Tag: hamfest

The Charleston Hamfest is coming up in a few more weeks! Looking forward to seeing what kinds of things interesting things I’ll want to pick up. There are a few specific things I’ll be looking for to build some projects.

Preparations are under way for the 2015 Charleston Hamfest. As usual, it’s scheduled for the first Saturday in February and will be at the same location as last year in North Charleston. Door prizes, forums, VE exams, and all the normal fun things you expect at a hamfest. It’s not a large hamfest, but I’ve enjoyed going to the last few and being able to meet other hams. I’ve also managed to score a few decent deals too. Looking forward to this next one.

We made the trippilgrimmage to the ARRL 2014 Centennial Convention this past weekend (July 17-20, 2014) in Hartford, CT. Had a fantastic time and we’re so glad we went. We had planned to go a while back, then decided not to go, but then in May (practically last minute) decided that it was an event we needed to go to.

We flew out Wednesday so we could be there for the whole three days. After we got off the plane, we made our way to the bus stop  to catch the bus into Hartford. On the way to the bus stop, we met a ham from Germany, DJ5JH and had a nice conversation while we waited for the bus to show up. We ended up being joined  by a few more hams by the time the bus arrived.

The first day (Thursday) consisted of a number of training tracks. I spent my time in the Intro to Amateur Radio Satellites and learned a lot about the history of amateur radio satellites, how they get into space and how to make contacts through them. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it will be another aspect of amateur radio that I will eventually explore. The track ended with an outdoor demonstration of making satellite QSOs through the OA-7 satellite using a handheld antenna and two Yaesu 817s.

The Thursday training tracks included a lunch with a very inspiring and motivating talk given by ARRL First Vice-President Rick Roderick/K5UR. He told some funny stories about his amateur radio adventures and challenged everyone there to leave an amateur radio legacy and promote amateur radio to youths.

Friday and Saturday was spent in a variety of forums and wandering around the exhibit hall. There was a pretty decent amount of activity in the exhibit hall. Although the flea market area was pretty small, there were a few things I think I might have come away with if luggage space wasn’t an issue. I ended up buying a copy of The Best of Idea Exchange from the QRP ARCI table and ARRL’s Hand’s On Radio Experiments.

There were a lot of interesting non-vendor related tables that were worth lingering at in the exhibit hall. The W1TP Telegraph Museum had a lot of neat old telegraph equipment and a very cool collection of Enigma machines. There was the fully restored 1964 Collin’s Communications Van and the working phonograph at the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut table.

One of the highlights of Friday was the trip out to ARRL headquarters and W1AW. There’s a pretty impressive collection of vintage and antique radio gear, and the ARRL Testing Lab was a pretty neat area, especially for a geeky type like me. They even fired up Old Betsy, Hiram Maxim’s spark gap transmitter, for a little bit. It’s a loud beast.

For the convention, operating slots for W1AW were being scheduled in 15 minute windows. I was able to get a slot operating in Studio 1 and operated as W100AW on 20m. Managed to get two contacts in, which I was pleased with. It was pretty cool being able to operate there.

Saturday ended up being a pretty low key day. Went to one forum on antenna modeling and spent some time sitting and people watching, and wandering the exhibit hall some more. Had a Twitter/Reddit meetup in the afternoon where I got to make some eyeball QSOs with a few hams. Always nice to be able to put a face to the online persona.

Sunday was our travel day home, and we ended up being joined on the flight to PHL by DJ5JH. Not only was he the first ham we met in Hartford, he was also the last ham we saw when we left.

More pictures from the ARRL Centennial Convention over in the gallery.

Had another great time at the Atlanta Hamfest this past weekend. Was very pleased to see a lot more people outside in the flea market/bone yard area. The hamfest seemed a little more crowded than last year too, which was nice. The inside flea market and commercial area seemed less full than last year though. Maybe everybody was outside this time.

There were a lot of things to see, and I ended up spending most of my time wandering around the bone yard. Came back with a pretty good collection of things this year and could easily have come back with a lot more.

One of the more interesting items, and the first one we bought was this funny toilet mug. We figured it would be a good gag gift for the club’s Christmas party gift exchange.

