Charleston Hamfest 2016

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This past Saturday was another Charleston Hamfest. Pretty good hamfest this year with some cool but nice weather for the morning. Pretty decent sized crowd showed up, and I had a chance to make some eyeball QSOs with some of the Twitter hams that I follow, including Andrew/KK4DSD and Beverly/W3BRB. It's always a little bit weird to have random strangers come up and say stuff like "hey, I know you", but I'm glad to have the chance to meet them.

Lots of busy tables at this year's hamfest, which is good. Saw lots of nice radios and a lot of Heathkits that I wouldn't have minded taking home with me.

IMG_20160206_094021.jpgQuite a few nice door prizes being given away this year too, including a donated Elecraft K1 and a couple of quadcopters. One of them was given away to the youngest ham present at the hamfest at 1PM.

IMG_20160206_081610.jpgIMG_20160206_082409.jpgMakelab Charleston had a table there, which was nice to see. I know there are a few hams in the Makelab.

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This year I spent some time at the front of the room helping out with making announcements and giving away some of the door prizes.

With no active projects going on, I didn't really have much of a shopping list. Still managed to leave the hamfest with a bag of goodes though including this gem that Bryce/K4LXF was going to put on the free table, but gave to me instead.

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I'll see how well (or if) it plays in the car. Could be useful for the drive to and from work.

Also picked up a couple of Mini-Circuits low noise amplifiers, some tools and supplies for the workbench, and a couple of PoV (persistence of vision) kits the Makelab Charleston guys were selling.

Another good hamfest this year, and looking forward to the next one.