Nearfest

[Carl WA1KPD]

Good times
Little chilly on Friday, but no complaints on Sat. Stayed until after 1, we usually pack up about 11:30.
Sold a fair amount of stuff, picked up lots of project parts and a Gonset 2B and VFO (seperately). Enjoyed the hot sausages both days.
Good to see the gang- Boy a lot of you are getting grey haired..... No pics to post
See you in the fall
Carl
WA1KPD

[N1ESE]

I didn't get a chance to meet as many as I would have liked but it was a pleasure to finally meet QIX, SSJ, K1KBW, and a few others I can't remember.  I would have liked to had attended the dinner but had rode up with a friend and just couldn't make it.

Came home with a bunch of parts to begin building my Class-E rig along with a big isolation transformer from Wayne for the PWM.

Carl, I'm only 42 but my beard has been grey since I was 30.

Onward to the fall..

[W1AEX]

Nice to see you there Carl. This was definitely a nice one with decent weather on Friday and really beautiful weather on Saturday. I sold lots of tubes and everything else I dragged there except for the NC-88. In addition, I managed to get all the parts I was searching for to complete a few projects. I continued my quest to replace my Tektronix 485 which has a badly faltering timebase switch and was on the prowl for a Tektronix 465 but did not see anything in my price class (cough cough). On Saturday morning I scored the military version of the 465 (LBO-518) which looks just like a 465 with a few minor differences. It runs beautifully with clean, bright traces. On my way out of the Fairgrounds on Saturday afternoon there was a very nice looking HP-1740A dual trace scope sitting on the ground with a "Free" sticker which definitely fell into my price class and I grabbed that as well. Much to my surprise it came to life nicely with the only fault being the scale illumination bulb is burned out.

I ran into lots of old friends and met lots of people for the first time in person. The only bummer is that the rear floor of my new Subaru Forester is a lousy platform for my sleeping bag! Ah well, that's what motrin is for.

One oddity that puzzled all of us who were set up in the back area of the fairgrounds was that on Friday for most of the day radio reception was perfectly clear, however, around 9PM some kind of broadband data pulse noise showed up that obliterated the AM BCB for those of us who were listening to the Red Sox vs. Yankees game. It was not line noise but had the chuffing, whining, buzzing type noise you might hear if you hold an AM radio close to a cable modem. The data noise was present through Friday night and all Saturday morning/afternoon and it presented a 20dB over S-9 noise floor across the 75 meter band as one of the guys across from our spot noted when he tried to do some operating. He did some DF'ing with my portable and noted that the noise was propagating all along the power distribution lines. Anyone have any thoughts on what might have been causing that? Maybe someone with an RV had something that was backfeeding into the lines. It never relented but I did notice that it faded away going down the hill towards the gate as I left.

At any rate, it was a great time!

Rob W1AEX

[W2PHL]

It was great to meet up with some of the AM crowd and enjoy some terrific spring weather. The Lonely Guys Net members had a presentation for W1ZZZ in the Relaxation Grove on Friday. Here's the link for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sHI30P7mUY

The pictures below are of some of the stuff that followed me home.

[W3GMS]

Nice to see you there Carl. This was definitely a nice one with decent weather on Friday and really beautiful weather on Saturday. I sold lots of tubes and everything else I dragged there except for the NC-88. In addition, I managed to get all the parts I was searching for to complete a few projects. I continued my quest to replace my Tektronix 485 which has a badly faltering timebase switch and was on the prowl for a Tektronix 465 but did not see anything in my price class (cough cough). On Saturday morning I scored the military version of the 465 (LBO-518) which looks just like a 465 with a few minor differences. It runs beautifully with clean, bright traces. On my way out of the Fairgrounds on Saturday afternoon there was a very nice looking HP-1740A dual trace scope sitting on the ground with a "Free" sticker which definitely fell into my price class and I grabbed that as well. Much to my surprise it came to life nicely with the only fault being the scale illumination bulb is burned out.

