenna up by yourself. This was probably one of the most well designed portable systems at the show, and the price was very competitive. Unfortunately this guy doesn't ship them anywhere, so you'll have to find him at hamfests:

Here the tripod has been assembled and the first section is being raised up:



Putting another section in from the bottom :



Everything fits into the bag:



Raised up about 30' with guys attached to water jugs:



And the price:

This is an air pressure driven mobile mounted mast. This one wasn't for sale, but they said they sold about three of these last year. They converted an old TV reporter's van to make an antenna mast. Pretty ingenious and very nice construction! This thing is heavy duty!