Well that was 1.5 hours of my life I won't get back.
Mt Beacon "Hamfest".....2 dealers selling new radio gear, the ARRL and their set up, and bunch of tables and chairs set up with the hobos drinking coffee and eating donuts. No private sellers. No surplus equipment. No NOTHING!
To think I got up out of a nice comfy bed to hob-knob with hobos. NOT!
was it raining? learned a while ago that hams and water don't mix.
Yes, it was raining but the hamfest was all indoors.
I think this phenomenon is as much ideological as it is practical in origin.
mnem
Yes, I said that with a straight face. You may stand in awe.
I'm sitting so I'll just give you an "awe shit".
what he said.
i am just back from a morning of providing radio support for a local running club's trail half marathon. the runs are always in the mountains or around a lake or, on a really good day, around a lake
and a mountain. i do 'em because i being around such things as lakes and mountains makes me a nicer person and the folks running appreciate having us around if something bad happens. usually, i arrive hours before the start and take an HF rig to experience the joy of operating with S1 noise levels on five watts.
today, i had to leave late, so the ham i was working with arrived before me, so he chose our spot. on the side of the road. without a view of the lake. in a parking lot. seems he didn't want to walk fifty yards down a trail carrying his HT and cup o' coffee.
seriously.
so i spent three hours leaning against a guard rail, mucking about with my HT's APRS while he sat in his car, listened to music and ate cookies. we might as well have been parked in lloyd center's parking lot.
i am sure he would have been at your hamfest had he not had a previous engagement.
edit: did i mention his HT, which he wore on his belt in the car, had a rubber duck antenna? he was surprised that net control couldn't hear him, so i worked the race alone. i will let you guess how many letters he had in his call.