I ran into lots of old friends and met lots of people for the first time in person. The only bummer is that the rear floor of my new Subaru Forester is a lousy platform for my sleeping bag! Ah well, that's what motrin is for.

One oddity that puzzled all of us who were set up in the back area of the fairgrounds was that on Friday for most of the day radio reception was perfectly clear, however, around 9PM some kind of broadband data pulse noise showed up that obliterated the AM BCB for those of us who were listening to the Red Sox vs. Yankees game. It was not line noise but had the chuffing, whining, buzzing type noise you might hear if you hold an AM radio close to a cable modem. The data noise was present through Friday night and all Saturday morning/afternoon and it presented a 20dB over S-9 noise floor across the 75 meter band as one of the guys across from our spot noted when he tried to do some operating. He did some DF'ing with my portable and noted that the noise was propagating all along the power distribution lines. Anyone have any thoughts on what might have been causing that? Maybe someone with an RV had something that was backfeeding into the lines. It never relented but I did notice that it faded away going down the hill towards the gate as I left.

At any rate, it was a great time!

Rob W1AEX

Sorry I missed you this year Rob. 

Concerning your new Subaru, I am about to purchase a new one in the next month or so and if you have mobile HF in it, how noisy is it? 

Hope to see you the next time we make it up to NEAR-Fest. 

Joe GMS

[w1vtp]

Joe

Rob was tucked waaayy down in the southeast section of the grounds..  I couldn't find  a spot where I normally park so headed that way and there Rob was

Al

[W3GMS]

Joe

Rob was tucked waaayy down in the southeast section of the grounds..  I couldn't find  a spot where I normally park so headed that way and there Rob was

Al

Thanks Al for letting me know Rob's mystery location!  I saw Jay-W1VD briefly as he was running past, but never caught up with him either.   It was nice in the old days when most of the AM'ers hung out in the "AM Corral".   This is a very large Hamfest and its easy to miss folks.  Then again some don't wear any ID and unless you know what the person looks like your kind of out of luck. 

Joe-GMS     

[W1AEX]

Concerning your new Subaru, I am about to purchase a new one in the next month or so and if you have mobile HF in it, how noisy is it?  
Joe GMS

Sorry I didn't catch up with you Joe. I love the Subaru but have found it to be somewhat noisy on 6m and 2m FM, not sure how it is on HF but the onboard AM BCB radio is perfectly clean. I've grounded the exhaust system at 3 places and grabbed power for the rig right at the battery but there is still some lingering impulse noise on weak signals. I've been told it's injector noise so I grabbed some mix 43 cores to snap over the leads to see if that attenuates the VHF stuff.

The Forester got 31 mpg on the trip which is about twice what the Jeep Cherokee was getting so that was nice!

Rob W1AEX

[Steve - K4HX]

Isn't that the purpose of the AM Dinner - to get everyone together to socialize? Seems like the attendance was light this year.

[W1DAN]

Hi:

Attached is a writeup for my radio club newsletter. It was good to visit both days and chat with many good people. Always an interesting time, and this time quite rewarding!

73,
Dan

[W3GMS]

Isn't that the purpose of the AM Dinner - to get everyone together to socialize? Seems like the attendance was light this year.

I had two tables reserved but we ended up only filling one table up.  About 12 people was all this year.  The Hamfest seemed very well attended and lots of AM'ers.  Maybe some folks never got the word early enough or just did not want to spend the money on food!   Maybe some advance PR in the future would help.

Joe-GMS 

[W3GMS]

Concerning your new Subaru, I am about to purchase a new one in the next month or so and if you have mobile HF in it, how noisy is it?  
Joe GMS

Sorry I didn't catch up with you Joe. I love the Subaru but have found it to be somewhat noisy on 6m and 2m FM, not sure how it is on HF but the onboard AM BCB radio is perfectly clean. I've grounded the exhaust system at 3 places and grabbed power for the rig right at the battery but there is still some lingering impulse noise on weak signals. I've been told it's injector noise so I grabbed some mix 43 cores to snap over the leads to see if that attenuates the VHF stuff.

