I attended the 2025 Charlotte Hamfest. I was disappointed by how badly it has shrunk. Sadly, It is now a shadow of itself. Twenty years ago it filled up the Charlotte Convention Center. Now it is in the smallest part Concord Events and Arena Center . The CEAF is not in Charlotte, or even Mecklenburg County. The Talk in frequency wasn't a W4BFB repeater. 146.655 k4ceb is the Cabarus ARS club repeater. In the commercial vendor room there were three vendors: Leaf filter, a hat manufacturer, and Wireman" Wireman was the ONLY radio related vendor. The rest of the room was empty. The ARRL table was run by a woman from New Jersey. No card checkers, just a smattering of literature, and some copies of QST. In the flea Market area, the biggest vendor was selling Marine Corp camo surplus clothes, not radios. Some tables weren't even occupied. Several other problems I noted were: The concession stands were credit card only! NO cash! What's wrong with good old US of A dollars? In mid February, on the hamfest website there was a call for volunteers. I sent an E-mail responce to KN4FST on February 12. Never got any response,zilch, nada! WHAT HAPPENED???
how many things are the same as they were twenty years ago? also, > The concession stands were credit card only! NO cash! What's wrong with good old US of A dollars? welcome to 2025. nobody wants to schlep to the bank with cash. so many places are payment card only now.
Cashless is going to be the way of the world moving forward almost everywhere - get used to it! (Notice I didn't say like it - because many will not.) Sports stadiums, vendors in many places. Just the way it will be.
Was only several years ago there was also outside tailgating (weather permitting). Found some great bargains form tailgaters. Was sad to see it no longer being offered. This hamfest use to be on my annual hamfest season (traveling from central-Ohio). Last CHF I attended was 3 years ago as I thought the OP's comments were applicable then.
It was a great hamfest in the early 80’s, guys walking around with an Icom IC-2AT’s hanging off their belts like gunslingers. Many now defunct ham radio vendors and thousands attended. It really took a slide in the early 90’s. I think the last one I attended was in ‘91 before we moved out of the area,
Many things... The Baby Boom generation made a significant bump in the ham radio population. Many of us are older now and can't/don't want to travel as much as we used to. Many of us older hams are no longer acquiring lots of used equipment, especially boat anchors. The Internet is also something that has caused changes. It makes it so easy to buy gear now that some don't want/need to buy in person. At this point, people are becoming nervous about the economy. Sometimes the problem can be as simple as competing local events, etc. Anyhow, what can you do? Get with the hamfest committee and ask HOW YOU CAN HELP TO MAKE NEXT YEAR BETTER!
