NEAR-Fest

[WU2D]

Well I went to Nearfester and had a great time selling stuff and saw many friends. I would say attendance was down due to the weather scare but the weather was actually not too bad on Friday and darn nice on Saturday.

I bought a few postage stamp capacitors.

Mike WU2D

[Carl WA1KPD]

K1VYU and I arrived Sat AM for opening. Cloudy and then a bit of rain. Stayed until about 4 on Fri then down to Portsmouth for an FB dinner at the Portsmouth Brew Pub. Returned first thing to cloudy but FB wx. Sold almost everything and found almost everything on my list. Still looking for some 117L& tooobes... Where were the vendors?  Saw  Todd KAQ, Joe K1LBG, George K1ANX, Joe W3GMS, Gary WA1EWQ, Steve HUZ- I have not officially recognized the new call, Chris AJ1G and many others.
Great time. Thanks Mr Mike and all who worked on it. I really enjoy the affair.
Carl
/KPD

[WA1GFZ]

That was a beautiful little garden they planted with the running water as you drove in....Too bad they don't invest a little money in fixing the filthy bathrooms.
WX was nice today and had a great time.

[Carl WA1KPD]

Sorry we didn't hook up OM

[W1AEX]

I somehow managed to miss running into you Carl.

I did manage to cross paths with quite a few AM folks from AMFone and (from memory) can confirm contact with the following suspects: KA1KAQ-Todd, K2AEP-Pete, WA1LGQ-Larry, WA1GFZ-Frank, WA1QIX-Steve, W1VTP-Al, KW1I-Dale, K1ETP-Rich, K4HX-Steve, WA2PJP-Joe, KA2QFX-Mark, WA2CYT-Dirk, W1VD-Jay, WA1HLR-Tim, K1KBW-Bob, W1IA-Brent, W1MPY-Bill, KC2UDZ-Ken, KC2UFU-Kerry, W1PG-Gary, and W3GMS-Joe and Martha.

Friday looked kind of grim with wet weather and a light turnout but Saturday morning the weather was quite nice and the place really came alive. I made more money than I spent, bought only good junk, ate and drank lots of stuff I shouldn't have, and enjoyed swapping lies with everyone. The bathrooms kind of reminded me of Fort Huachuca when I was in the service Frank. Made me feel right at home... Yeah, it was great!

Rob W1AEX

[AJ1G]

Had a great time Friday, enjoyed seeing the gang.  Bought a nice homebrew regen RX from WA1KPD, and an SX-71 that seems to be working well, needs some cosmetic restoration.  Plan to set it up with a near mint DX-40/VF1 at the cottage in RI.  Could not stay over for Saturday.  I guess I did not win the KX-3...did you have to on the grounds to win the grand prize?

[w1vtp]

Had great time in spite of the fact that I HAD TO GO TO WORK FRIDAY PM  ARGHHH! Now that the papers have been sent in, I can't wait to bust loose. Never tho't I'd say that.  Saw lots of friends.  Somehow, I missed Todd KAQ and others.  I've figured out how to stick a QSL card in the headband of my hat so hopefully more will recognize me this fall

Thanks to all who made NearFEST a reality.  We need to realize that wx forecasters are using dartboards in the back room and that they have to go with either REALLY GREAT wx forecasts or GOOM AND DOOM.  No inbetweens - that doesn't gain much viewership

See you on the air or at the fall fester

Al

[W1AEX]

I picked up an interesting piece of radio equipment from our friends in China. It's one of those cute mini-handy-talkies from the BaoFeng Corporation. It's a "comes with everything included for less than 100 bucks" package. The little thing actually works very well, but the warning label on the bottom of the drop-in fast charger is rather alarming. I can't help laughing when I read it so I guess the message is lost on me. I guess I'll just continue to "carry on the charge".

Rob W1AEX

[KF1Z]

Managed to get over to Near-Fest Saturday morning..
Ran into:
Steve, QIX
Wayne, SSJ
Dirk, CYT
Bob, KBW
Bob, REC
Tim, HLR
Frank, GFZ
Mark, QFX
Brent, IA
Dan, DAN


SAW, but didn't get to talk to a bunch of folks.
Steve, K4HX
Rich, ETP
Think I saw Todd, KAQ at a distance..

I'm sure a few others that I am forgetting, or just haven't met yet! :-)

One of these times I'll get to go on Friday and Saturday....
Maybe make the list a bit longer!

[K5WLF]

Rob,

What a great name for a spy flick -- "The Chareto Mistake". Something like "The Eiger Sanction".

