Kulpsville Reflections (1994 and Beyond)

TOM'S REFLECTIONS ON THE SWL FEST

© 2007 by Tom Swisher WA8PYR

13th 'Fest.... wait just a minute, is this really my 13th 'Fest??? Hmmm, 1994 to 2007, minus 1999 (missed that one to go to my Mom's 60th birthday bash)... yep, this will be my 13th 'Fest.

Wow. Time sure does fly when you're having fun.

I first came to the 'Fest in 1994, courtesy of Dave Marshall. I had joined the AOSC editorial staff a year or so earlier, and Dave kept suggesting that I come to Kulpsville for the "Winterfest". It sounded like a good time; as he described it, just a nice weekend away to have a few beers, play radio, and relax.

So I went. Dave, Mark Meece and I shared the ride, which included a traditional breakfast stop at Bob Evans in Wheeling, WV, along with several stops along the Pennnsylvania Turnpike. It was a long but interesting voyage; Dave had a scanner pre-programmed with the frequencies for the Turnpike and all the agencies along the way. It was then I noticed how many agencies in Pennsylvania still used VHF low band, and the skip was in. We picked up so much stuff on low band it boggled the mind.

Mark and I shared a room that first year; Dave had a king room to himself, and I soon discovered why. Now, I showed up at the 'Fest prepared for anything. My handheld scanner at the time was a Radio Shack Pro-60, which served me well except for one minor problem.... my hometown was on an 800 MHz trunked system. In the Land of the 'Fest, though, it was excellent. With an antenna stuck in the window of the hotel room I could monitor as far south as Phildelphia, and hear all the local action as well. With a wire strung around the window, I could use my Sangean ATS-803A to monitor interesting shortwave stations as well as Pancho Villa's Midnight Ride (if one were to know these things). And I had my Yaesu dual-band handheld for inter-Scum communications.

On the trip over, the back of Dave's station wagon was full, and I discovered exactly why when we arrived at his room to head out for dinner. Dave was loaded for bear. He had that room tricked out with every kind of scanning device known to mankind, many of them hooked up to computers. Birds in flight and passersby in the hall would likely have been microwaved, there was so much RF energy floating around Dave's room.

One of our first stops after getting settled was the beer store up the road, to lay in sufficient supplies for the weekend. This was my introduction to Yuengling beer; I don't drink much, but the 'Fest is one time I can knock back a few and relax without worrying about how to get home. I look forward every year to that first frosty bottle of Yuengling, and since I can't get it in Ohio, I usually manage to take a case or two home with me. Try as I might, they never seem to last much more than a few months.

Dinner that night was an unforgettable adventure. Mike Eilers had read of a good cheese-steak place in the old Reading Terminal Market in Center City Philadelphia, so we opted to hop the SEPTA train in Lansdale and ride down there for a cheese-steak. The ride was fun, and we arrived at the Market East station in good order. Alas, after getting up to street level and heading over to the Market, we discovered that it was closed. Bummer. So we decided to explore the Mall next the the station in search of an eatery; Dave elected to wait for our return in the station. Once again, we were denied dinner, as the Mall was closed up, and we were chased out by a Philadelphia Police Highway Patrol officer in his distinctive uniform. And upon our return to the station's Mall entrance, we found that the security gate had been lowered and secured. Our only route out was via a long tunnel, up to the street, around the block and back down to the station.

Dave, meanwhile, was somewhat upset by this entire turn of events, as hunger was taking its' toll. So, we got back on the train and headed to Lansdale. We arrived back at the hotel, ordered Pizza Hut, drank Yuengling, played radio... and the hunger pangs disappeared.

The 'Fest was my introduction to several people people I today consider good friends, many of whose works I had been reading in hobby magazines for some time. I also met many other people, experts all at their chosen avocation. Their forums were interesting and informative, and remain so to this day. I look forward every year to seeing these folks.

The banquet was somewhat surreal. In addition to periodic Cornholio impressions from John McColman, an occasional "En-id, Okla-homa" would rend the air, followed sometimes by an "arrrrrrrr" from the pirate table. The beer flowed.... endlessly. The food was passable, but nothing to write home about, so it's probably good that there was a sufficient quantity of beer on hand. The banquet was also my introduction to DXer's Prayers, endless rounds of raffle-ticket buying and a very spirited, entertaining raffle (I seriously doubt the raffle at the local church social is that entertaining). I even won something but can't for the life of me remember what it was (the beer may have had something to do with that memory lapse). A good time was had by all.

At midnight we were treated to Pancho Villa's annual ride, which included things so outlandish and hilarious I still laugh to hear them. I've kept MP3 copies of as many as I can, just for an occasional chuckle. The beer continued to flow.

Times have certainly changed. Writing is one of my loves, and I've picked up several other writing gigs in the years since my first 'Fest: National Communications, Popular Communications, wrote a book for Gerry Dexter, co-edited another with Dave Marshall, self-published several of my own books. Some of these came about through associations made at the Winterfest. But I'm still writing for AOSC; it's a nice gig, and it has a lot of the club-like, family atmosphere of the 'Fest.

Today, 14 years later, monitoring at the 'Fest isn't quite the same. Philadelphia and Kulpsville/Montgomery County have switched to digital trunked systems, as have some of the other neighboring counties. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is switching over to an non-standard digital trunked system which is woefully behind scehdule and over budget... but what there is of it can't be monitored. There's still a lot of conventional activity to monitor, though!

9/11 certainly caused some changes in the monitoring hobby as well, increasing the push for interoperability and standards-based radio systems. Many new digital systems are popping up each year, and more agencies are making use of encryption, although not as many as one might think, and those that do generally reserve it for certain select channels. Most digital systems are based on the APCO25 standard, but a few go their own way. All these changes mean we need new new scanners with more capabilities and more features; as they have increased in capability and complexity, scanners have become quite a bit more expensive.

Shortwave has changed dramatically. My earliest memory of shortwave listening is of sitting in front of the old Grunow console in my grandparents' basement at the age of 9 or 10, tuning around the shortwave bands and being thrilled to catch HCJB, powerhouse of the Andes. For years, shortwave has been an alternate way to catch news, information and entertainment. Today, broadcasters are dropping like flies, many replacing their broadcasts with Internet streaming. I find this sad; not everyone has access to high-speed Internet, and unless they're solely interested in the right-wing conservative Christian viewpoint, the disappearance of these shortwave broadcasts in essence denies them the opportunity to hear things from a different angle. There is hope, though, in the form of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), which can give shortwave broadcasting a new lease on life if it's potential is met. I hope it does; I'm still fascinated by the thought that I can catch news and information from around the world with nothing more than a little box and a piece of wire.

Over the years, the Scum have found other interesting attractions. We all like to explore, and many of us arrive a day early for the event to get together and take a sightseeing tour of the area, followed by dinner at a nice local eatery. One year we went to Valley Forge, my first visit to that historic place; another year took us to the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. We almost always start with lunch at Lee's Haogie House in Willow Grove for a cheese-steak. The fact that it's located at the end of the runway at Willow Grove Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base is an added scanning bonus. Dinner has been had in places ranging from a nice brew-pub located near Valley Forge, to the Ground Round, to an excellent Chinese restaurant just up the road from Kulpsville.

The banquet remains somewhat surreal. Although Cornholio, "Enid, Oklahoma" and "Arrrrrrr" rend the air a little less frequently, it's still an entertaining evening.

I have lots of fond memories of the Winterfest. Here's to another 20 'Fests, and may the Yuengling continue to flow.

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