Not illegal back alley ham deals

DISCLAIMER

(So i am going to start off with saying the title is a true statement and will make sense later in this post, no im not trying to sell stuff or be a corpo shill either.)
Now back to your UN-regular scheduled tom-foolery!

Sppppht, sppht

Hey you, yes you
The good looking well dressed one
The one who is on cyberspace

You interested in some goods?
Yeah the real good shit,
I got some really good shit, Japanese, American and we also got Chinese
Yeah man just follow me to this parking garage. Its where i got the goods!

This is BASICALLY how this story started, well kinda not really.

The FWRC or Fort-Wayne radio club decided recently to do a mini ham fest!
And yes it was in a parking garage XD.

So basically the idea was very simple, 6pm setup, 6:30 shop 8pm close.

So i decided to go because well why not!
I left earlier and arrived on time funny how that works!

When i arrived at the car garage, i then realized that i was at the wrong car garage.
found my way to the right one.

about 20 people were setup, lots of random knick nacks and cool old radios!

Many, many radios where very old! vacuum tubes and crystal's.
So very interesting HF radios aswell! There was one of a particular model, that used modules/cartridges for bands. You want 20meter? gotta take out 10 meter and swap her in!

I thought this was very kinda novel. Sadly the gentlemen selling was far outside my price range.

So the funny part about this micro hamfest, is i really didn't buy much of anything!
Its more about the people i met.

Now this event took place at Purdue Fort Wayne's parking garage, so apart of me was hoping to see other people my age whom are also interested in ham radio. Sadly closest person in age was 35 which is still quite the stretch! Nice fellow but i was hoping to talk more Linux stuff that many old hams don't really get. But i digress, i really went to this local get together to meet other local hams.
And it kinda succeeded, So were gonna call the first character i met at the hamfest glen.
I walked up and started looking at what glen had for sale, lots of random stuff. He asked if i was looking for anything particular. I was looking for a bandpass filter, and he said sadly "i dont think anybody has those for sale here" which i appreciated. So sadly the local air conditioners will still plague me.
We bantered for quite a while, where were from call-signs and local happenings. And it was quite the pleasure to meet glen. He did show me he had a radio that was a kit, that you had to soldered and was a CW 40meter only. He originally got a it as a technician and bought it, then realized its for amateur extra portion of 40meters.

Which mentally sealed the coffin for me, I know how to do morse code. But at this point in time i really dont care for it. So i couldn't see myself buying it, although $5 for the kit was VERY TEMPTING. But i talked myself out of it, last thing i need is another project currently!

The next person i talked to was whom were gonna call Phil.

Phil was a very nice guy, he was a club leader for auburn Indiana until he recently stepped down.
I talked to him a little bit, walking around and bumped into him. Even though he was also setup, but im pretty sure we had a pretty good group of eggs. So i dont think he was too worried about people getting sticky fingers.

I ended up talking to quite a bit, but wasnt super social with him. Gave him my call, he gave me his and we talked about the club im apart of. He knows the guy who currently runs it, and the repeaters he owns.

So for this trip i walked away with "ARRL 2006 handbook", "ARRL HF digital modes book", an MFJ dual band telescoping antenna, and the best thing that made the whole trip worth it!
a ptt mic for my ft1d!

I got majority of stuff for free, only thing that ended up costing me anything was the antenna. Lots of people just had stuff they wanted to get rid of but didnt want to deal with selling.
And most of the books were from some very kind older lady's who just wanted them to go to a good home.

So i looked thought everything and decided because it was rapidly getting dark that i should probably get going. So i walked over to my car, and put my stuff inside. Started the engine and started to punch in my GPS on co-street maps where i wanted to go. (good program needs a feature where i can avoid major highways). So im looking at my phone trying to figure out what road to take. And there is a tap on my passenger side window, i look up and theres Phil standing there.

Im kinda caught off guard, because well what is Phil doing? My car was line of sight from his booth, so its not like he followed me several levels down into the parking garage. But jarring none the less.

I roll down the window and ask how i may help him?

He then said "Listen i got a old green radio that nobody looked at and if i wanted to come look at it, he would give it to me for free."

This smelled kinda fishy, but there was enough people nearby that i felt comfortable with inquiring. So i flicked the car off and said sure let me go look at it.

It was this VERY VERY OLD Heath Kit.

Phil pointed at the radio, and started to explain. This is a very old heathkit radio, it only does CW and is a set band. Then point to another VERY LARGE metal box and begins to explain this is the keyer input. Both boxes were together and were MASSIVE, he has a bag of crystals to change the frequency's.

Now this is where i feel some viewer are gonna be upset.

I turned him down, i said roughly "i really, really appreciate the offer, i really do but i just dont know where i would put it"

He looked a little upset, and began saying "well you could store it and maybe work on it here and there".

Which made me feel kinda bad, but i really wouldn't have use for it, which i didnt have the heart to say to him.

Again, i think CW is neat but at this VERY BUSY time in my life, i dont have the time to learn how to read CW. And i quote said to my friend "what do you think of me getting a 891? yeah its expensive but it does 99% of what i want to do, and i dont really want to futz around with crystals and vacuum tubes" and i ended up getting a 891.

I feel bad turning him down, but i already have alot of stuff i dont have space for, and would hate to see something somebody else could really enjoy become a dust collector.

I thanked Phil for the offer again, but i just couldn't take it. I started to walk away and an old man at the next booth did one of my biggest pet peeves.

"HEY DO YOU NEED A HT? (holds up baofang)"

no, i dont i have 4 of them and im very happy with them all.

I didnt say that, but i felt it. Like dont get me wrong i like radios and such but being 21 and into the hobby. Just feels embarrassing sometimes, like im happy to make older hams feel happy that there hobby isnt dead. But MY GOD, EVERY HAM CONVENTION I GO TO!

Im always asked

"are you licensed?"
Which is a fair question

"do you have a HT?"
No i have one on my belt with a 9 inch whip

"I have a baofang for sale down there its great for new hams"
IM NOT NEW IVE BEEN LICENSED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS!!!

I enjoy going to ham conventions but, these few thing just annoy me to death

I know this is coming off as kinda bitchy. But im just really tired of it, i just want to go and to meet other people who enjoy what i enjoy and maybe buy a few small things. Im very happy with my FT1D and my 891, and cant foresee replacing them for a very long time.

Im not really into collecting or restoring old radios, probably later in my life maybe. But right now i just want to setup a antenna and get on the air and have some fun.

Not spend 20 hours back tracing a burnt out diode so i can talk to other people.
Some people are into that and enjoy it, i am not one of those people.

So this is the question im going to leave you with reader. Was Phil weird to walk to my car as i was leaving and knock on my window?

I don't know how i feel about this, on one side. He wanted to give me a radio, and im going to assume it has something to do with me being young in a hobby where thats a rare thing.

But then theirs the other side of i really dont know phil, we talked for like 20 minutes and exchanged very vague details about each other.

I don't know what do you guys think?
Im autistic as fuck so i dont know if its creepy or just somebody being overly friendly

please feel free to comment, and thank you for reading.