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Author Topic: NEAR-Fest XXXVI Report  (Read 1522 times)
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W1RC
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« on: October 06, 2024, 06:26:31 AM »

NEAR-Fest XXXVI was officially convened on Friday, October 4th, 2024 and closed at 3:00 PM on Saturday October 5th.
This was the inaugural event at our new home, the Hillsborough County 4-H Youth Center in New Boston NH, approximately 15 miles west of Manchester.
The transition from Deerfield to New Boston was an UNQUALIFIED success.  The wx was PERFECT both days.  The final attendance figures are not known at the time of this writing but, especially on Friday, the place was PACKED.  Also a lot of very good stuff changed hands.  The best bargain I spotted was a MINT Collins 75A-4 with three filters for $250.00.
I saw most of the regular suspects from the AM and Boatanchor community in attendance, including AM FONE’s own W3JN, “Johnny Novice” who made the trip from MD to join in the fun.  There are too many others to name here but I hope they will post their comments here and elsewhere to let everyone know that NEAR-Fest v2.0 was a success,
Next one is May 2nd and 3rd, 2025.  Mark your calendars NOW so you won’t miss it,
This first event at New Boston reminded me very much of the first NEAR-Fest that was held at Deerfield on May 4th and 5th, 2007.  The wx on both events was the same - PERFECT.  There was much speculation on both events as they were the first at a new venue which is always an unknown.  And both were packed with attendees who were pleased behind words at the event.
On a personal note the transition to the new NEAR-Fest location completes my retirement from Benevolent Dictator  to Benevolent Dictator Emeritus which actually started a couple years ago.  The fester is ably guided by Phil Brooks, KA1PXK, whose official title is Chief of NEAR-Fest and his XYL Kelley Brooks, KA1LEY, NEAR-Fest Treasurer, also known as “The Ticket Lady”.  They are assisted with a number of wonderful volunteers; Paul, W1PRA, Glenn, N1GAS, John, N1JAF and many more, too numerous to mention.  I want to personally thank them all for all their hard work and selfless dedication to making our first event at New Boston an unqualified SUCCESS.
Also a new location for the traditional AM Dinner was found and so this important tradition will continue, thanks to Steve WA1QIX, who quickly organized the ad hoc affair.  
My involvement with NEAR-Fest will continue as I plan on remaining a Director along with Mike, K1TWF, Gregg, W1USA, Phil KA1PXZ and Kelley, KE1LEY but after 18 years will not be involved in running the event except maybe to help out here and there if needed.  
Hope to see many of you on May 2nd 2025 at New Boston.  Thank you all for your support,
73,
MisterMike, W1RC,
Benevolent Doctator Emeritus, Founder and Director,
New England Amateur Radio Festival, Inc.
 



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« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2024, 01:35:50 PM »

NEAR-Fest XXXVI was officially convened on Friday, October 3rd, 2024 and closed at 3:00 PM on Saturday October 4th.

Friday was October 4th and Saturday was October 5th  Cheesy

Quote
Also a new location for the traditional AM Dinner was found and so this important tradition will continue, thanks to Steve KA1SI, who quickly organized the ad hoc affair. 

Steve hasn't been KA1SI in a long long time.  Cheesy

I went to the Splitrock hamfest in north Jersey on Saturday. A bit nippy at arrival around 6:30 AM but warmed up after the sun came up. As a seller, good traffic of buyers who weren't just tire kickers.

Also on Saturday, heard the PA Red Rose Hamfest, in New Holland, PA was a good success with lots of buyers and sellers. Now there's an area with lots of great restaurants.