The Forester got 31 mpg on the trip which is about twice what the Jeep Cherokee was getting so that was nice!

Rob W1AEX

Thanks Rob for the information on the Subaru.  It looks like I will be getting a 2015 Outback with the V6.  The V6 was chosen since it has more towing capacity.  I have a pretty good size trailer and the extra heavy towing package will come in handy.  For the rig, I am considering the FT-857.  Hopefully on HF the noise will not be that bad.   

I very much like the Forester but its not available with the V6.   

Joe-GMS 

[AJ1G]

 

It looks like I will be getting a 2015 Outback with the V6.  The V6 was chosen since it has more towing capacity.  I have a pretty good size trailer and the extra heavy towing package will come in handy.  For the rig, I am considering the FT-857.  Hopefully on HF the noise will not be that bad.  
Joe-GMS  

V6 or pancake 6?   I though all Subarus had flat engine layouts.  We have been thinking about an Outback ourselves here to compliment the Tacoma 4X4, but I have never been all that enthralled with the Subaru flat watercooled engines.  A friend had one  (admittedly  quite a few years ago) and had more than a few engine issues with it, most notably a broken timing belt.  Also considering the Toyota RAV-4, now that they seem to have lost the clunky externally mounted spare on the tailgate, and grown up to a size  and shape similar to the Outback. Probably would go for the 4 banger engine in it, which has a rep as being nearly bulletproof over the long run.  If the Subie is a true V6 that would probably tip the balance in favor of it over the RAV-4.  The Tacoma 4 banger has some light amount of ignition noise which is not too objectionable for mobile HF operations, even when using my Elecraft K1 QRP transceiver or the GRC-9, neither of which have noise blankers. One really loud source of HF RFI on the Tacoma is the ABS and traction control systems.   When the system is responding to a mismatch in wheel traction,  you can hear a really loud transient whine, which I think is associated with sending signals to the brake's hydraulic system to tame the wheel speed mismatches.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I understand that the Grand Prize winner was none other than Dan/W1DAN. Congrats, Dan!

Sounds like an overall good 'fest - wx, attendance, AM Dinner, etc. Certainly not as big a turnout for the Dinner as some years, but definitely not the smallest. That occurred at Hopkinton sometime early on. The 'fest was a washout with rivers of rain running through the place. The only two AMers at Cheers that time were Joe/WA2PJP and myself. The fairgrounds were a ghost town, we were two of very few crazies who hung around.

Joe, sometimes we have to remind folks about the dinner on site. They get caught up in the moment and forget what time it is, which day it is, and so on. Once word starts to circulate, the turnout goes up. I recall a few years back having somewhere approaching 36 people there, including Wayne/SSJ. But it ebbs and flows from event to event.

A couple shots of past dinners, including the 1st back in spring of 2007. I think Tim is sleeping "meditating" in one of the shots.

[W3GMS]

I understand that the Grand Prize winner was none other than Dan/W1DAN. Congrats, Dan!

Sounds like an overall good 'fest - wx, attendance, AM Dinner, etc. Certainly not as big a turnout for the Dinner as some years, but definitely not the smallest. That occurred at Hopkinton sometime early on. The 'fest was a washout with rivers of rain running through the place. The only two AMers at Cheers that time were Joe/WA2PJP and myself. The fairgrounds were a ghost town, we were two of very few crazies who hung around.

Joe, sometimes we have to remind folks about the dinner on site. They get caught up in the moment and forget what time it is, which day it is, and so on. Once word starts to circulate, the turnout goes up. I recall a few years back having somewhere approaching 36 people there, including Wayne/SSJ. But it ebbs and flows from event to event.

