DC area mobile installs, how about a gathering.

[N3PRZ]

Sometime in the summer (being that it'll be warm enough for an outside gathering), how about having a mini-car show.  If not at our normal meeting time (listed below) how about a weekend car/truck show.

Montgomery Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
First and third Wednesday of every month at 7:30pm in Rockville, Maryland.

Jason Foster, N3PRZ
President
Montgomery Amateur Radio Club
president@marcclub.org

[K0BG]

It isn't all that far, or all that long for Dayton. There are more mobiles there than you can imagine.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com

[N3PRZ]

Edit:

The correct email address is:

marc-president@marcclub.org
-----------------------------

Yeah....but the point is not everyone goes to Dayton, in fact, very few people go there...the point is to have it in the DC area, and invite non-hams too.

[W3LK]

<< the point is to have it in the DC area, and invite non-hams too.>>

Considering some of the mobile installations I have seen over the years at the Timonium hamfest, I am not at all sure I would want any non-hams to see them. Some of them are REALLY trashy!

73,

Lon - W3LK (lived in Baltimore for 18 years)
Naugatuck, Connecticut

[K3GM]

I go to Dayton just about every year, and I have to tell you, you see some of the most outrageous mobile installations gathered in one spot that you'll ever see anywhere.  But guess what...most of them are in the parking lot, locked up, and the owner no where to be found, and probably more interested in the Hamvention than talking about his mobile setup.  Jason, I think it's a great idea; kind of like the equivalent of a show and shine car enthusiast gathering.  Owners could have the doors and hood open so you could poke your nose inside and  ask questions.  I used to go to seasonal Dodge Ram diesel meets at a regional Hooter's.  We'd have a local  performance shop bring the mobile dyno trailer, and we'd all take turns making dyno runs with the winner receiving a bucket of wings.  Hooter's loved it because it brought a huge influx of business.  Think along those lines, and I'd think you'd have a winner.

[K0BG]

I agree with Tom and Lon on this one.

I have a presentation that I have given to several amateur radio clubs about theses parts. It's called the Wall of Shame. The photos in the presentation were taken at Dayton last year, and the year before. The installs are so bad, you can't believe they actually work!

One of them belongs to a rather famous (perhaps infamous) amateur. Even though I covered up the signage on the side, one amateur in Albuquerque, recognized the vehicle.

He then explained to me that this install was his second attempt. As the story goes, the first time he mounted the antenna, he used the brake light lens guard, which turned out to be glued on plastic, not metal!

There are a couple of the installs within the pages of my web site, but I have refrained from putting them all there. After all, some folks need their anonymity.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com