Orlando Hamcation 2022

Made it back to Hamcation for the first time since my very first trip there in 2013. Like the first time, Hamcation didn’t disappoint. The crowd size seemed pretty respectable for Hamcation, although I don’t really have a good memory of what the crowd was like the first time I went so it’s a bit tough to compare. There were a lot of people moving through the commercial and swaps buildings, but I didn’t feel like I was stepping on anyone making my way through from table to table.

We started the festivities off Thursday (Feb 10) with the 2022 ARRL National Convention, held at a different location from Hamcation. It was a day long affair with four different tracks. Connie and I were in the Handbook track, with talks designed to introduce or remind people about different aspects of amateur radio. There were some good presentations on hunting down radio-frequency interference, Parks On The Air, amateur radio satellites, and remote rig operating.

Friday was the first day of Hamcation. Most of the big name vendors you expect to see at a major hamfest were set up in the Commercial building. Wandered through the Commercial building for a while checking out various offerings. LiFePO₄ batteries from a company I hadn’t heard about yet, PO4Power, looked pretty interesting with an integrated LCD screen showing the battery voltage (and maybe other things).

After going through the Commercial building, we walked over to the Swaps building. Pretty crowded in there with both sellers and shoppers. We made the circuit of the outside tables, I got distracted by a display of handbooks at one of the inside tables and picked up a 1970 ARRL handbook in pretty good shape to add to my collection. Then it was time for a lunch break.

Lunch options at this year’s Hamcation looked pretty decent. There were four different food vendors offering a decent variety of choices. A wood-fired pizza place was set up, so we decided to go for that. Pretty tasty pizza.

After lunch, it was back in to the Swaps building. Lots of people selling in there. Came across a set of tables where two nice ladies had a bunch of components, bins, equipment, and homebrew radios displayed. Turns out they were the wife and daughter of an SK who was a skilled homebrewer and did a lot of work in the radio/EE world. I was looking over the various component bins working out what would be good to add to my collection of bits and pieces and was starting to accumulate a bit of a pile when Connie asked if I’d be interested in taking the whole set of bins (6 in total). The two ladies were a bit surprised that Connie made such a suggestion, but they were very supportive of the idea. I thought about it a bit (mostly thinking about how I was going to find room for everything). Connie said do it, so I said Ok! Took a few trips to get everything out to the car. It will take me a while to go through everything I picked up and figure out what I’ve got (that deserves it’s own blog post), but along with what I already have, now I think I’ve got enough bits and pieces for a lifetime or two of building.

After that, we decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel for some much needed rest.

The second day of Hamcation (Saturday), Connie was volunteering at the VE testing session, so I was left to wander Hamcation on my own. Didn’t really notice if the Saturday crowd was bigger because I spent most of my time out in the boneyard. Looked like a lot more cars in the parking area on Day 2 though.

Wandered through the rest of the Swaps building after picking up a few more bits and pieces from the two ladies we bought the bins from. Scored a Digilent Analog Discovery 2 USB oscilloscope at one table for an exceptionally good price.

After that, it was time to wander the boneyard, which felt a lot more expansive than I remember from 2013, although I’m not sure I made it through all of it back then. I spent a good 4 hours wandering through all the boneyard tables (and getting a bit sunburned in the process) and probably could have spent another hour or so revisiting a few of the tables.

Spotted an old Heathkit TC-2 tube tester that looked interesting. The guy selling it told me “That’ll look great in your closet!” He had it marked for $20, I asked if he’d take $10 for it, and he accepted it. I think it will be a fun project to work on.

After Connie was finished with the VE testing session, we met back up for one more quick cruise through the swaps building, and then called it a day.

All in all, it was great getting back to Hamcation. Crowds seemed pretty decent and there was lots of stuff to see. Looking forward to going back next year.