Largest all-indoor hamfest in the nation
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RARSfest coming up, April 6th. Get tickets in advance, get in faster, lower cost plus early bird prize drawing
- Thread starter mostly22lately
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Largest all-indoor hamfest in the nation
DrScaryGuy
š Loves rainbows š
2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
Supporting Member
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they fixed the ticketing issue, it seems
Itās a good one. A local ham went with another several years ago. After the trip, they presented him with a local award for, āworked all McDonaldāsā because along the way was every one with either coffee in, out, or both.
OP
I have attended every RARSfest they have had, since 1989.
Including the one held the day my first child was born, by C-section at 4am.
Hamfest is only 35 minutes away, made it to the 8am opening with time to spare.
Including the one held the day my first child was born, by C-section at 4am.
Hamfest is only 35 minutes away, made it to the 8am opening with time to spare.
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DrScaryGuy
š Loves rainbows š
2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
Supporting Member
Multi-Factor Enabled
i bought a ticket on the chance that if i go, i can be entered for the drawings...
i seriously doubt i'll be up early enough to make it there in time for the 9am exams, and i haven't had enough time to look at the material anyway
i seriously doubt i'll be up early enough to make it there in time for the 9am exams, and i haven't had enough time to look at the material anyway
Gonna be heading out this year and looking forward to it. Not looking for anything in particular but hopefully will be able to pick up some cheap cable and connections from the older guys looking to downsize. A few years ago one of the clubs had a station set up to build a roll up J-pole for like $5 and it was a pretty fun way to do a quick antenna build.
OP
what do you have for an antenna and feedline? power supply? ;-)
55' OCF, rg8x and my home brew 40ah battery box. I'm gtg for the time being. Had my ic-7300 up in camp last week but decided to try out a proper mobile setup and leave the big box at home.
I'm on a new contract and away from home a bunch more than normal, the spousal unit is kinda missing me so I'm going to take advantage of that while the gettings good.
That z11 is a nice tuner. I had one and it would tune anything. You can also put a battery pack inside it and use it without the interface cable, for a radio that doesnāt provide power to it.
OP
fbom, sounds like you are set to get on the air, two nice modern rigs and a great autotuner
I was going to be looking for a big old honking manual tuner, but scored a great deal on an old heathkit 2060 . Iām just going to check it out, been a while since i went to a fest. Iām mostly on the prowl cheap for junk I have no business messing with, hahaha. On the plus side I can stop in Burlington on my way home and visit a buddy I donāt get to see often enough.
Kind of disappointing. Granted I didnāt make it out there until almost 11 but when I showed up it was pretty dead. Iād say probably 25% of the tables werenāt rented and the ones that were in use looked pretty bare. Not much of a crowd while I was there and all of the vendors that I talked to were complaining about the poor turnout, with a lot of them starting to pack things up by noon. I snagged some cheap cable and some 3D printed parts for setting up a Yagi (and honestly most of the reason I got those was because the guy selling them was one of the only people I talked to who was actually enthusiastic about his wares).
Well, better luck next year!
Well, better luck next year!
I saw that tuner and it was a good deal. I have the 2040 (which I think is the same one only green). Tunes anything and is a tank.
I had a table and sold some stuff, bought 2 tube shields
I need to run my own hamfest!
One "gotcha" . I think that tuner lacks a "bypass" position. A few min with the soldering iron fixed that for me by repurposing a antenna port SO239
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Rule of thumb from an old hamfester:
* Most of the good stuff is sold between dealers before the doors open (I often got a table that I left empty just to buy when I was really in to anchors)
* The rest of the remaining good stuff is sold within the first hour of doors open.
This is true at every hamfest.
I had a table and left at 10:45
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Yeah I donāt disagree with that at all, but honestly Iāve shown up around the same time for the past few years and this year stood out for being noticeably sparse, both in terms of the crowd and what was available. Part of me wonders if some of the surge in popularity of Ham radio that occurred during COVID is starting to settle down.Rule of thumb from an old hamfester:
* Most of the good stuff is sold between dealers before the doors open (I often got a table that I left empty just to buy when I was really in to anchors)
* The rest of the remaining good stuff is sold within the first hour of doors open.
This is true at every hamfest.
I had a table and left at 10:45
OP
It's funny how the same hamfest looked so very different to me.
I had a table ... and was mobbed almost non stop from 8am to 10:30 and I had not seen this level of activity or enthusiasm in a decade.
Sold the majority of what I brought well before noon.
One thing about hamfests ...
I have been going to hamfests regularly since the late 1970s (used to go to a dozen a year in the 80s!) and they are universally an early-bird event.
It is a non linear curve.
Meaning, around half of the activity, wheeling-dealing, selection (of course), happens in the first hour.
The next half, in the next hour, and so forth.
If a hamfest opens at 8am and you get there at 11, the majority of the people are probably gone already, as was your observation.
