Bishop Auckland rally

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Folks, just a reminder that thee Bishop Auckland radio rally will be on this Sunday, 30th Nov in the Spennymoor leisure centre, doors open from about 10am

Ed

[SiriusHardware]

Thanks Ed, I may try to get there if I can get planning permission. Already missed Galashiels this year so it would be nice to hit at least one other 'local' rally.

[Craig Sawyers]

There's some very familiar place names Ed! Although it is getting on half a century since I moved from the NE.

Craig of the now soft South!

[SiriusHardware]

Anyone else go? I nearly didn't but a last minute twist of fate meant that I could go. I didn't get there until about 12:30 by which time it was rather quiet, to the extent that most of the stallholders were starting to pack their stuff away by 13:40 while I was still mooching around.

There was a good mix of retro stuff there, a chap who's always there and at most north east rallies with a stall half full of valves and half full of interesting radio equipment, usually including one or two interesting CB radios, although his have often been converted to 10m. He didn't have anything that I didn't already have an equivalent of this time.

Another stall had another couple of CBs, an old familiar Commtron 40F and a rather nicer York 863, the latter priced at what I would judge to be the going rate for its condition.

Elsewhere there were at least two big stalls selling amateur equipment including transceivers, aerials, mounts, etc, another good stall selling a lot of 'maker' kits, small modular electronic building blocks, some standalone, some ideal for adding interfacing of one sort or another to Arduino or Raspberry Pi products.

There were some retro computers there too, a complete ZX81 system including a ZX Printer which still had plenty left on the aluminium roll - an Apple IIE, an EMMA 2 (6502 based college trainer / single board computer).

Another gent had a 'system' of SBCs for 6502, Z80, and 80286 - all with a common keyboard and display which could plug into any one of the three mainboards. He also had a Tangerine - or rather a half-Tangerine because one of the PCBs was a repro using slightly more modern devices. The Tangerine keypad was apparently an original. That system wasn't for sale because it was being used as a video source to demo something else but he said he was planning to take it to a bring & buy at CfCH (Cambridge) in April.

So - plenty of interest. Was it really as quiet as I thought it was, or did everyone else just pour through within the first hour and a half before I got there?

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Sirius, I was there for the opening about 10 and it was a bit quieter than previous years, but plenty of stuff for projects. I saw quite a few faces I know.
Usually pays to get to these events for the start

Ed

[ortek_service]

I recall the Maxon chassis Commtron, and the Cybernet York 863 that was the 'top of the range' model, and quite sought-after (along with its other re-badged equivalents) even back in the 80's. And not often seen at rallies these days.

And quite a good collection of Computers there - Especially an Apple IIe (that I'd have thought they'd be seeking eBay rather than Rally prices for now that these are quite sought-after).
I don't think I've ever seen an EMMA (2) at a Rally either - Only seeing one for the first time earlier this year, after someone had bought one from CfCH who had a few surplus ones (But I don't recall them having any on display).
Whilst these were used by many Colleges etc, we only had the rival? Z80 Micro-Professors at mine.

I once got all the bits of Tangerine Microtan for a few pounds from a couple of Rallies, managing to re-assemble a complete system and get it working. But not seen any more for sale since, now that they are rather sought-after (Hence replica PCB?)

If it had only been open for 1.5hrs, then all the sellers should still be there at least, and maybe only missed a few one-off bargains.
Although if at 12:30, it had been open for 1.5hrs, then 11am is quite a late-start for rallies these days.
Most are now 9:30 (or often earlier for outdoor ones) start for visitors, and most sellers packing up from 12pm onwards.
Grantham rally (often on Sat), was often all packed-up and completely-over by 11:30!

[SiriusHardware]

The Tangerine owner explained that the repro PCB had been necessary because some of the parts needed to populate a real version of the PCB (character generator, etc) were more or less unobtainium so the repro PCB had these designed out, in almost an exact parallel with Chris Oddy's redesigned MK14 VDU.

Apple IIE: £300 was being asked for that - £200 for the Emma II, I thought was too much given that it was just the mainboard without any of the many add-on expansion PCBs which were available for the system. The ZX81 (a complete system with RAM pack, manuals, ZX printer with a decent amount of aluminium paper - £150. I got the seller's card - should anyone actually consider those to be reasonable prices, by all means PM me and I will pass on the details.

Opposite to you, I used the EMMA 2 at college but would rather have played with or owned a Microprofessor, but I never had one fall my way.

The York 863 was priced at £40 and was in fairly nice condition with its original branded 'coffin' microphone - no guarantee that it was working of course. I already happen to have one in similar condition otherwise I might have bought it.

[ortek_service]

Well with all those Computers for sale at it, I might have been tempted to make the rather-long trip up there (I've done it there & back for nearby music festivals). But not at those prices, and doubt many would have that much cash on them even if they were tempted!

So unlikely for any of those to have got sold there (especially with little guarantee, that you usually have rather-more online (even if buying from a Private seller, if buying through the right marketplace).

I do regret not buying an Apple-II that was being sold for £15, back in 1992!

I'm fairly sure the CfCH were selling EMMA's for less than a quarter of that.

And ZX81's aren't that rare (I did once buy one for £20 as it was in it's shipping box, but most of the ones I've got have been given to me). And RAM packs aren't too rare (You'd expect there to be nearly as many as ZX81's, unless owners never ran >1K RAM software).
I hadn't paid much for my ZX printer + paper, although many years ago so maybe rather more collectable now. Although they were never that great, and maybe the Alphacom 32 would be better to have (especially as thermal paper more-likely to still be obtainable)

£40 for a York 863 is probably around what they (and Rotel RVC-240 / Binatone 5-star etc same board & front-panel controls equivalents) went for in the 1980's. And it doesn't seem used (or new) CB prices (particularly for SSB etc ones) have gone-up since (maybe as newer / better Superstar & maybe Ranger models were still being made and now sold in quite a bit of Europe, inc. places in the UK).

