As expected, this was a tiny show and had maybe a dozen vendors show up. I didn’t see a whole bunch of stuff I was interested in, mostly some nice radio gear and some electronics flea market stuff. Nothing really photo worthy except this interesting meter:
If it had been cheaper I would have bought it for the probe. $50 was just too much for something I wasn’t going to use much.
I did pick up a bunch of parts, so I’m happy with the trip.
Nothing wrong with stocking your parts bin with things.
This is a decent size local show that happens in Butler, PA at the Butler Farm Show event ground. I can usually spend 2-3 hours here, as they have several outdoor and indoor market spaces set up. It’s worth the trip if you’re in the surrounding area.
This is usually one of the first “Dayton Items without the Dayton Prices” shows that I’ll attend. See you there!
Saturday turned out to be a sunny, cool, and quite breezy day at the show. It looked like a few vendors left, and a few new ones showed up with stuff being unpacked throughout the day. We took a second tour of the flea market and looked inside one of the exhibit halls - things were just too packed in there to worry about.
I didn’t take home much this day - some parts and a couple of books.
Here’s what I saw on Saturday:
A giant box of selenium rectifiers.
A bit large for a porch lamp.
It has a giant tuning capacitor on top.
We've all needed this at times.
A portable inflatable atenna tower.
Solar cells for charging phones.
Lots of chickenband (CB) radios, not as many as previous years.
A random console radio.
Lots of CRT testers showed up this year.
The guy wanted $150 for this.
It's a converter. For your digitals.
Giant diodes.
Didn't see many of these this year.
Random stacks of equipment. Random show-goer not for sale.
Only the finest of turntables.
I didn't know GenRad made a frequency meter like this.
Lots of siggens. Some were a bit pricey.
Not a Bond movie, but a gold-plated protoboard.
It has the high sensitivities. No WiFis or GeeBees included.
A nice homebrew receiver device thingy.
Some high voltage storage media.
Varmints for your bench.
It measures the milliamperes.
One of many National receivers that showed up…
…and it was pretty inside.
This would explode some places I've worked.
A family member had one of these years ago.
The prices on the S-38C units went way up.
Just random equipment.
Not sure how this is supposed to be profitable, but hey.
It's a radio. I think.
A Heath speaker. Poor cabinet condition.
Stuff, and it's stacked.
Power supplies for your plates.
One of many tube testers at high prices.
W-J clones.
These really need shorting bars on them.
A Zenith Radio.
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I decided to skip out on Sunday, as I’d already seen everything twice and just didn’t feel like walking more.
Next up is SVARC in Piketon, and then Breezeshooters in Butler, PA. See you there!
Friday started out to be a nice day, quickly turned angry looking, and remained there for the rest of the day. It was threatening rain, but that all went to the south of the show during the day, and we had a relatively cool, slightly breezy afternoon for browsing the aisles.
This year was more of a “ham radio” year than previous. Yes, this is a radio show, but a lot more rigs and things seemed to show up. One of the vendors stated “Yes, that’s because everyone is dying,” and the older crowd we observed (myself included) seemed to indicate that more of the same would be happening. That’s probably where my stuff will end up in 30 years…
There was still a lot of good stuff to see, although I didn’t find what I was looking for. I did manage to drag a few things home, and overall had a good time.
This is what I saw on Friday:
I used to work for this toxic company.
Some big rackmount amps.
Somoe old Motorola comm analyzers.
A cool looking antenna controller.
A stack of audio gear.
A cool old blue B&H oscilloscope.
Lots of parts.
Stuff is just laid out on whatever.
It's chrome plated!
Lots of walkies.
A table full of consumer era radios.
One of those high-precision Regency counters.
Someone bought a box of CRTs and related materials.
A nice Heathkit decade box. Took this home.
A dirty Hallicrafters.
Not going to break this one.
Hard to believe it's only 1.7GB.
A giant dummy load. Dummy not included.
A nice Eico harmonic distortion analyzer. Went home as a project piece.
The accompanying Eico RF generator.
An Eico scope. Tempting, but I have too many scopes.
There’s a small hamfest in Piketon, OH on the weekend of the 24th - if you didn’t get enough junque at Dayton.
I attended this one last year (except it was in October,) and pulled a few good deals out - including my IG-72 Signal Generator. I’m pretty sure I was at this one a couple times in the 90s, but who knows - that’s too long ago for me to remember.
It was a small but decent local show, and if you’re in the area it’s worth stopping by.
Scioto Valley Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
Saturday May 24th
Pike County Fairgrounds
311 Mill Street
Piketon, OH 45661
8A - Noonish https://www.arrl.org … radio-club-hamfest-3
Bonus, there’s one of the few remaining Rax Roast Beef joints just north on US23!
Break open mister piggy because it’s almost time for the Dayton Hamvention. You still have time to get tickets at a discount rate, but they’re being held will-call at the ticket booth on site.
Times are:
Friday, May 16th - 9A to 5P <--- Probably the best day to go.
Saturday, May 17th - 9A to 5P
Sunday, May 18th - 9A to 1P <--- Vendors leave, but some have free stuff!
Forecast, as of Wednesday the 14th:
Friday: Sunny and 86 with a chance of early afternoon showers.
Saturday: Sunny and 78 with a chance of early morning showers.
Sunday: Sunny and 75.
(Things have changed to be a bit more rainy. May want to pack some gear!)
I’ll have pictures posted as soon as I can get them processed - probably the following week. I’ve got a few items on my want list, and I’ll post anything I pick up that’s unusual or really interesting.
