GREAT HAM FEST THIS WEEKEND!

[KI4ODO]

Howdy all,
Well yesturday was RARSFEST, the Raleigh amateur radio society's annual hamfest. There was a great turnout, the place was wall to wall people at times. Met up with many guys I have met on HF, as well as hanging out with the guys from my club. I sold my old Kenwood to make up some of the cost of my newer Kenwood. So all in all a great weekend. The counts showed attendence was up this year, so that's a great thing. I didn't buy much this year, so I earned some points with the XYL http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I hope you all had a good weekend, I sure did.
73, Marvin

[KI4QHM]

I sold my HT but I got nothing trying to save up for a Yaesu FT-857D Great seeing you their!!

[KI4ODO]

Quote[/b] (KI4QHM @ April 02 2007,06:45)]I sold my HT but I got nothing trying to save up for a Yaesu FT-857D Great seeing you their!!
Howdy Nick,
didn't know you were on this board, it was nice to meet you this weekend.

[KI4QHM]

Yes Sir, I'm here at school anyways...great hamfest hopefully next year I can get somthing big. We will have to see.

[w3mv]

I purchased one of these at the Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest:

[KI4ODO]

Quote[/b] (ab3ex @ April 02 2007,07:29)]I purchased one of these at the Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest:
funny story about paddles. I'm a newbie to CW, so I found this (what I thought was) set of iambic paddles, for 20 bucks!!! How can you go wrong? Well, after I bought them, my elmer said to me "hey, nice squeeze paddle you got there". Uh,,, what tha heck is a squeeze paddle I asked. To make a long story short, it was not what I thought it was http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif Oh well, live and learn.

[ka0gkt]

Quote[/b] (KI4ODO @ April 02 2007,07:41)]Quote[/b] (ab3ex @ April 02 2007,07:29)]I purchased one of these at the Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest:
funny story about paddles. I'm a newbie to CW, so I found this (what I thought was) set of iambic paddles, for 20 bucks!!! How can you go wrong? Well, after I bought them, my elmer said to me "hey, nice squeeze paddle you got there". Uh,,, what tha heck is a squeeze paddle I asked. To make a long story short, it was not what I thought it was #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif #Oh well, live and learn.
I use an old-style Vibrokeyer paddle. I was never able to get the swing of the iambic jobs, however I always thought that Iambic Paddle and "Squeeze" Paddle or Key were synonymous.

73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[k5jat]

My first hamfest was the RARSFEST, but back in '99. I didn't really have money for anything of interest, but it was fun!

[KI4NGN]

I was at the RARSFEST on Sunday....was bored to tears and very disappointed. Could have gone to the flea market next door and seen just about the same selection of junk without having to pay for admission! Yes, their was SOME ham gear there, but if you had collected all of the ham gear into one lane, there wasn't enough there to populate that one lane.

Mike, Raleigh, NC

[KI4ODO]

Quote[/b] (KI4NGN @ April 03 2007,02:42)]I was at the RARSFEST on Sunday....was bored to tears and very disappointed. Could have gone to the flea market next door and seen just about the same selection of junk without having to pay for admission! Yes, their was SOME ham gear there, but if you had collected all of the ham gear into one lane, there wasn't enough there to populate that one lane.

Mike, Raleigh, NC
I think a lot of it is what you make of it. I had a great time, and thought the tables were full of stuff. Many nice rigs for sale, a lot of parts. Not sure what you would consider a good hamfest, I thought this one was fantastic!

[KI4QHM]

Yeah their was alot of junk and trash for sale I think as well. But I like hamfest is just to meet hams and just sit down and talk with one another. I got to meet about 7 new hams I've talked to for awhile. So that's what I really like it for and that was it.

[KI4NGN]

Quote[/b] (KI4ODO @ April 03 2007,06:12)]I think a lot of it is what you make of it. I had a great time, and thought the tables were full of stuff. Many nice rigs for sale, a lot of parts. Not sure what you would consider a good hamfest, I thought this one was fantastic!
I agree with you , there was a lot of 'stuff' there.

There were also a couple of lanes where half the tables were empty.

There were so many VCRs, laptops, stereo receivers, computer parts, old AM broadcast table tops, I just didn't know where to begin!?!?

If you went to meet fellow hams and network, then I'm sure you had a great time and I am glad for you.

I went there with checkbook and plastic in hand, hoping to find something for my shack.

I'll reiterate that if you kept all of the 'stuff' that was even remotely related to ham radio and eliminated everything else, there would have been enough to fill one, maybe two rows...which would not have been half of the available space.

What would I have considered a good hamfest? Much more ham radio 'stuff'!

The flier said that all major vendors were to be represented, and I was very much looking forward to that, but that was certainly false. I know another Raleigh ham who wanted to email about just this fact, but after it was over the email address was no longer any good!

If you had a great time there then I am sincerely very glad for you.

I was very disappointed.

Mike

[KI4ODO]

Mike I have to agree on part of that. I was supprised at the number of vendors as well. Plus the normal folks that do name tags, licens plates, wood carvings of callsigns, stuff like that, were not there either. I can see your point.

[W4HAY]

Any OT will tell you that the real treasures at a hamfest are found in the ragged boxes under the tables!