Bottom line is hams are getting back out to hamfests to do their thing. We probably will never get back to the frenzied 80's and 90's hamfests but at least current trend is positive.
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« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2024, 02:21:24 PM »

  I think it was an absolutely fantastic Nearfest. Perfect weather both days, although we did drive through a brief rain shower just before arriving at the fairgrounds Saturday morning. The rain and cloud cover surrendered quickly to brilliant sunshine within a half-hour of us arriving, with a comfortable breeze, too.
  I was worried, at first, that the move to the new venue would put people off, but the turnout, especially on Friday, put those fears to rest conclusively. Hard to say given the huge difference in the layout between this place and the old Deerfield Fairgrounds, but I'd say the turnout was as good as it's ever been—maybe even better.
  Went up early Friday morning with a friend, who unloaded lots of stuff, and then again on Saturday, with both him and my wife, who had a blast just being her usual social butterfly self, and selling her crochet goodies, including her custom D-104 microphone covers, which we jokingly refer to as microphone phlegm-filters (fortunately she's got a good sense of humor).
  The layout of the place, I think, actually offers easier navigation than Deerfield; a little easier to remember where you've seen stuff. The network of little roads at Deerfield, some of them dead-ends, sometimes made it tough to remember where you'd been and what you'd seen.
  I was worried about the restroom situation at first, but it turned out to be no problem. There were two doors—one for men and the other for women—at each end of the building, but at one end the bathrooms were "one-holers" with locking doors, while the on the other end they were much larger join-the-crowd types; a fact that I suspect escaped some people, since I noted lines waiting to use the one-holers. Hot water too! Nice, after all those years of cryogenic Deerfield water.
  Came home with some excellent power iron, courtesy of Carl, WA1KPD. Thanks, Carl! A nice Gonset G-50 6 meter AM rig; a very nice wide-spaced bread-slicer, and an excellent old case that once housed a Central Electronics 200V, with its wonderful gray crinkle paint in near mint shape, courtesy of Steve, W2TRH. Something cool will get built into that, for certain.
Met up with:
Carl, WA1QPD
Bob, N1TZU
Larry, NE1S, and Elaine.
Ross, W1EKG
Steve, W2TRH
Mark, WA2FXM
Steve, WA1QIX
Ron, K1VYU
Grant, KC1OMA
KEN, KA1OXQ
And, of course, Mr. Timtron himself, WA1HLR
There were probably many others, too, whose faces I didn't immediately assign a call sign to.
Already looking forward to the spring Nearfest!
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« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2024, 02:31:38 PM »

Having been attending NF/Deerfied since the 70s, I really liked this venue.
It was hard to gauge the turnout because the layout was so different, but seeing all the vendors with the big circle was a lot easier.
Great wx, saw lots of friends. sold 90% of what I brought and found the few things I needed.
Congrats to the crew for a nice job.

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« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2024, 01:17:11 PM »

I think for a first run at a new venue, things went fairly well.
Based on a few people I spoke with, It seemed that the Deerfield Fairgrounds folks didn't really want our event anymore and gave preference to other parties. When one door closes, another opens.
The weather was great and the event was very well attended.
When the new site was announced, I looked at it from Google earth and thought the one lane bridge on the entrance road might be an issue, it turned out not to be.

As far as positives, I think the smaller real estate area to work with turned out to be an advantage as the tailgate section was more compressed, so walking it was more logical and easier on us that have compromised "wheels". I know regulars to Deerfield loved their "spots" and would set up at them year after year, but like was said, that resulted in a lot of unnecessary walking. There is only one rest room area, but I never really saw a big line and yes, there was hot water. There were 3 food "trucks", and that seemed to be enough.
Shade was limited to the river side of the venue, and certainly was not as plentiful as Deerfield, but it's a minor thing because of the times of year the fest is held. Overall, the venue change turned out better than  I thought it would. I picked up a few items of need, and saw a lot of buying going on. I won't make it to the spring 2025 show as I'm headed to Dayton 10 days later, but look forward to the fall show.
Thanks to the organizers and event workers who made the show a success.
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« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2024, 02:57:49 PM »

