Imagine a world without hamfests

[Walter - K5EST]

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 4:33 AM, Michael Tauson<wh7hg.hi at gmail.com> wrote:
> Several times I've mentioned needing something only to have people
> tell me how available and cheap they are at hamfests.

You know, the hamfest on the mainland are not as good as they
used to be. True there are many bargains and many of the bargains
are big, heavy, many times they look like they were pulled from
trash dumpsters, some are rusted past where a farm tractor would
be scraped out for being worthless. Now, to me these are some
of the things I look to find.

There is no reason not to have Hamfests in the island chain, but,
I would suspect that boatanchor gear is premium because of
simply weight of the older gear. For you to be a collector in an
area that there are no ways to supply your collection is pretty
brave. First of all, I would suggest you save up your ham radio
money and make an annual trip to Dayton, Ohio to the big
HamVention. In two or 3 days you will have plenty of time to fill
a shipping container.

Another avenue of creating tailgate swapfest (y'all do have pickup
trucks on the island, don't you?) or even Hamfest, is to get
the ARRL head dude on the islands to get cracking and get
an organized effort to have hamfest and swapfest. The ARRL
head dude is part of an organization that should have contacts
with each and every Ham club on the islands.

Something else I would like to mention, is the melon heads at
our hamfest on the mainland that think a rusty, non working
radio is going to bring a price of a dream bid at EBay. Lots of
luck in the contest, is all I tell them.......and they usually take the
rusty pile back home to sit in the garage/basement for another
year........pretty much melon heads!

73....Walter - K5EST - Missouri

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