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Combined Retro Tech and Vintage Computer Fair

G

gcarrick

New Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
7
Location
Arlington, TX 76012
The Arlington Museum of Information Technology (AMIT) is sponsoring the first annual Vintage Computer Fair Light - South to be held in conjunction with The 15th annual Antique Science & Retro-Tech Show And Swap Meet. The combined event will be held Saturday, March 14, 2009 at the Ramada Hotel, Irving, Texas, 4440 W. Airport Freeway. from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Admission is $5.

AMIT Director Gil Carrick said that this combined event should attract many visitors who are interested in displaying their vintage computing artifacts or in buying, selling, swapping or just seeing these artifacts. Vintage Computer Fairs have been held in other parts of the country, but this will be the first one in the South. Since this is the first of these events in the region, it will not feature any speakers and will only last one day – hence the term “lite.”

Antique Science & Retro-Tech Show And Swap Meet organizer Skip Solberg said that for a decade and a half the event has been a favorite spot for fans of this antique gear to show, sell and swap their stuff.

Visitors interested in displaying or selling should contact Skip Solberg at 817-994-9213 or email solberg2@airmail.net for pricing and availability of table space.

###
If you’d like more information about the Retro Tech Meet, or to schedule an interview with Skip Solberg, please call 817-467-0368, email solberg2@airmail.net or see the web site at http://www.slideruleguy.com/tx-1q09.htm.

If you’d like more information about the Vintage Computer Fair, or to schedule an interview with Gil Carrick, please call 817-994-9213, email amit@tx.rr.com or see the web site at http://amit-tx.org/.

--
A. G. (Gil) Carrick, Director
Arlington Museum of Information Technology
1012 Portofino Drive
Arlington, TX 76012
 
GREAT!!!! A show actually close enough for me to attend.

May have to knock the dust off my CC-40 stuff and set up a display. Won't be fancy with this short of a notice, but they'll be there for the world to see!

Now to talk Momma into giving me my liberty card for the weekend!
 
Why is there never anything cool anywhere near Birmingham anymore?

I remember when I was a kid, there was a Computer Expo show at the Civic Center every year. Even the HamFests around here are getting skimpy - on the verge of extinction...
 
I know what you mean. I attended several hamfests when I was in Pensacola and found TONS of stuff. Nowadays, you can hardly find a hamfest and when you do it's usually just a couple of guys in a park sitting around a picnic table talking and maybe have a couple of items. Total waste of time.


rebeltaz said:
I remember when I was a kid, there was a Computer Expo show at the Civic Center every year. Even the HamFests around here are getting skimpy - on the verge of extinction...
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curtis said:
Nowadays, you can hardly find a hamfest and when you do it's usually just a couple of guys in a park sitting around a picnic table talking and maybe have a couple of items. Total waste of time.
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HEY! I went to that one! :D

Seriously, no lie, I went to one last year in Fort Payne - four pick-up trucks backed into a pasture! Luckily there's a huge flea market up there or it would have been a waste of time and gas.
 
Actually it happened to me here in Amarillo last year.

Big ad in the paper about hamfest in Thompson Park. I get up and get there about halfway of the scheduled time and it was literally 3-4 guys sitting on a park bench table with a couple of older radios for sale.

I talked a couple of minutes with them and then went to the flea market a couple of miles away!
 
Well, the show is over and for a first run, I would have to call it a success.

While it was more of a vintage electronics show/swap meet, there were several "pure" computer tables, including mine, that were quite interesting.

Bary, it was good to finally put a face to the name!

Talking to Gil, he said next year he's going to try to get UT Arlington to sponsor and spin it off from the swap meet and have a true VCF-Texas!

Hopefully, we'll have more notice and a bigger participation.

I'll be able to figure out what went wrong with my dockbus to hexbus adapter and get something interactive instead of static. Also, with the editor/assembler I picked up for the CC-40, I can do some really tight programming and set up a really nice presentation/demonstration.

Curtis
 
Yes, I agree it was quite an interesting amount of information there. Confused me at first since some tables were "look at this" exhibits and others were tables with everything for sale but for a relatively small room it was easy for me to waste a few hours wandering around.

Nice to also to meet you and very cool exhibit and collection you had with you. Always cool seeing prototypes and unreleased products.

A VCF-Texas..er..South would be awesome, but even that crowd I think was a good mix for antique science and calculators combining with Ham and retrocomputing too, so I'll go back next year. I heard a few folks still trying to break even for their table though but most also already bought next years table and it's been around for 15 years so that's good.

Some really interesting stuff, and a few things I didn't expect there (I had no idea early watches and some eye pieces that glow contained radioactive material like Radium and Boron ..and some (thorium?). Given I wouldn't have just bought an eye piece but guess you should take your favorite Geiger counter with you before buying a cool souvenir and putting that in your pocket lol (one gentleman which I was showing me his Geiger counters were working buy using 3 items on his table said it was a low level that even your pants may be enough to block (he used his hand to block one of them)).

I didn't see who won the sliderule (sliderule or slideruler? I know the first but didn't make sense when I typed it) contest but I heard some elbows were thrown and something about a recount j/k. Actually the biggest talk I heard was most the folks there joking with each other "Think you could still do it?" "Nah, I think I can remember how to multiply but that's about it". I used one as a child in elementary school but it was more for fun. I saw one item that I almost bought but I'm sure it was over $100 that was an early mechanical calculator and it called itself a mechanical slide rule.

Ok, I'll stop blabbing lol I did end up with a few computers but I'll have to check the models and say what I acquired. Timex Sinclair 1000 was one of them (he threw in a Macintosh Plus for free), a Sony smc-210dl6 (lugable) which I'm trying to find more information on, A Grid lugable (V20 model?).
 
barythrin said:
a Sony smc-210dl6 (lugable) which I'm trying to find more information on,
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Sony SMC-210 is as early XT-style machine in a laptop format.
8088 CPU, dual 720K floppy drives and that's right, no batteries (AC only).
Should be able to boot and run MSDOS 3.3 from 720K media.
It was released around the same time as the IBM Convertible, so early 1986.
I remember the large LCD display was quite innovative for the time.

Andy
 
Yeah, I overslept and forgot my camera and my cards. I was planning on taking pictures throughout the day, but since I was supposed to start setup at 0700 and didn't wake up until almost 0800...

Oh well, next year.
 
I attended the event and took a few pictures with my crummy iPhone camera. If they are any good, I will post them when I have a moment.

There was a little girl walking around asking for prices for various items. "How much is he?" It was cute. Guess the retro tech hobby starts early for some people. :)
 
curtis said:
Yeah, I overslept and forgot my camera and my cards. I was planning on taking pictures throughout the day, but since I was supposed to start setup at 0700 and didn't wake up until almost 0800...

Oh well, next year.
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You had it easy, I completely forgot about it! Oh well. Next year either someone should post a reminder or I should put it in my phone. I was really wanting to go, too! Ah well, twice the fun next year then. Maybe by then I will have a nice show-system I can set up.

--Ryan
Eagerly awaiting photos
 
curtis said:
Has anyone heard if there is going to be a repeat this year on this combined event?
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Hopefully, I'd like to attend this year. I've sent an email to the contact person at The Museum of Information Technology at Arlington. I'll let you guys know, what I hear.
 
I received a quick response from Gil (the director of the Museum). He stated that there will be one this year, but the details are still being worked out.
 
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