Saturday was the WORM Fest at Freedom Lake park. This is at the same spot as the SPARCfest and a very similar setup. I talked to one guy who got there at 5am to setup and said he was the 4th one there so they get started early. I didn’t buy anything but a coffee this time but I’m starting to know more people and had a few good conversations. I wish I had saved all the computer stuff we recycled when the office moved, then I could run my own table. Here’s a link to next years WORMfest.
Dayton Hamvention Day 2
Day 2 was hotter than Day 1 but I had the lay of the land so I did the flea market in the morning and watched the air conditioned forums in the afternoon. Today I hit traffic on the way in, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the way out yesterday. The flea market is massive here. I spent over 2 hours looking through it. I came across this guy (forgot to get his callsign), he was running a net from the flea market on an old Vietnam era field radio. The net was for people operating for old military radios. This is another section of the hobby…
Dayton Hamvention 2019 Day 1
I typically go to a music festival on this weekend of the year. Last year at that festival I realized I didn’t know anyone there anymore and I used to know everyone, so I decided then that I would do Dayton this year. Dayton totally has the music festival vibe only everyone is carrying walkie talkies instead of beers. I had a chance to talk with Julie K8VOX and Thom W8TAM from POTA, they were hanging out next to the Wolf River Coil booth. I picked up the Wolf River Coil setup and I’ll be trying that out at a park soon. Tomorrow I’m going to the DX and Contest…
Brooksville Hamfest
Went to the Brooksville Hamfest today. Meh. If it were free maybe but for $5 there wasn’t much to it. It was at a Scout Reservation. This would be a cool place to be a scout.
Hamcation 2019
I went to Hamcation in Orlando on Saturday. Went with Norm KA1IJA from the SPARC club. We met up with some other guys from the club as well. The setup at the convention was pretty much identical to last year, right down to the booth location. I picked up a LiFePO4 15Ah battery for my portable work and some connectors. We went to the POTA forum, which was at capacity and I got to meet some of the people I’ve talked to over the air. It was a fun trip.
Tampa Bay Ham Fest 2018
Went to the Tampa Bay Ham Fest. Picked up a 24V transformer for a non-ham radio project. The prices weren’t good on cable or connectors, which were the other things I was looking for.
One year as a ham
A year ago today my original callsign(KX4HL) appeared in the FCC database after 9 long days of waiting. It’s been quite a year, as of this morning I have 2411 QSOs. Here’s some of my QSO cards: I’ve moved from just a wire antenna to a hex beam on the roof, put up a 2m antenna, built a AMSAT antenna. I’ve done 11 Parks on the Air activations (and doing another today at K-1909 Oscar Sherrer State Park, look for me around 14.287). I participated in winter and summer field day with the St Pete Amateur Radio Club (SPARC), there’s a meeting tonight also. Been to 9 ham fests,…
New (to me) 2m antenna
At last weeks meeting of the SPARC Club they had a couple 2m radio, I picked up the Icom for use in my shack. Over the weekend was the yearly SPARCfest, where I picked up a 2m antenna. I put it up against my fence on some of the military camo poles I have left from Hamcation. I got on the SPARC net to try it out tonight and it worked great. Much better than trying to do it with the Baofeng HT. Here’s what the grounding panel looks like now, room for 1 more antenna (I already have the lightning arrestor for it 🙂
TARCFest XLI
Tampa Amateur Radio Club Fest XLI. It’s a small hamfest, this is the 2nd one I’ve been to so they must do it a lot. I picked up some connectors and talked with some people I knew. I’m starting to know people.
Hamcation 2018
Hamcation was my 3rd hamfest. I went to the biggest one in Tampa but it was rainy so there weren’t many vendors. I went to a smaller on at the Tampa Radio Club as well. I didn’t find any deals at these two, people seem to way overvalue their junk. At Hamcation I found some deals though. I had a list and I got everything on it but the MFJ-1026 Noise Canceller I was hoping to get to try and filter some of the noise at my QTH(I bought a used one from QRZ For Sale when I got home, I’ll make another post about that when I get it setup). I…