A couple shots of past dinners, including the 1st back in spring of 2007. I think Tim is sleeping in one of the shots.

Good idea on promoting it during the Fester.  I told several people about it, but for whatever reason they could not attend. 

To me, the Fester was extremely well attended.  It seemed pretty packed to me and I am sure MrMike has the official numbers.  I would love to make it back this Fall and if Martha retires this summer we will return. 

Johnson's restaurant continues to be good.  The waitress did a great job handling all the separate checks and I made sure she got a nice tip.  Martha and I ate there on Thursday evening as well just to make sure it was still up to snuff.  That's when I talked to the manager on duty about the Friday night reservation.  We were in the same area as my last NEARfest AM dinner.     

I know Paul-JTD and Maggie wanted to attend but could not do so this time around.  That was the same with Bert JYU as well.

Joe-GMS   

[W2PFY]

Isn't that the purpose of the AM Dinner - to get everyone together to socialize? Seems like the attendance was light this year.

Last fall, I went to the fester with Steve W2TRH and although I was dead tired from lack of sleep due to a sleeping disorder, I thought the food was the best ever and make that statement having eaten at all kinds of restaurants in New England with an unlimited expense account with my prior employment. I'll be going in the fall and that restaurant will be the high point next to anything that has knobs on it or tubes in it Last year about half the crowd went to another restaurant? What was the draw there?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I think it's only 3-4 people, Terry. The 6-7 miles over to Johnson's is too far for some of the guys as they've gotten older, so they go to a little pub nearby. Tim goes with them which is why he doesn't make all the AM Dinners.

But you're right - the food at Johnson's is great, priced right, and the atmosphere is perfect after a long day of tromping around the fairgrounds. Oh - and they tolerate us.  Gary/INR always used to say that the dinners at NEAR-Fest - before, during, and after - were the high points for him.

Found another shot of some of the staff after the first NEAR-Fest. We used to visit a nice little Italian place down the road in Raymond called Pasquales Saturday after closing the gates. Note the state of Tim. I sense a theme here.

[W3GMS]

I think it's only 3-4 people, Terry. The 6-7 miles over to Johnson's is too far for some of the guys as they've gotten older, so they go to a little pub nearby. Tim goes with them which is why he doesn't make all the AM Dinners.

But you're right - the food at Johnson's is great, priced right, and the atmosphere is perfect after a long day of tromping around the fairgrounds. Oh - and they tolerate us.  Gary/INR always used to say that the dinners at NEAR-Fest - before, during, and after - were the high points for him.

Found another shot of some of the staff after the first NEAR-Fest. We used to visit a nice little Italian place down the road in Raymond called Pasquales Saturday after closing the gates. Note the state of Tim. I sense a theme here.

Great picture of some of the initial creators of NEAR-Fest!   We somehow need to get Gary INR back to the Fester.  I know he was looking for some gear so there is hope!

Joe-GMS   

[Steve - K4HX]

Is that Carmine with the accordian?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Heh, yeah.....'Carmine', also known as John in real life. I still remember the surprise-bordering-on-disgust in his voice.

I hadn't walked into one like that in many-a year, and haven't since. Gary got me goooood. 

[w1vtp]

I think it's only 3-4 people, Terry. The 6-7 miles over to Johnson's is too far for some of the guys as they've gotten older, so they go to a little pub nearby. Tim goes with them which is why he doesn't make all the AM Dinners.

But you're right - the food at Johnson's is great, priced right, and the atmosphere is perfect after a long day of tromping around the fairgrounds. Oh - and they tolerate us.  Gary/INR always used to say that the dinners at NEAR-Fest - before, during, and after - were the high points for him.

Found another shot of some of the staff after the first NEAR-Fest. We used to visit a nice little Italian place down the road in Raymond called Pasquales Saturday after closing the gates. Note the state of Tim. I sense a theme here.

Brought the gamma up a tad

Al