Hamcation fell on the 2nd weekend in February again this year so I was able to attend both Friday and Saturday since the club meeting is on the first Friday of the month. I picked up a N3ZN CW key to add to my collection of expensive CW keys. I also attended the FCG contest dinner where I won a Heil headset for Yaesu HT, of which I have one. I sat with the Icom reps at the dinner and AA4TI, who was sitting at my table, right next to the main Icom rep, won the grand prize of an ICOM IC-7610.

Went to the 2nd Annual Manatee Amateur Radio Club MARCIfest in Bradenton over the weekend. This was a small hamfest with a few vendors. I saw a few SPARC members there. Pretty easy to get to just south on the highway about 20 mins.

I attended the national convention in Dayton, OH for my second time. The convention had been cancelled the last 2 years. I stayed at the Hope Hotel where the contest events were being held. First thing I did was purchase a Begali key after trying them all out.

Local Club, The Glorious Society of the Wormhole, held their annual hamfest this Saturday. It was very well attended. I ran a couple tables for SPARC and we made out pretty well. Also picked up an antenna for my handheld. This is the same location we do SPARCfest, we’ve already got the permit for November.

We had a large donation so Norm KA1IJA and I packed up all the items and setup some tables at the Brooksville Hamfest. The weather was great and it was almost chilly at some points but we had a good time bartering with people. We came out with a decent amount for the club and sold most of the items. Decent turnout compared to the last time I went to the Brooksville hamfest.

This weekend was the USA Coach Ham Fest and Rod Run. There was another more established hot rod show at the Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant down the road so there were only 2 hot rods from members there. This event took place when the cancelled SPARCfest would’ve been. It was a beautiful day and a shame we couldn’t do the SPARCfest. I ran a VE session with Lisa KC1YL and Jack N9GKO, we had two people pass the technician exam. I met Wesley KO4EGH, the club’s youngest member(a 9 year old General). There was a decent number of vendors but I didn’t find a remote tuner I was looking…

This was my 3rd Hamcation and the most crowded one. Took almost 30 minutes just to get into the parking lot. I went to the contest forum first. There were 4 presentations, first about DXpedition for the CQ WW CW contest from 3B8M, then one about doing QSO parties mobile, one about emcom in the Virgin Islands after the hurricanes and then Claudio I4VEQ gave presentation on WRTC 2022. I’m looking to go over to Italy for that and volunteer for their antenna teams. I picked up another Spiderbeam 12m mast to use to setup multiple antennas for my Parks on the Air work, also got a WRTC 2022 shirt….