AM Dinner at NEAR-Fest VIII Report

Figured it would be good to make mention of the crew who assembled at Johnson's Seafood and Steak last Friday since some seldom-seen road warriors were in attendance.

Things went much more smoothly this year with the whole process, they were expecting us in the numbers given and were in the process of putting together the tables when we arrived. Two of the party had already been seated, so after a few adjustments to add additional seating, it was off to the races.

In attendance were:

Joe KA1BWO and XYL Margie (pretty sure she has a call but if so, can't remember it) from Connecticut

Larry NE1S and XYL Elaine from Maine

Mark KA2QFX from NH

Joe WA2PJP from L.I. NY

Brian W1LYD from Alaska

Tim from Maine

Myself KA1KAQ from NC

Bill KA8WTK from Ohio

Steve WB3HUZ from VA

Johnny W3JN from MD via Athens, Greece

Paul W2JTD and XYL Maggie from NJ

14 fine folks made it to the dinner from all points of the globe. We were hoping to have Warren W1GUD on hand from Tampa, but his grandchildren came first which is understandable when you travel 1500 miles and have family in the area. Considering the doom and gloom predictions of some on here and on the air, The AM Dinner crowd prevailed yet again. If nothing else, the damp WX made the dinner that much more attractive.

As Bill mentioned in another post, the food was great as usual, and the company was in rare form. I don't recall laughing that hard at least since Dayton in 2007, maybe longer. There were discussions of the FCC reasoning behind the power limits, tales of the trip to NH from points beyond the state, pondering how it would have all sounded if we'd taken up stamp collecting instead of ham radio, and many, many more topics. My only concern for future years is that we might kill someone with laughter. It really got that wild.

My only regret (aside from my camera batteries dying after 2 pics) is that some of these fine folks won't be with us for the NEAR-Fest IX AM Dinner in the spring, simply due to the distances and logistics involved. Still, we're hap[py for the time together and look forward to the next dinner, as well as the next time these 'usual suspects' gather to refuel and reload.