Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike (VE3MKX), who shares the following photos by Ben (VE3ST) of the Stuart Hamfest 2024 held in Florida:
Click to view the entire photo album–> Continue reading
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following photos he snapped at the Berryville Hamfest this past weekend:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike (VE3MKX), who shares photos taken during the Hamilton, Ontario hamfest which took place on October 1, 2022.
Readers: This is a large gallery of 40 photos courtesy of Mike (VE3MKX). If you would like to view the entire image gallery click on the link to see more.
On Friday, September 2, 2022, I had just enough time in my schedule to visit the Shelby Hamfest for a couple of hours.
The Shelby Hamfest–referred to, locally, as “The Grand-Daddy of them All”–has long been regarded as one of the largest outdoor hamfests in the southeast US.
Weather was ideal for the hamfest: clear skies, sunshine and very dry. It was quite hot, though! Attendance was much lower than I’ve ever seen at the Shelby Hamfest in the past, but then again this was also my first Friday attending; typically I visit on Saturday which is historically the busiest day.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike (VE3MKX), who writes:
The following pictures are from a Hamfest which was held yearly at the Milton Fairgrounds in Milton Ontario, Canada. (Located 20 minutes west of Toronto).
The Burlington Amateur Radio Club organizes the event and confirms that they had 108 vendor spaces sold and over 475 general admin passed through the gates.
A great day of meeting friends, lots of deals and smiling faces!
Thank you so much for sharing this, Mike! I haven’t been to a hamfest yet this year, so it’s great to catch a glimpse of what looks like a very successful one!
Readers: This is a large gallery of 132 photos courtesy of Kevin (VA3RCA) and Mike (VE3MKX). If you would like to view the entire image gallery click on the link to see more. Continue reading
This past weekend (July 24, 2021), my buddy Vlado (N3CZ) and I attended the 2021 Western Carolina Amateur Radio Society (WCARS) hamfest in Waynesville, North Carolina.
Due to Covid-19 lock-downs and social distancing, this was the first hamfest we’d attended in 18 months. I think all of us were having serious hamfest withdrawal, so this regional hamfest was very well-attended. Who knows what will happen in the future with regards to Covid–numbers are climbing sharply again here in NC–so I think many of us were there enjoying everything “while the gettin’ was good.” It helped that even the indoor area is incredibly spacious and had a constant airflow.
It was so great seeing so many friends, readers, and subscribers. Thank you for stopping by our tables.
This gallery has about 117 photos. So that the images don’t all load from the SWLing Post homepage, you may need to click on the “Continue reading…” link below to expand the post and view the photo gallery.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul W4/VP9KF, who shares the following report from the UK’s National Hamfest:
Your travelling foreign correspondent took in a visit to the UK’s National Hamfest held in Newark, Notts.
We arrived right on opening time (10am) and were the first in the door.
There was a ‘rush’ to the SDRPlay stand because they were giving away some nice FLASH drives to the first 25 people to get there. The author managed to get one and later found it was a) fast b) pre-loaded with software for all things SDRPlay. They were busy showing the new diversity software amongst other things.
bhi had some new hardware and I took the chance to thank them for a prize won in the W5KUB Xenia draws.
The hall was pretty empty (this was the second day and a Saturday). Noticeable was that some products were already sold out and on back order [such as the amazing nanoVNA].
It’s a shadow of the former Leicester Show which was the precursor to this event with a lot less parts on sale.
I had a long chat with Eric of Elecraft while twiddling with the K4 and suggested some improvements to the button usage, which he said would be tested in use. A date of the ‘beginning of the year’ for first shipments was mentioned and that the first batch would be ‘large’ [much more than 100] followed by smaller batches. Components are on order, some of which are on long lead times (and have to arrive in good shape for surface mount assembly down the line).
The K4 was ‘playing’ the 7 Area QSO Party on several bands and most controls were operable. This was streaming from an IQ recording and an RF modulator straight into the rig. Just exactly how close this was ‘to the original sound’ and TRUE performance of the rig and/or software is
to be seen.
The weather was fine for the show (although patchy – XYLs reported that it poured with rain back in Nottingham itself!). Turnout was very disappointing and a lot of grey hair was to be seen in the one (yes one) Hall Building.
73,
Paul W4/VP9KF [and G4BKI]
Thank you so much for the report, Paul. I do want to make a pilgrimage to the UK’s National Hamfest one year–any excuse to visit my home-away-from-home country!