Huntsville Hamfest, 18 and 19 August 2012

The Huntsville, Alabama, Hamfest is set to go on Saturday and Sunday,18 and 19 August, 2012. My wife and I will be there. If any QRQers, QRPers, CFOers, are going, let us know. The QRPers are having a get together at the nearby State Park on Saturday night. They say famous people, some not so famous people, and some people who think they are famous will be there!

Joe, W3GW

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chuck aa0hw on August 21, 2012 at 10:30am

How was the hamfest Joe ?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joe on August 21, 2012 at 1:52pm

Great. The weather in Huntsville was cooler and less humid that what we had in Louisiana when we left last week. We drove up to Huntsville from St Francisville, stayed at a local Inn, and spent the two days of the Hamfest walking around the Werner Van Braun (V2 and Buzzbomb fame) Civic Center. Huntsville is a beautful town with lots of Museums, the best being the one devoted to the Rockets they used for the Space Program. A lot of the Space Program stuff came from Huntsville, Alabama, which surprised me. I didn't meet any QRQers, but did meet lots of QRPers. We all met at a local State Park and set up two portable stations. We had a mini contest during which I worked four stations with my straight key. I won a plaque! I met a QRPer who after four tours in Iraq with the Army went back to teach High School as a civilian. He taught in the Kurdish region where the Muslims are a bit more civil towards us infidels. A real hero who took his K3 with him! I also met Eric of Wayne and Eric fame, the founders of Elecraft (the K3), who gave a great talk on how they started the Company. We talked a bit about how Chuck, W5UXH, and Andrew, NV1B, finally got Elecraft to fix the lousy keying of the K3 at speeds of above 40 wpm. It seems no one believed Chuck and Andrew at first that the K3 keying was lousy above 40 wpm. Finally, the vendors were all there and the flea market was a gas. Great to meet the guy who took over Vibroplex. He is a young guy who used to work for Ten Tec, and just decided he wanted to run his own company. He works 6 days a week filling orders for straight keys, bugs and paddles! Hmmm, what else? Oh yeah, I met ARRL president, Kay Craigie, N3KN, at the ARRL booth. Very impressive. The ARRL is in good hands.

Lots of fun. Next year we will have to plan a QRQ/icW/ keyboard CW booth!!! We could have a QRQ contest. The winner would get a free copy of Fldigi. Yeah, I know, it's already free.