- 2025
- Nov
- 17
The Scott Antique Market - November 29th and 30th, 2025.
While not exactly a hamfest, antique radio and electronics goes hand-in-hand with other antiques. This show is the season opener, and has a lot of vendors for that reason and because they want to move things for the holidays. It’s a good “get out of the house” after Thanksgiving event, and be sure to get some chocolate-covered chips before you leave!
Scott Antique Market
Ohio Expo Center
717 East 17th Street
Columbus, Ohio 43211
Saturday November 29th: 9AM - 6PM
Sunday November 30th: 10AM - 4PM
Admission to the show is free, but the venue charges a per-car parking fee. See you there!
- 2025
- Nov
- 17
A PACO G-30 RF Signal Generator - Part 8: So we meet again
You probably remember this thing:
It wasn’t that long ago that this was wrapped up. (See the bottom of this post for that entry.)
However, a friend pointed out that the schematic didn’t match the unit. In particular, a capacitor in the audio oscillator wasn’t per the information:
C8 is a 103, aka 0.01μF capacitor, per the schematic. However, what’s in the unit:
That’s very clearly a 104, aka 0.1μF part. Note that the resistor in the image is the one that was incorrect and replaced in a previous post.
No problem, I have plenty of 0.01μF left over from various rebuilds. One goes in easily:
And,
It won’t oscillate. Okay.
The old part goes back in, and all is well. It’s oscillating again, right around the 499Hz it was the last time we looked at this unit.
So, what gives here? Well - I’ve found that many of these devices didn’t exactly follow the manufacturer’s information. Schematics were often printed before the unit was manufactured, and things changed. Problems were corrected, circuits were changed, new variants were released - all kinds of things that make what you have on the bench and what you see on paper deviate. You literally have to expect the unexpected here, or you’ll go crazy trying to figure out what happened.
I assume that the original owner probably put this part in, after discovering the same thing about the oscillator. Regardless, it’s back the way it was and bolted together again, waiting for it’s time to shine.
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … rator-part-7-wrapup/
- 2025
- Nov
- 17
A Viz WP-705 Power Supply part 5: Wrapup and final thoughts.
This was an interesting device that required following a fault back to what was (most likely) it’s original source.
I’m going to assume that the regulator was probably destroyed by the noise spikes coming from the power supply transformer’s broken leads - either the spikes in the voltage caused it, or the excessively low voltage eventually destroyed the device. Who knows, but ultimately, the regulator was bad and the transformer board needed a complete re-solder.
In addition to the regulator board, there were a couple of 4.7μF capacitors on the display board - those were replaced, as were the 470μF capacitors on the display supply. There are larger capacitors on the actual regulator board, and those will need to be replaced as well - but they’re oddball sizes and will take some finding.
The last thing is to calibrate the display as best I can. While I have a manual, it’s of no use here because it’s for a different rev. I eventually discovered that the potentiometers on the display board calibrate the external measurement, and then the internal measurement. This was just turning them slightly and seeing what happened, and it was easy enough to dial in the correct values.
It was then buttoned up, ready for use. I’m not going to talk more about the calibration, since all of these seem different - but don’t be afraid to turn things just a tiny bit to see what happens, but always be aware of what you could be causing before doing so! Make sure you can fix it if you break it.
The two takeaway points on this were:
The manual you can purchase, while it claims to be the correct one (and mine is indeed for the WP-705) may not be the correct one, especially if the manufacturer assumed lines from another company.
The fault you see up front isn’t always the cause of the problem. In this case, tracing all the way back to the input revealed what probably caused the issue here.
With that, this unit goes on the shelf, waiting for it’s use. I suspect it’s going to see service with a coming project, something where some oddball voltages are needed. Stay tuned!
- 2025
- Nov
- 17
Photos from the 2025 Fort Wayne hamfest.
This is the last hamfest of the season for me. It’s usually pretty good, and this year was no exception - there was a smaller, but still decent amount of things to see. This one is far enough away that I didn’t see the same vendors as the locals.
Here’s what I saw at the show:
.
My fellow show-goer and I are probably going to put this one on a semi-regular basis. The long drive and relatively high admission fee (the venue charges you to park as well) factored into that decision. But, we’ll go if time allows and we feel like it, so there still may be photos next year.
The next show is the Scott Antique Market here in Columbus, at the state fairgrounds / expo center. This one is more of a, well…antique show, but old electrical equipment and antiques are really the same thing. It’s a chance to get out of the house after the holiday and wander around, as well as pick up some chocolate-covered things from the booth that usually appears at the front of the show.
