OK, as most of us here on our little tropical sanctuary know, Pat WA6MHZ has quite a collection of gear stashed in his home, garage, and workplace. While Pat fondly refers to it as the 'Crest Radio Museum'... no offense Pat, but the equipment (as impressive as it all must be) as currently displayed doesn't exactly look like a museum.

(By way of comparison, look at Chuck Dachis' vast collection at http://www.hallicraftercollector.com...ers_museum.htm , although these photos are about 4 years old, so I don't know if it still looks like this)

Now, in other threads over yonder, Pat has mentioned, ah, family difficulties (I'm not going into it here, the purpose of this is not to rehash that story). And, that there is an existing house for sale right by his, plus a vacant lot.

So: The thought occurs to me... what would it take to acquire said house and/or said lot, and turn one or the other (or both) into an actual museum? What I'm thinking is that it couldn't cost THAT much to purchase said house, and install some proper shelving and display areas, including more than a few working/operational stations (equipment could be rotated, of course). The garage area could be used for storage of items not ready for display, a basement (if there is one) could be an ongoing work bench for rehab of equipment.

And, naturally, there'd be plenty of room for antennas, at least enough to demonstrate the working equipment.

I know, I know. We all kid Pat about his collection, and more than a few have implied (and not always in a nice way) that it boarders on hoarding. And, obviously, he'd have to agree to this, I don't know if he would or not. So this might be a moot point.

Still... what would it take? $250,000 to acquire the property? More? (I don't know real estate values in Crest, I'm guessing) Another what, $50,000 for shelving and displays? And what would the annual upkeep cost?

All academic questions at this point, and clearly, a formal group would have to be put together to handle fund-raising, acquisition, and ongoing operation. Still... it could be something positive, if it's done right. And, as a side benefit, it gets Pat some peace of mind (and space) at home & at work. Regardless, I know that this would be a long-shot...

but still, one wonders: what would it take?

Thoughts?