Some of my local ham friends have gotten the little Chinese radios. They really like 'em. Neat little HTs. But a bit disconcerting when they talk to you in Chinese.

ldb

[w3jn]

Wish I coulda gone.  Fall NEARFest for sure!

[W1AEX]

Some of my local ham friends have gotten the little Chinese radios. They really like 'em. Neat little HTs. But a bit disconcerting when they talk to you in Chinese.
ldb

Larry,

I have been told that the Baofeng Voice Guide Girl does speak Chinese when the UV-5R is purchased from some of the e-bay vendors. The vendor at NearFest had the English speaking version so my Chinese Voice Guide Girl speaks with an accent but she's quite understandable and at times very flirty.

Rob W1AEX 

[Carl WA1KPD]

 Fri AM
L-R
?, Todd KA1KAQ. Larry, NE1S, ?, ?, Mr Mike W1RC

It only got better after that. The wx not the company

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Fri AM
L-R
?, Todd KA1KAQ. Larry, NE1S, ?, ?, Mr Mike W1RC

It only got better after that. The wx not the company

Yeah, yeah. We saw you two over there selling everything that wasn't tied down, Carl.  

To the left of me in the pic is Ken/N2GHX. I think that's Martha and Joe/W3GMS talking to MrMike. I never remember Martha's callsign. She needs to wrestle the mic away from Joe and get on the air more often so we'll remember.

The rain pretty much ended before noon Friday, with a couple sprinkles later in the day. Overall it was another one of those events where some folks let the wx scare them away. That's okay, better deals for the ones who come for the 'fest and folks, not the wx.

We had a good turnout for the AM Dinner, somewhere around twenty AMers enjoyed an excellent meal with plenty of opportunity to discuss the day's events and finds. Kerri & Ken made it up from NJ for the 'fest along with one of their sons, Martha and Joe from PA, the Dirk-a-tron was even there trying to keep the original Tron awake. Mark, Steve, Joe/PJP, Steve/QIX, the NY Xs (KC2FXE and ex-'JXX) and myself were there among others. Someone took a couple shots, hopefully they'll post them so we can see who else was there.

Sorry I missed some folks at the grounds, but this was perhaps my busiest event since the first one. I was working on the forums/workshops stuff along with helping Paulie with Security funnzies, and heavy metal transporting. Didn't sell much stuff, which might have something to do with not being at the table enough. I didn't buy anything this time, despite seeing several things like a beautiful CR-88 on Bill/W1MPY's table. He did fix me up with a couple nice mic floor stands, TNX Bill.  

Did have a visit from mom & dad, they came over to see what NEAR-Fest is and what we do. They were suitably impressed with the number of people there and all the stuff for sale.

[W1RC]

It was great to see everyone at Deerfield.  We did well despite the wx on Friday.  Next one, Number XII, will convene on October 12th 2012.

Hope to see you all there!

73,

MrMike,W1RC

[w1vtp]

It was great to see everyone at Deerfield.  We did well despite the wx on Friday.  Next one, Number XII, will convene on October 12th 2012.

Hope to see you all there!

73,

MrMike,W1RC

Mike

We all appreciate the great job you and your folks are doing.  I remember the sinking feeling when it was announced that Hosstraders was going away but the great relief when you stepped up the the plate

Thanks, Al

[wa2dtw]

Would love to see more photos, if anyone has them.

[W1AEX]

Hope to see you all there!
73,
MrMike,W1RC

I'll echo Al's comments MrMike. It was a great time and I'm looking forward to the October show!

Rob W1AEX

[W2PHL]

Would love to see more photos, if anyone has them.

Here are some.

Phil

[W2PHL]

A few more.

[Steve - K4HX]

On the way to the fest, Todd and I stopped to visit Joe, WA2PJP on Long Island. We were joined by Eric, WB2CAU and Jerry, WA2FNQ. As you can see, Joe fed us well!!

[Steve - K4HX]

Joe has a beautiful station with fully restored Heathkits including an Apache Mohawk combo and a rare Chippewa amp.

[Steve - K4HX]

At the fest we find K1ETP and KC2UDZ, a FB National HRO-60 and a big table of "good stuff."

[Steve - K4HX]

There are always groups of AMers milling about at Nearfest.

Some of the FB junk at the table of WA2PJP, KA1KAQ and K4HX.

Two of the nicest receivers at the fest.

[Steve - K4HX]

Another National receiver.

Most of the group at the AM Dinner on Friday night.

A family of ham ops at the dinner, Garrett, KD2CCF, Kerrie, KC2UFU and Ken, KC2UDZ.