This was my first time attending this event. It was an easy drive, so I decided why not? This took place at the Athens Community Center in Athens, OH, and featured about two dozen vendors in a sheltered parking area as well as a couple in the center itself.
This one had a different selection of gear, with more test equipment and consumer gear appearing to show up at this one. Of course, a handful from TUSCO were also here, so I saw some of the same stuff (but didn’t photograph it as you and I have already seen it!)
As with the other shows this year, I’ve noted that prices are trending upwards, especially on those things that are considered cachet - Simpson 260 devices and tube testers are commanding higher prices again, even if they’re a bog-standard bottom of the barrel emissions tester. Dayton will be the tell on this one, if prices there are back to normal we know the economy is doing better.
Here’s what I saw at the show:
CD-R…once a miracle, now just junque.
The camera doesn't do the chrome justice.
An interesting passthrough counter.
A desoldering iron from the tube socket era.
An all-in-one RF test station.
Some older test gear including a cap checker in the box.
An HP 200 series generator and an old tape player.
A “Portable” multimeter.
Once of those tube unit power supplies.
An old Sony reel-to-reel tape player.
A couple of scopes. Interesting, but not needed.
An interesting Sencore tube tester.
Radios and an overpriced PACO tube tester.
A bad shot of some old gear. Would have taken the rightmost one if it had been in better shape.
One of Trio's active panel meters.
One of Heathkit's interesting lunchbox tube testers.
Some radio tuning gear.
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As I wandered through the show, I overheard someone saying that he’s not going back to Dayton because it’s held at Xenia now. “HARA was a dump but it was my dump! and I don’t like Xenia.” I had to lol, ok dude - I appreciate being able to walk through the parking lot and not twist my ankles, so you can stay away and I’ll buy the junk. HARA was certainly a dump, and I don’t miss the burnt mystery burgers and the dimestore nachos.
Speaking of Dayton, the Hamvention (as of this writing) is only about 3 weeks away. I’ll certainly see you there, but if you can’t attend then come back for pictures shortly after.
This is a small show at the Tuscarawas County fairgrounds in Dover, Ohio. I’ve been attending since 2023, when they reopened after the country decided that they needed to not do anything for a few years.
This show seems to attract a decent crowd of vendors, and a decent crowd of attendees. I took home a few books and odds ‘n ends from this one, which is exactly what I expected.
Some interesting equipment. Radio gear?
Lots of vidicon tubes. Lots and lots and lots!
The early 80s still live among us.
A dual band (lol!) Lafayette Radio.
I bet you never thought you'd see more radios.
AM/FM/8-Track with a cool honeycomb face.
Radio Shack ghosts haunt us.
A couple of old Tek (tube-type) scopes. Ok price.
A mini scope. That seems high priced.
Just stuff from the CFARC guys. I took the decade box.
.
Prices generally seem to be heading North this year, so get it while the getting is good. I did see some things that were not very reasonably priced - they would have been fine 10 years ago, but with technology changes things that were portable then are obsolete now.
Not a whole lot else to say about this one, so enjoy the photos - ACARA’s photos are coming up next.
This year’s show seemed to be pretty crowded. Prices were still good, but were certainly rising - people’s enthusiasm for a better economy is starting to show. The flood of CBs has started to slow down, and some older radio sets seem to have dropped in price quite a bit. Other than that, it was a good mix of old and new, and worth the drive.
A nice AOR scanner with a serial control port.
A table full of audio related stuff.
BetaMax anyone?
A giant broadcast tube.
A small capacitor checker. This went home with me.
Some cool 1970s cases. I took a woodgrain special home.
Someone had a collection of early music video.
A lot of radios and tubes.
The club has a table of cheap stuff.
A coffin set. These have become cheap.
The inside of the coffin set.
Another coffin set.
Another coffin set. Would have got this if I had room.
I bet this thing can't hear WLW next to the tower.
A giant-size signal generator.
Some radios and one of those monitor scopes.
Self explanatory.
Some old Heath stuff. Some of it's not all that useful these days.
Another small Heath scope. Took this one home, it's in great shape.
Dad's homebrew projects.
Knobs. Need I say more?
I wonder who Lafayette was channeling here?
The last Heathkit of it's type.
Who didn't have one of these?
A stack of old meters.
An old mill controller.
How many of these were made?
A nice National radio.
Pulse generators.
Various rackmount equipment.
Surprise, radios!
Even more radios.
You guessed it, radios!
You'd think this was a radio show.
An “Electric Eye” science kit.
A nice old Solar cap checker with a meter instead of an eye.
I couldn't pass this up for $5.
I see you hiding in there.
A lot of different equipment.
Just some stuff. There was a calibrator here I took with me.
I wanted the triple stack, but we couldn't come to a bargain.
A television test jig and degaussing coil.
Some oddball one-off set made in the 1970s in the USA.
I love that they used a lot of color on these.
This year, we even made it over to what was, up until a week before, the last freestanding Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips shop in the world. It was just like I remember from the 80s. This is going to be a regular stop when we are in town!
Next two shows are TUSCO in Dover, Ohio, and then ACARA in Athens, Ohio - both back to back on the 26th and 27th of April. After that, it’s Dayton!
This Saturday marks the sixty-ninth Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Radio Club Hamfest.
Located in the Emidio & Sons Party Center at 48 East Bath Road, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, this show has always been pleasantly surprising in the stuff that shows up for sale. It even includes a well stocked “pay what you want” table where people can leave donations and, of course, pay what they want!
If you’re into this kind of thing, and are close by, this is a good show to attend. It’s Saturday, April 5th, from 8AM to about 1PM, and admission is $8. Assuming nothing gets in the way, I’ll have plenty of pictures for you soon.
