I attended the Fox Cities ARC Club hamfest in Kaukauna on Saturday, 11/6/22. There was great attendance, parking lot was crammed with vehicles sporting antennas. I cant say how many tables they had, guess would be 100 or more, NO EMPTY tables. Every available table had "good stuff" on and or under it. Lots of vintage parts, tubes, and some vintage HF radios. Prices were great, folks were eager to bargain. I picked up some parts for my collection, no big purchases, though was tempted. BONUS, I won a door/raffle prize, first time in a long while. And it wasn't a cheap pen or other useless item. I won a 100 watt foldable solar panel, valued at over $200. I have been to this swap several times and it has always been a good one. Bob, N8PKN.
Dan N9LVS made a short video: Sure would have liked the solar panel or the ID-5100A, though I already have that radio. I sold a few things for an estate, perhaps for less than I should have, but at least I don't have to haul it to the next hamfest. Personally, I wish the announcer audio wasn't so loud, especially since my table position was almost directly under one of the ceiling speakers! Also sold some things at Friendly Fest in Milwaukee the day before. I'm a poor judge of crowd size,but it seemed like more sellers at FCARC. Haven't heard attendance figures for either hamfest yet. Since the Waukesha hamfest doesn't exist anymore, the next hamfest for me would be in St. Charles, IL, if they have it this year. https://www.w9ccu.org/wordpressLimitless/?page_id=967 73, Tom de KC9ONY
Looks like a good swapfest. The last two I attended had nothing but junk. One guy even had an old lawnmower for sale.
I've been attending this hamfest since 2006 and almost every year it has been a good one. Tony, AB9IO, organizes the hamfest and does an amazing job at it. One thing I've always liked about this hamfest is there are always a few tables selling parts and normally they have been sold at reasonable amounts. One thing I would like to see added is at least one vendor with connectors, in the past there were vendors but for the past few years there haven't been any, other than Wolf River Coils. My haul this year wasn't big but it was good enough, a roller inductor, variable capacitor and a Wolf River Coil SB-1000 with 102" whip. Overall great hamfest and it is a great way to see some of the hams who I haven't seen in a few years.
