OKVRC - 2004 Convention - by Frank Karner
Midwest City Community Center, Midwest City Oklahoma, was the site of the OKVRC 2004 convention. The event was held on Saturday April 10, 2004 from 8am - 2 pm.
The day dawned beautiful, and the turnout was good! An estimated 70 attendees included representation from Kansas, Texas and Arkansas as well as our Green Country members from the Tulsa area. We were especially please to see such a good attendance from the Dallas VRPS club, as well as from our Tulsa Chapter. The Spring meet is the larger of our two annual meets, including a contest, silent auction, and live auction in addition to our regular selling and trading functions. Our silent auction continues to grow in popularity and total sales, offering sellers and buyers alike another opportunity to acquire needed parts and supplies. A new feature this year was a drawing for 3 door-prizes, including a one-year subscription to ARC, which was won by Bill Jones.
The contest for this year was expanded to 15 categories, with a large variety of very impressive radios and radio-related items displayed. At least for me, this is always one of the more exciting elements of our swapmeets... as it presents an opportunity to admire so many really nice radios, and I always learn a lot about both popular and more obscure receivers. Congratulations to all those who displayed radios, and especially to those winners in the various categories. Best-of-show went to the original WKY radio transmitter, dating from 1920. This transmitter, displayed by Frank Karner, was first licensed in 1920 to operate as Experimental amateur “ 5XT “, and a year later was licensed as commercial WKY.
We were pleased that the doors were opened by the MWC convention staff earlier that the expected 8 AM time, so that sellers were able to get a jump-start in unloading their vehicles and setting up their sales tables. Special thanks to all the volunteers who worked to make this event successful, also to all who donated items to the donation auction, and finally and most importantly to each of our attendees who faithfully make this great event possible!