Category: Hamfests

This year’s hamfest notable acquisitions:

• Yaesu FT-1802M/E 2m mobile
• Yaesu FTM-3207D 70cm mobile
• AADE LC meter IIB kit (unassembled)
• Morse code bug
• Heathkit HD-1250 grid dip meter
• Kanga PSK interface (unassembled)
• DZ 40m HT kit (unassembled)
• Yeary Communications short wave crystal receiver kit (unassembled)
• Several boxes of random items that were set on the “Free Stuff” table (I haven’t gone through these yet)
• MITS Altair 680

Ended up spending more money that I usually do at hamfests, but quite a bit less than I could have.

I haven’t had a chance to test either of the radios yet, but they both looked pretty clean (the FT-1802 looked like it had never been taken out of the box).

The kits I picked up came from the W4RAK collection that was donated to the club. I had been wanting to get one of the AADE LC meters for a while, but unfortunately the owner died before I could pull the trigger on one. When I saw the unbuilt one in a box, I grabbed it right away. I saw the 40m HT kit, I was like “Huh, wut? What the heck? Holy crap! I need this.” A quick look at the documentation shows it’s a 40m (7.290 MHz) AM radio in a handheld form factor, rechargable (lithium ion) battery pack, but without the optional antenna/antenna matching unit). Realistically, it’s essentially a novelty item and I don’t expect to get a whole lot of use out of it. Maybe I can get it built in time for next year’s AM Rally though.

The Heathkit grid dip meter is a bit messy because of foam padding disintegration (foam rot), but otherwise looks pretty pristine. Should be pretty easy to clean up I think.

The gem of my acquisitions I think is the Altair 680. I haven’t plugged it in yet, but it seems to look in pretty good shape.

Managed to score a MITS Altair 680 at the Charleston Hamfest yesterday. Was part of the W4RAK collection that was donated to @WA4USN. Looking forward to learning about and playing with it. pic.twitter.com/T5VuSlZ9mU

— imabug (@imabug) February 3, 2019

With PhD work, it will probably be a while before I get around to messing around with any of my new acquisitions.

The 2019 edition of the Charleston Hamfest is over, and this one was an especially busy one for me. In addition to helping with set up and cleaning up, I ended up taking over the announcer/door prize giver-outer/question answerer role for the hamfest. I didn’t have quite as much time to browse the hamfest and shop, and I wasn’t able to help out in the license test session like I have in previous years. However, one of the perks of participating in the setup is that you get to see a lot of what’s being offered for sale, so that was when I ended up doing most of my shopping.

In 2018, the club received a substantial donation of equipment from a club member (W4RAK) who was downsizing due to health reasons. It took several months and many truckloads to move the equipment he donated. Sadly, W4RAK became a Silent Key around October 2018.

I don’t think I got to meet W4RAK, but I’m told he was a long time club member and that he was part of the Air Force MARS program. Based on the equipment he donated to the club I can guess that he had been a ham for a long time, was a big collector of radio gear, and liked to build things. Among the equipment donated to the club was a huge collection of Heathkit, Hallicrafters, Kenwood, Yaesu, Flex, and Elecraft radios, an abundance of power supplies, kit items (built and unbuilt), and other vintage equipment.

A fair bit of the donated equipment is going to be set up in the CARS club room for operating and display. A much larger chunk of the equipment was put up for sale at the hamfest and priced to sell (both to get the gear back into the hands of hams who would/could use it, and so that club didn’t have to store it).

For anyone into vintage rigs, it was like being in a candy store. I was able to acquire a few pieces that I’m looking forward to playing with.

Charleston Hamfest is in full swing #chs #hamradio pic.twitter.com/MxbffgA4QF

— imabug (@imabug) February 2, 2019

New at this year’s hamfest was a Go Box exhibit/competition, a suggestion by KN4EXJ. People were invited to bring their Go boxes to the hamfest to show off to others. For an inaugural event, there were a few Go Boxes on display. KN4EXJ had a few of his that were pretty impressive.

KN4EXJ setting up his Go Boxes at the Charleston Hamfest #chs #hamradio pic.twitter.com/UPheA89z8o

— imabug (@imabug) February 2, 2019

Another KN4EXJ Go Box pic.twitter.com/mlSzBOZ9XW

— imabug (@imabug) February 2, 2019

Looking forward to having the Go Box exhibition again next year. Maybe I’ll have one of my own to enter into the exhibition.

This year’s hamfest was a busy one for me and a far cry from last year’s hamfest where I could only stay a short while.

The day before the hamfest was a full day of helping set up tables and chairs for the hamfest, and then helping some of  the vendors that showed up early to unload and set up. Hamfest day started at 6AM helping more vendors unload and set up followed by the doors opening at 8AM.

One of the nice things about being around to help with the set up is that as the vendors are unpacking, you get to see what everybody has and, if you find something you really want, buy it before the crowd gets there.

I gave my two short forum presentations to an audience of maybe 6 or 7 people I think. Got some decent interaction out of them, so I was pleased with how they went.

Found a few things to pick up at this year’s hamfest, and a bunch of other things that were in the “ooo, I want” category.

Someone left a stack of old QST magazines from 1951 and Popular Electronics from 1962 (a year before ZIP codes were introduced).

I’m going to enjoy reading through these. The ads in these old magazines are almost as fun to look through as the actual content.

There was only one person tailgating this year, but he had a neat looking RCA VOM that I thought would be neat to have in the toolkit. He also threw in this odd HP probe with an N connector, so I also picked up an N/SO239 adapter from another vendor to go along with it.

Hamtubes.com was a new vendor at the hamfest this year (making a stop here on their way to Hamcation next weekend) and they had a pretty large selection of tubes. Found all the tubes I need for the Hammarlund, although I failed to notice on my list that I needed two 6BA6 tubes instead of just one.

Most of the tube replacement kits I’ve seen on eBay were in the $65 range, so at $33 for these ($36 if I had gotten that other 6BA6 I needed), I’m pretty pleased.

A copy of VHF/UHF Manual (4th ed) from the RSGB, some Anderson Powerpoles to replenish my stock, and a blister pack of SuperGlue rounded out my hamfest purchases for this year.

The afternoon VE testing session had a pretty decent sized crowd of 17 testers. I think 14 of the 17 left the session with either a new license or an upgrade.

It was a pretty good hamfest this year. Lots of full tables and lots of vendors. Heard attendance through the door was down a little bit though, but the crowds didn’t seem too much smaller to me. I had a good time this year. Looking forward to the next one.

I’ve been roped into filling in one of the time slots for the forum presentations at the Charleston Hamfest coming up in a couple weeks.

Rather than doing one long presentation, I decided to do two shorter presentations. One of them will be pretty easy to do, the other one I’ll have to research and make up as I go along.

This will be the first time I’ve done a hamfest forum presentation, but not the first talk I’ve done. It’s been a while though.

Also on the list for presentations at the hamfest are ARRL SC Section Manager Mark Tarplee, N4UFP, ARRL Roanoake Division Director Dr. Jim Boehner, N2ZZ, and ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF.