Monthly Section News Summaries
Monthly Summary for May 2009
June 2009 WNY Section News
Rochester Hamfest a Huge Success!
Wow! The 75th Rochester Hamfest and ARRL Atlantic Division Convention at the
Barnard Carnival Grounds was one for the ages. Great flea market, cool but
good weather, big attendance, the food was excellent, nice banquet and a good
group of commercial vendors. I saw friends that I hadn't seen at a hamfest in
years! People from all around the northeast were in the crowd, and yes crowd
is the correct word. The Barnard Fire Department, who own and manage the
property, staffed the concession and cooked the food, the service was fast
and the food was excellent. The banquet was well attended, with a buffet of
fish, beaf tips, chicken, pasta and a couple side dishes. Everyone enjoyed
the variety and the food was great! The banquet was a great way to top off a
wonderful hamfest. Great food, great people, huge flea market, excellent
vendors, big attendance and terrific banquet, doesn't get any better than
that! I hope you were there.
The first sign of encouragement was listening to the talk-in station. With the
number of stations calling in you could tell the attendance was going to be
"okay", but I had no idea just how okay it would be. With the change of
location, there was concern on how the hamfest would turn-out. Changing a
hamfest location can drive attendance down, so can changing the date. The
RARA hamfest organizers were rightly concerned and were holding their
collective breath. As soon as I saw the parking area, I said wow, this is
great.
Best Call-In Station I've Ever Heard. While driving onto Rochester I was
listening to the call-in station and Brad (I don't know his callsign) was
taking callsigns for the call-in raffle and giving out directions as fast as
he could. Since I too needed directions the call-in station was much
appreciated. The call-in station operators also gave out the PL tone
frequency very often. This is a lesson for all of you out there, announce the
repeater PL tone very often. Don't expect everyone to know the PL off the top
of their heads, especially those from out-of-town. During slow times announce
your call often, let everyone know that someone is there to offer assistance.
The concession had a wide variety of food to choose from. I had the sausage
and it was superb. Those Barnard fire department guys/gals sure know how to
cook. Service was great and as fast as they could get you the food, you could
sit down and eat, and the prices were very low and reasonable too. I heard a
lot of comments on how good the food was and everyone was pleased with the
low cost. The Barnard FD people were all smiles because they did very well
with the concession, and if I read their minds correctly, they were thinking
"these ham guys can eat"!
The outdoor flea market area was huge! I'm not sure how many tailgaters there
were, several hundred by the looks of it, but there was a lot of terrific
used equipment for sale. If you were looking for a good used HF radio, you
had a lot to choose from. The indoor vendor space was decent and the club
thought ahead and rented a very large tent for additional space for the
commercial vendors. I spend time at each hamfest talking to the out-of-town
vendors, to thank them for coming to Western New York. They were very happy
at the attendance and seemed pleased with the business coming their way. I
think that they will all be back next year and I'm sure that once word gets
around the hamfest committee will have the pleasant task of a lot of vendor
interest for next year's hamfest.
An unusual thing happened at the Rochester hamfest. There was a bit of a
traffic jam coming onto Maiden Lane where the hamfest is located. What? A
traffic jam? Yes the traffic caught everyone by surprise but a nice surprise
if you think about it. Better too many people than too few! I waited about 15
minutes to get in, I heard some waited longer. As I sat there waiting, I
started to laugh. This was the final confirmation that the attendance was not
only good but it was great. RARA sincerely apologizes to those that had to
wait and are already planning ahead so that the traffic jam will not occur
next year. RARA is an excellent club and you can be sure things will run like
a fine clock next year.
Summary. I usually don't go on and on this much about the WNY hamfests, but in
this case I have too. Not because I used to live in Rochester, and still
belong to a couple of the clubs there, but because this was the most fun I've
had at a hamfest in years. I've been to a lot of them. I like a good hamfest
and the WNY hamfests are all good ones. I attended 8 or 9 WNY hamfests last
year and had a good time at each one. Cook me a sausage and I'm happy. Or
breakfast, I'm easy to please.
The Rochester Hamfest this year was truly exceptional and Thank You to the
Rochester Amateur Radio Association (RARA) for sponsoring a great event. Also
a big thank you to all of the other clubs in the Rochester area for
supporting RARA, setting up your club booths and tents, and being there when
RARA needed you! Thank you to RRRA, RDXA, RVHFG, Judy from the Buffalo NWS
for SKYWARN, the RCA club, the Antique Wireless Association (AWA), and anyone
else I can't remember for being there. The hamfest was truely one we will
remember for a long time.
Several reasons to attend a hamfest: You never know what goodie you'll find in
the flea market. One year I bought a brand new in the box 6 meter yagi for
about $50 less than the normal price. Another year I found a "new" TH3
3-element HF yagi, where only the driven element had been used, $50 for a
basically new antenna. That's a great deal. At the same hamfest I bought a
TA-33 with a couple broken pieces for $10, a friend of mine had all the
pieces I needed to put it back together again. Both of those HF yagis are on
my tower today, $60 for two HF yagis and a bit of labor to put them back
together, not bad! Come and meet your friends, ask them to come along,
hamfests are a great place to meet. Bring some stuff to sell to offset the
travel cost, and pay for a goodie you might find. Hamfests are fun, so come
to the next one!
Keith Freeberg N2BEL Educator of the Year Award
Peter Fournia W2SKY is the first recipient of the Keith Freeberg N2BEL
Educator of the Year Atlantic Division Award, which was awarded at the
banquet at the Rochester Hamfest.
Pete had worked very closely with Keith over the years in developing,
organizing and teaching amateur radio topics to scores of people. This award
is named after Keith Freeberg N2BEL who was very involved in amateur radio
and amateur radio training in the Western New York Section. Keith had a
unique ability to teach amateur radio to people of all ages. He had an
affinity for working with young people and was very involved with one of the
few Radio Coaches programs. It is very fitting that this award is dedicated
to his memory and that the successful candidate demonstrate an ability to
successfully train people in amateur radio. The emphasis is on quality of
training and not pure number of people trained.
Congratulations to Pete W2SKY on this fine and well deserved achievement!
73 Scott W2LC ARRL WNY Section Manager, W2LC@arrl.org.
Page last modified: 12:45 PM, 26 Oct 2009 ET
Page author: w2lc@arrl.org
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