See you there!
(I’ve adjusted the photographic quality a little…if they don’t look good, please let me know on mastodon or LinkedIn.)
- 2025
- Nov
- 13
The Fort Wayne Hamfest - Fort Wayne, IN - November 15th and 16th.
This is a show I’ve been attending for some time, and it’s usually pretty decent. Last year was, unfortunately, a lot smaller than normal - probably 2/3 regular size if that. Not sure what was going on there, but I’m waiting to see how this year’s show goes before I make plans to attend in 2026.
This is a completely indoor show at the Allen County War Memorial, a large event center. It occupies one of the large event halls. There’s usually some arena style food on site, if you need that.
Fort Wayne Hamfest
Allen Country War Memorial Coliseum
4000 Parnell Ave
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
November 15 16
Hours vary by day, opens at 9AM
https://www.acarts.com/hfmain.htm
Admission is $10 and the venue itself charges $8 for parking. See you there!
- 2025
- Nov
- 13
My 2026 Hamfest and Show List
With 2025 coming to a close, I find myself thinking about each show I attended this past year, and which ones I want to go back to. While the first answer is “all of them!” - I think I’m going to cut back some this year. The smaller shows are cool, but I started seeing the same vendors and the same items over and over. This will give things a chance to cycle through.
So - instead of 15 hamfests, I think I’ll probably drop back to 8 or so. There may be a few others in there - Athens, OH and Clearfield, PA, but those will depend primarily on “if I feel like it,” and perhaps Fort Wayne if 2025’s show turns out better than 2024.
As before, not all shows have updated at the time of this posting, so check back or check the Ohio ARRL section page for current event times Links to pictures will be posted as soon as I can after a show, and there will be a year-end wrap-up.
Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
Emidio & Sons Party Center
48 E. Bath Road
Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
April 11
8A - 1PM
Admission $8
https://sites.google.com/cfarc.org/cfarc/hamfest
Event photos: Coming soon.
Dayton Hamvention
Greene County Fair and Expo Center - The Whole Thing
210 Fairground Road
Xenia, OH 45385
May 15 16 17
Hours vary by day, opens at 9AM
https://hamvention.org
Friday Photos: Coming soon.
Saturday Photos: Coming soon.
Sunday Photos: Coming soon.
Breezeshooters Hamfest
Butler Farm Show
625 Evans City Rd
Butler, PA 16001
Date TBA, usually June
8A - 2PM
https://breezeshooters.org/ns/
Event photos: Coming soon.
Shriner’s Hamfest
Aladdin Shrine Center
1801 Gateway Cir
Grove City, OH 43123
Date TBA, usually August
8A - 1PMish
https://aladdinshrine.org/hamfest/
Event photos: Coming soon.
Johnstown Swapper’s Day
Johnstown Community Sportsmen’s Club
7357 Sportsman Club Rd NW
Johnstown, OH 43031
Labor Day Weekend (Fri Sat Sun)
7A - 6P
https://jcscohio.org/swappers-day/
Event photos: Coming soon.
The Cleveland Hamfest and Computer Show
Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, Eastland Entrance
160 Eastland Rd
Berea, OH 44107
Date TBA, usually September
8A - 12P
https://www.hac.org/
Event photos: Coming soon.
Early Television Museum Fall Swap Meet
The Early Television Museum
5396 Franklin St
Hilliard, OH 43026
Date TBA, usually October
10A - 2P
https://www.earlytelevision.org/swapmeet.html
Event photos: Coming soon
Scott Antique Market November
Ohio Expo Center (State Fairgrounds)
717 E 17th Ave
Columbus, OH 43211
Usually Thanksgiving weekend
Hours vary by day, check before you go.
https://www.scottantiquemarket.com/
Event photos: Coming soon
Johnstown Swappers Day and the Scott Antique Market aren’t really hamfests, but enough electrical and other goodies show up that it’s worth going if you’re in to general flea market type items. The Early Television Museum is a swap meet that happens during one of the venue’s open work days, so who knows what will show up there.
Always check dates and times before you go, and I’ll see you there!
- 2025
- Nov
- 12
Photos from the 2025 MARC Hamfest
This show, held at the MAPS facility in North Canton, Ohio, seems to have “the stuff we want” - piles of radios, tables of things, and generally a good selection set up the way you remember shows being. This year was no different, and - while the show itself is of moderate size, they sold out every table. The museum exhibits that you can view while at the show are kind of cool, too.