One of the sellers out in the bone yard had a bin of “free stuff” which had a few interesting items in it. I pulled out a Hall effect transducer kit and a 200 μA meter out of the bin. Not sure if the meter is working, but if it is, it will be nice to put to work in something. The Hall effect transducer kit looks like it will be neat for learning about what kinds of things can be done with them.

I also bought a parts bin of various power transistors from the same person. He also had boxes filled with bags of resistors, capacitors and various other random components that I was very tempted to pick up, but I already have a pretty decent stock (actually, probably not) and moved on.

My next purchase was a trio of air variable capacitors. As I was checking them out, the seller said “$3 and they’re yours”. Too good to turn down. One of them is already geared up with a dial and everything for a VFO tuner.

We had been talking about getting a desk mic for the shack, and found a very knowledgeable lady who’s been a licensed ham for over 50 years. Picked up this Astatic 877L mic from her that looked in pretty good shape. One of the rubber feet has fallen off and I’ll have to wire up a cable to plug into the radio, but that’s no big deal.

The last stop (for purchases) was a table full of a fairly random assortment of items from kits to components to enclosures and more. I think this is where I picked up the bulk of my purchases. Enclosures, a bag of grommets and containers of screws and standoffs, couple pieces of copper clad PCB. One of the enclosures even had some protoboard and resistors in it. This was another one of those tables where I could have picked up a lot more things than I did. He gave me a pretty good price for all the items I took off his table too.

Wrapped up the hamfest with a purchase of some Dacron rope, some ceramic insulators and a 25 foot length of coax that will eventually feed a 2m antenna.

Pretty pleased with all the things I was able to pick up at the hamfest. And naturally, after we left I was thinking about all those other things that maybe I should have bought too. I guess it wouldn’t have been a good hamfest if that didn’t happen, would it.

Had a really great time at this year’s Charleston Hamfest. With a few more hamfests under my belt and a better idea of what I’m looking at, it was easier to be more targeted with my shopping/browsing.

I sat in on the ARRL forum, where an update on ARRL activities was provided by Jim Boehner/N2ZZ, the Roanoake Division vice-director. Not really a whole lot I hadn’t already heard or read about on the ARRL website but still nice to hear the latest news. His update was followed by a very interesting behind-the-scenes look at the ARRL Lab given by Bob Allison/WB1GCM.

In the afternoon, I helped out with the CARS amateur radio licensing test session. Very good turnout for the testing session. Had 13 people in the room to take the test for upgrading or new license. Several new hams with Tech licenses left, and a few other hams walked out with new privileges. Very pleased to have been able to be part of that.

There were a lot of things that were very tempting to buy. One person had a lot of Morse code keys (mostly bugs and paddles), including a straight key that I was very tempted to buy (the one with the red knob in the lower left corner).

Instead of spending most of my hamfest budget on just one thing though, I decided to spend it on lots of little things, which turned out to be the better choice I think. I came back with a pretty good haul today.

There’s a couple bags of diodes I picked up (I think I have a lifetime supply of 1N4148 diodes now…100 for $1 was a deal I couldn’t pass up), some BNC and SO-239 panel connectors, a 4:1 balun, a couple of center insulators for making dipoles and a couple bundles of test leads.

From the “Free Stuff” table, I grabbed a couple of antennas (or bundles of wires that used to be antennas), some random pieces of RG-8 coax and some C battery holders.

I recall a while ago one of the local hams telling people to use these to make battery packs for HTs, because in an emergency situation AA and D cells are going to be the first thing stores run out of. I figure I can get some C batteries and put them to work as a power supply.

Someone had put an old Heathkit oscilloscope on the free stuff table, but by the time i went by for a second look, someone else had grabbed it. Note to self: If it’s on the Free Stuff table and you think you might want it, grab it.

I also added a couple more Forrest Mims Engineering Notebooks to the bookshelf.

I think I have everything I need to build at least a couple dipole antennas. Now to build them, and find a place to put them up…

All in all, a very good hamfest, even though it is small.

This year, I hope to be able to visit some other hamfests in the SC area (within an hour or two drive) and see what they’re like.