Hi Gang,

Robert, Ernie and I got back from Rochester late yesterday afternoon.

W O W ! ! ! What a week. When we left my house last Tuesday morning Robert’s mini van was pack almost to the roof with stuff and would hit the spring stops whenever we'd hit a bump. It was REALLY loaded and all of it was contest stuff and our luggage, almost nothing that would be sold and left there. The ride up was an easy 12 1/2 hours with little traffic holdups. As luck would have it the left front tire went flat when we pulled in to the Red Roof. Great timing.

Right click on "any" photo to see it enlarged, somewhat.  (This photo was taken at about 9 a.m.)

We got to the Marriott about 5:30 Wednesday morning and things were already going strong. It was still dark when I made my big purchase of the trip. I got a really nice battery set in a glass cabinet. I've wanted one for a long time and this one fits the bill just fine. It's all original and has never been touched. All it needs a good cleaning and detailing and it'll be ready to show.

A lot of prices were really high, especially nice speakers, (just ask Gary Carter).

There has been a lot of talk lately about ebay killing radio meets. Well, I guess Rochester has shown that "good" meets aren't hurt by ebay, they had a record high registration of over 1000, and ALL of the flea market spaces were sold. There were some flea market spaces that went unclaimed but they were paid for.

Wednesday evening we went to dinner at Cartwrights and then to the Museum Annex. They've done a great job of getting the annex straightened up for the meet. If you haven't been lately it's well worth a visit.

Things were hot and heavy again Thursday morning in the flea market. The Comm. gear auction took place a 9am with lots of BA's for sale. There was a much-needed AWA membership meeting at 11am with about 50 members attending.

The Carolinas group continued our traditional Thursday evening dinner in the restaurant at the Marriott. There were 24 of us including some special guests. AWA President Bill Fizette was one of the "Special" guests.

Robert, Ernie and I were so busy Thursday evening setting up our contest entries we didn't have time to attend the Tube Auction but I heard it was great as always. Ernie's Paragon display won the Blue Ribbon. It sounded great playing 1920's big band music.

Friday morning the flea market was almost dead since the Main Auction would start at 9am and last most of the day. There were some REALLY neat sets sold in the auction. The one set that I would have really liked to have was a Westinghouse receiver in a metal cabinet, it wasn't very pretty but the neat thing was the serial number tag.

Where the normal number would be stamped was the name BYRD. This set was used on the Arctic Expeditions be Admiral BYRD. A REAL museum piece.

Friday evening was the annual Awards Banquet where we got to see everyone all dressed up. This year instead of an after dinner program there was a reception in the contest room. Lots of fun...

Saturday morning there was only about 8 or 10 vendors set up in the flea market. We spent about 1 1/2 hours unpacking and repacking the van. As I said at the start of this report the van was FULL when we left home, we didn't sell anything and we ALL bought stuff. Thanks the Robert’s masterful packing we managed to get everything in, including my Clough Bringle Transmitter I brought for the contest, with a little room to spare.

After the Final Luncheon we headed for Harrisburg Pa.

Sunday morning we got up at 04:30 and headed for the antique markets near Lancaster. We all managed to find a thing or 2 while dodging the rain. The drive home was long and kinda tense because it poured rain ALL the way.

It was a G R E A T trip. If you haven't been to Rochester, you're really missing something special.

73,

Ron Lawrence KC4YOY

CC-AWA Chapter President