I made the mistake of ... parking beside the tin commercial building ... Walking back to that spot ..., I passed a guy walking and swinging an antenna that looked just like mine. As I put the stuff in the trunk I looked up to find that the SOB I passed had stolen my NMO mount antenna off the roof of my car!!! If I return, I guess I'll have to take the mag mount off and stuff it in the trunk while at Near-Fest! No I never saw that thief again. ...
I'm
so sorry Len. If we'd spent more quality time together I eventually would have shared the epic tale of "Ed's"
"Boxboro Parking Lot ATAS-120 Hot Swap". That's Yaesu's 40m-6m screwdriver HF whip for FT-857's, etc.
Well over a decade ago, "Ed" parked in the Cisco overflow lot and walked down through the woods to the convention. On the drive home he discovered that he couldn't get out on HF, even though his rig was working that morning. Turns out that some asshøle had stolen his antenna and replaced it with one that didn't work.
The ATAS-120A retails new for $329 nowadays and I don't think it was any cheaper in the past. Back when I had one on my car, I would leave it on while parked at Alewife, etc., but I would always pull it when parked at a hamfest. I wish I'd shared that tale with you before now...
By all means tell Mister Mike what happened, but CC Paul/
W1PRA on your message. Paul is sergeant-at-arms at NEAR-Fest (and I now see also at Boxboro, of late). As you can tell from Paul's QRZ entry, he's a handcuff vendor out of RI, and I'm sure he'll be suitably upset.
If you think you'll recognize the thief in six months (or if your antenna had some distinguishing marks), then retain as much of your old antenna's packaging and bill of sale as you still have, and bring it to the next NEAR-Fest. If you spot him, you have a couple of options at various places on the Spectrum of Prudence. (Just don't re-enact the
Tale of the Stolen Cookies with some innocent guy's antenna).