  Ross, W1EKG, during our local Sunday morning AM net, pointed out that it seemed like the "compressed" vendor layout encouraged socializing between vendors, which I thought was a valid point.
  When we did our pre-Nearfest exploratory drive, I didn't realize at the time that the portion of the rail-trail at the southwestern end of the fairgrounds was passable by car, but I figured that there must be a secondary access road, given the one-lane bridge on the main entrance route. The local town officials, for emergency and safety reasons, would be unlikely to approve of a large event with only one way in or out over a narrow bridge. I would imagine that the folks who run the county fair event use a similar scheme: entrance over the little bridge and exit down the rail-trail.
  We did sample some of the food, and it was fine "fair-fare," very much like that at the old Deerfield Fairgrounds. I think the Angelino's Sausage business is the same outfit that sets up at Deerfield. We'll miss the "Church Ladies," though, with their soup.
  Yes, if Nearfest was held in the dog-days of summer, like Sussex, the treeline along the riverbank would be the hot—or cool—place to be, but this time of year it's fine being out in the sun, although my wife did pick up a bit of color on her face.
  I noted a few uniformed police officers patrolling the grounds, too, which was something I never noticed at Deerfield, although I may have simply missed them. That shows some concern for public safety on the part of the town, which is a good thing.
  May 2nd and 3rd are already entered on my hamfest calendar. (It's an Excel spreadsheet that counts down the days to all the local hamfests—yes, I love 'festers!)
 


I think for a first run at a new venue, things went fairly well.
Based on a few people I spoke with, It seemed that the Deerfield Fairgrounds folks didn't really want our event anymore and gave preference to other parties. When one door closes, another opens.
The weather was great and the event was very well attended.
When the new site was announced, I looked at it from Google earth and thought the one lane bridge on the entrance road might be an issue, it turned out not to be.

As far as positives, I think the smaller real estate area to work with turned out to be an advantage as the tailgate section was more compressed, so walking it was more logical and easier on us that have compromised "wheels". I know regulars to Deerfield loved their "spots" and would set up at them year after year, but like was said, that resulted in a lot of unnecessary walking. There is only one rest room area, but I never really saw a big line and yes, there was hot water. There were 3 food "trucks", and that seemed to be enough.
Shade was limited to the river side of the venue, and certainly was not as plentiful as Deerfield, but it's a minor thing because of the times of year the fest is held. Overall, the venue change turned out better than  I thought it would. I picked up a few items of need, and saw a lot of buying going on. I won't make it to the spring 2025 show as I'm headed to Dayton 10 days later, but look forward to the fall show.
Thanks to the organizers and event workers who made the show a success.
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W1RC
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« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2024, 07:38:26 PM »

Yes, the sausage vendor is the same as we have had at Deerfield.  Angelino’s has been part,of the fester since the Hosstraders days.
On Friday there was a New Boston police officer there on detail.  We decided that it would be a good idea to have this because of some unpleasant incidents in the recent past.  The other officers were just curious and interested.  
They told us this is the largest event that has ever been held at this location.
We will all miss the Deerfield Community Church ladies.  They always had a wonderful breakfast.  I loved the blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup.
The bathrooms were really excellent but there was only one location so going forward we will have “porta potties” that will provide these facilities at the other side of the grounds.
This time regretfully there were no forums or an ARRL Director’s candidate debate as we might have had at Deerfield.  However there is a building on the grounds that might be suitable for this and so the forums and presentations may resume in the future.
The reason why we did not have a listing on the ARRL a web page is because they were unable to accept any new posts after their unfortunate encounter with the cyber criminals last spring.  We contacted them as usual but we’re unable to have our usual announcement.  It doesn’t seem to have affected our attendance at all.  The on-air publicity seems sufficient.  The place was packed especially on Friday.  The local po-po told us that they have never seen the place so filled.
Next one is May 2nd and 3rd, 2025.
MEAR-Fest v2.0 LIVES!
73,
MrMike, W1RC

73,
MrMike, W1RC
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« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2024, 08:54:00 PM »

Wow! A hamfest drawing a bigger crowd than a county ag-fair? Now that's something!

 
They told us this is the largest event that has ever been held at this location.

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« Reply #8 on: October 08, 2024, 05:00:32 AM »

Kelley told us that several people who were leaf-peeping in the area saw the NEAR-Fest signs and were curious to see what it was actually bought tickets and entered the fest.  They had no idea what it was.  A few came back on Saturday.
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« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2024, 04:16:15 PM »

What a great 'fester.  Great location (better, in my view, than Deerfield as stuff is closer together), fabulous WX, and lots of great camaraderie.  QIX found a restaurant for the AM Dinner that was even better than Johnson's (River View Inn) and close to the fest.

Glad things live on, bigger and better!
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