[SiriusHardware]

£40 for a York 863 is probably around what they (and Rotel RVC-240 / Binatone 5-star etc same board & front-panel controls equivalents) went for in the 1980's

I assume you mean second-hand. Radios like the 5-Star were £100 plus on L-day.

EMMA II at less than a quarter, I assume then you mean around £35-£40 from CfCH. That would be OK for just the mainboard with no accessories.

Yes, I'm afraid I thought the asking prices for the computers were high, perhaps they could have been haggled down if I had tried.

[ortek_service]

Yes - I was meaning used-ones in the mid-to-late 80's, when by then those were NLA new - with many of the new ones now only having up-down rather than rotary (where you often got the knack of turning it quickly to the channel required) channel selection. So would also be more-involved to convert for other bands, than with parallel binary input channel selection.

I think CfCH only had the EMMA-II mainboards. With the accessories being rather-rarer (But no-doubt could make replicas, as there probably wasn't that-much to these).

I doubt the sellers would have been prepared to drastically come down from their 'eBay prices' (which were probably rather ambitious, even for there). So they'd just end-up not selling them at the Rally.

[captainpugwash]

I went again but a bit earlier this year. Got there about 11.15 and it did seem a bit quieter.

Some of the stall holders agreed with that.

I bought a few odds and ends along with a MacBook and a Wireless World Dolby unit.

Hopefully it will continue.

Kind regards,

David

[SiriusHardware]

No reason not, as you can tell from my earlier post I found plenty to keep me occupied. Maybe it just wasn't as well advertised as in previous years? I only knew about it because of Ed's timely reminder in post #1.

[ortek_service]

Well it was on the RSGB's Rallies List, that they put online (and Google used to find first, when searching for radio rallies) - So also publicised to Non-members, who don't get their RadCom Magazine.
- Plus presumable also in Practical Wireless magazine rally list?

Not sure where else it would normally get publicised - maybe flyers at previous rallies in the area and on the websites of Amateur Radio Clubs in the area ?

And weather wasn't too-bad for December - When I presume it is usually held each-year?

I do recall some rallies blaming falling attendances for reasons to stop running them - But that includes Elvaston Castle, when the parking area was still rather-full in it's last-year, when I had been there again.
So more usual for rallies to cease when the usual organisers are no-longer able to do this / increasing costs of venue doesn't make it economic.

[Radio Wrangler]

Scotland isn't quite a rally-free zone. We're down to just two fairly small ones (Braehead and Galashiels) So being able to look at a calendar for the whole country allows me to 'adjust' any forays south of the border to sometimes take one in.

So, on the whole, the wider area the publicity covers, the better.

I used to be quite busy as a giver of talks on technical aspects and invited as far afield as Dayton etc. The G-QRP doo was the annual fixture, but one of the best was EME2012. The amateur radio scene seems rather quiet nowadays.

I'm one of the organisers of the Scottish meet of The Microwave Roundtable which runs every November. Other meets alternate between RAL Oxford and BT Research, Martlesham.

Radio events are now relatively rare, and we all need to make the best of them.

David

[SiriusHardware]

I think Spennymoor is usually in November (as indeed it was this time, but very late in November...) maybe there's a problem placing it so close to Christmas because, usually, when going to a rally anything you buy is going to be for yourself, whereas in late November / December people are usually reining back on that kind of spending to focus on buying for other people. To put it simply: People probably have less unallocated funds at this time of year. It might be better to bring it forward to a month or two sooner in these cash constrained times.

Attendances at radio rallies generally are in decline as both the core demographic and the people who organise them get ever older. As David suggested, those which remain need our support if they are to keep going.

[ortek_service]

It had been said that shops were at their quietest / worst time to sell things on eBay etc was late Jan / Early Feb, when people had their Credit Card bills from their Christmas (over)spending.
So maybe any lack of attendance at rallies before then is more down to time rather than money conflicts. Plus maybe also worries about weather if travelling quite-far.

It does seem there are still quite a few rallies still going in the NW & NE of England. As well as a surprising amount in the SW.
But mainly none in the most of the Midlands, until you get towards SE of Coventry at Princethorpe / the RetroTech (Ex-NVCF) at nearby Ryton-on-Dunsmore.
And not many in the SE - especially London - area either, anymore.
Although still a few in the East.
So it seems rallies are often more-likely to be in more-rural areas, than in places of larger populations.

[G6Tanuki]

For me, one issue with rallies/shows irrespective of location is the opening times.

They all seem to open too early and close too early! Particularly at this time of year when it's not light outside until 07:30, so fitting in a couple of hours dog-walk, an hour for a shower/shave/breakfast, and then perhaps an hour or more drive-time, only to arrive at the event (which opened at 10:00z) around noon to find some people already leaving, doesn't count as a good use of my time.

Events running from 11:00 to 16:00 would be much more attractive to me.

[ortek_service]

Yes, I recall 30+ years ago when most rallies were around those times, often having to queue up until doors opened at 10:30 / staying until 5pm close at Drayton Manor with sellers not packing-up until after 4pm. And being able to arrive after mid-day, with it still all in progress.

But these days most seem to be more-like Car Boot sales, where many of those open at 6am for buyers with sellers there even-earlier! So rather antisocial hours on a Sunday, where people might want a bit of a lie-in.

Although the (ex-NVCF) Retro-Tech / BVWS events do tend to run more at the times most radio-rallies were originally at.