A guest post by Eric McFadden, WD8RIF
I had the pleasure of attending the annual Voice of Aladdin Amateur Radio Club’s Columbus Hamfest this past weekend, on Saturday, August 4, 2018. The Columbus Hamfest is a smaller, local or regional hamfest but every year when I attend I’m pleasantly surprised by the presence of a really nice variety of fine used gear available at the event. This year was no exception.
I made snaps of some of the fine old “boat anchors” and some of the not-so-old stuff available at the hamfest. (And I must apologize for the flaring evident in some of the photos. It seems the lens in my MotoE4 smartphone is prone to flaring in direct sunlight—somehow, up this point I had not managed to discover this.)

Realistic DX-160

Central Electronics “Multiphase Exciter Model 20-A” transmitter

Yaesu FT-101EX transceiver and accessories

Collins R-388/URR receiver

Drake R8 receiver

Johnson Viking Ranger transmitter

A selection of MFJ single-band QRP (low power) CW-only transceivers and a vintage Heathkit SWR bridge
At the event, I hadn’t noticed how many of the vintage receivers were made by Hallicrafters.

Hallicrafters “Sky Buddy”

Hallicrafters HT-32A transmitter

Hallicrafters SX-101 receiver

Hallicrafters SX-111 receiver

Hallicrafters SX-99 receiver

Heathkit DX-100 (bottom) and Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitters
And while not a radio, this is certainly vintage and is very pretty—and it was for sale.

1966 Chevrolet pickup-truck (it was for sale)

1966 Chevrolet pickup-truck (it was for sale)

1966 Chevrolet pickup-truck (it was for sale)
Ironically, the truck has NO radio.
Eric, thank you so much for sharing these excellent pics! That hamfest had a healthy amount of boat anchors.
That ’66 Chevy really brings back memories. Thanks for taking the time to take a photo of the dashboard. I learned to drive a manual transmission in my dad’s 1966 Chevy truck–identical to the one in your photo save my dad’s had a fleet bed and was white. That brings back some memories!
Cheers,
Thomas
The radio sitting atop the DX100 is not a receiver, but a Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitter.
I used one of those in the early 70’s when getting into Ham radio. It’s also quite heavy, weighing over 80 pounds. It was retired after I upgraded to a transceiver several years later, but I still have the HT37 stored in a closet!
Thanks, Charles. I’ll update the page!