I didn’t pick up much at this show, some parts and a book, but there were a lot of things I would have liked to have. They have to stay where they are, however - I have enough projects for now!
This is what I saw at the show:
.
This is the second-to-last show I’ll attend this year, not counting the local antique shows. Next and last is Fort Wayne, which happens the weekend of the 15th and 16th of November. See you there!
- 2025
- Oct
- 28
A Viz WP-705 Power Supply part 4: The fix is in.
We left off with the regulator issue fixed, but still having a problem. There’s not that much more that can be wrong, so let’s move on to the isolated supplies that feed the regulator.
This is a simply supply consisting of two transformer windings (one for each side,) a diode, and a capacitor to make a half-wave power supply. Originally I thought that it might be dried out capacitors, but there’s no reason not to check everything in there. Diodes and transformers all were in acceptable ranges…but in the process, it showed itself.
The ‘ol “Vertically mounted heavy transformer (with short leads) on a PCB” trick.
You can clearly see a crack in the solder, and that’s in the side of the supply with the issue. You can also see the other leads beginning to develop cracks, so it wouldn’t be long before those leads were also broken. Since I’m in there, I replaced the capacitors I originally suspected (they’re old) and reflowed every joint on this board.
And, it works.
I want to replace the main filters at some point as well, but that’s a higher voltage part and I don’t have any in stock that fit the area. I’ll order something and revisit this unit later.
That pretty much takes care of this unit, but it still needs some tweaking on the display calibration. Hopefully the manual is close enough on this that I can assume a cal procedure from it. One more part on the way, stay tuned!
- 2025
- Oct
- 27
The 2025 MARC Hamfest - 11/02/2025
There’s a hamfest happening at the Military Air Preservation Museum hanger in North Canton, Ohio this weekend. This was good local show last year, and the included museum admission was quite the bonus. If you’re in the area, it’s well worth the time to visit.
MARC Hamfest
Military Air Preservation Society Hanger (MAPS)
2620 International Parkway
Green, OH 44232
November 2
8A - 1P
http://w8np.net
https://mapsairmuseum.org/events/hamfest-2025/
See you there!
- 2025
- Oct
- 22
A Viz WP-705 Power Supply part 3: Troubleshooting in stages.
In part 2, we discovered that the 5V rail for the display was bad. At this point, I decided to pull the regulator out and see what was going on. I wanted to get a manual and find some LM309H spares before going further than part removal, and I found both.
The manual, unfortunately, wasn’t helpful, as it was for the wrong revision of device. I found some LM309H regulators, so off we go.
I started by measuring the regulator itself with a simple ohms test. The part I have read 2KΩ from terminals to ground, and that’s not right. A new part reads about 30MΩ to ground from each terminal, so the part in the unit is defective, and is probably causing the output voltage to be low.
Before I put the new part in, however, I wanted to check the A/D and driver. So…out comes the trusty old Heath/Zenith supply, set to 5V.
I injected 5V into the regulator output terminal pad, and the display came back without issue. That’s good - those chips are expensive these days, and while I have a spare, I’d rather not use it unless needed.
The new regulator is installed, and main power is applied while monitoring 5V. There’s still an issue, the display is still rolling. Measuring the input reveals the problem, you can’t regulate 5V from 4.5V…
So, what’s wrong here?
The 5V supply is provided by an unregulated supply that floats at about 9V under load. It’s a simple affair, a transformer, diode, and a capacitor for each side. This provides isolation from the main supply and doesn’t bleed off your supply current to run the device itself.
There’s only really three things that could be wrong:
1: The transformer is bad.
2: The diode is bad.
3: The capacitor is bad.
Chances are…it’s number 3. I’d guess if I scoped this, I’d find that the output of the supply is nothing but ripple because the filter is dried out. I need to get some 470μF parts of known quality to replace the ones in here in order to check, as all I have in stock is what I purchased at Radio Shack from one of their parts kits - back in the 90s…
In the meantime, I disconnected the unregulated input, and applied 10VDC to the input of the regulator.
And the device came right up, and I was able to use it’s input to measure 5V from the external supply. It’s quite a ways off (this should be closer to 5.8VDC) so there’s going to be some tweaking needed once we’re all back in operational order.
Stay tuned for part 4 where the capacitors in the supply’s supply get replaced.
Next part of this series: Coming soon.
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … 2-musings-on-faults/