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Yeah thatās very true about perspective, I can only speak for my own experience in comparison to RARSfests in the past few years.
lol I would also argue that the good deals are more of a biphasic phenomenon than just an āearly birdā situation. I have scored some terrific deals at the end of the day from guys who didnāt want to load stuff back up š
OP
Correct. There are three such time periods: the other one is when you are unloading your vehicle to set up your table and the other vendors are swarming to see if they can get a better deal before you assess the crowds and set prices.
It's actually interactive... and I sort of kick myself sometimes. The guy across from me on Friday at set-up had an Australian-made Outbacker HF mobile antenna worth at least $100 and asked me if I was interested in it at $50 and probably would have taken $40. He said point-blank I could buy it from him and sell it myself on Saturday at a $25 profit. I walked it to my truck to actually put it on temporarily to see how it might go mechanically ... for my own use, not to re-sell ... and then turned him down. Dumb.
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I saw a few 2060alpha models that are brown there. I got this one from an add on qth swap. Guy was from walnut cove, just happened to be coming to my area the next day so I had no time or money in travel or shipping. Mine is just like the 2040 except it has fwd and rev/swr meters in it. The guts are the same mostly, mine has bypass, coax1, coax2 plus balance and long wire posts. You lose coax 2 when using either balance posts or the long wire post.I saw that tuner and it was a good deal. I have the 2040 (which I think is the same one only green). Tunes anything and is a tank.
I had a table and sold some stuff, bought 2 tube shields
I need to run my own hamfest!
One "gotcha" . I think that tuner lacks a "bypass" position. A few min with the soldering iron fixed that for me by repurposing a antenna port SO239
Now from yesterday, I got an old Johnson Viking matchbox. I couldnāt tell if the tag said $40 or $90 bucks. We were hemming and hawing looking at his old stuff and he said make me an offer! I said I didnāt need it, he said give me $30. I said ok, here is $40 and took it. It was missing all the enclosure screws but thatās not an issue, run a tap in the holes and some new stainless screws and itās fixed. Inside itās dirty but everything looks ok, some de-oxit and scrubbing and she is good to go. These regularly go for $100-250 on eBay so I think I got a damn deal on it.
I also got a radioddity gd77 Dmr ht for $15.
They donāt make them anymore and they have some sweet open source firmware for them and they command about $70+ bucks on eBay used. Deal deal deal.
About the fest, Iāve been to enough of them to know that it was a good one, could it have been better, yes, but it was good. I agree with mostly22lately on all the good stuff is snatched up in the first two hours or so. A lot is gone before the doors open too, from sellers walking around wheeling and dealing with other sellers. Donāt go to a ham fest looking for newer modern rigs for a good price, not that common, people know online is how to get the most money out of your stuff, especially newer stuff. Deals do come up though. Like I said earlier, I go for the ājunkā, just like at car swap meets, donāt go expecting fully restored classics, but you can find some diamonds in the rough. To me the best part is seeing people you talk to on the radio but never see, dickering on prices with sellers for junk you donāt need, and just enjoying the fellowship with other āfellow radio enthusiastsāā¦.
At least itās not Shelby and it be 98Ā° in early September in the middle of a field with no shade. The weather was perfect and I canāt complain about that, I did enjoy it being inside and will go next year if possible.
It was good to see mostly22lately and I didnāt think to try and see who all else was there from the group here. I know I walked by johnfreeman at least a dozen times and had no clue, haha.
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Ah, I have the black green one with the meters too. Great tuner, I forgot the nomenclature. It's not light.
I saw that small EFJ matchbox. Those "250" watt versions are what passes these days for 1KW. The 1KW one that was there was a good buy too, though I can't recall if it was the metered one. Dunno if some tinnerman nuts would fix the EFJ tuner, a lot of times they were overtorqued and the holes hogged out. Either way , you got a great deal.
I had the Japan Radio Co 525 shortwave rx there and some other junk.
I had a funny thing happen. I bought a CD antenna rotor box (I needed one) from Nick England who had the table next to me. I paid him put it on my table and went to look at the other stuff being put out (this was Friday PM). When I got back, someone had "bought" the rotor box from me and left the $5 on the table (which is what the rotor control sold to me for).
Ah well, my bad for not putting it under the table like I should have.
Nick had a few things in his "free" table, one of which was a "Brimstone 144" two meter rig made by Satan Electronics. I remember these crazy things from the pages of 73 or CQ (I don't think QST would run it since it was an unknown obscure supplier). It was one of the many outfits racing to capture the new synthesized 2M rig market. I'm sure it doesnt work but I'll take most any interesting radio for free.
I turned down a tabletop amp he had (pair of 813's) complete and filthy for $15.
I have a new HF radio on order for now....5 weeks....and waiting.....
I saw that small EFJ matchbox. Those "250" watt versions are what passes these days for 1KW. The 1KW one that was there was a good buy too, though I can't recall if it was the metered one. Dunno if some tinnerman nuts would fix the EFJ tuner, a lot of times they were overtorqued and the holes hogged out. Either way , you got a great deal.
I had the Japan Radio Co 525 shortwave rx there and some other junk.
I had a funny thing happen. I bought a CD antenna rotor box (I needed one) from Nick England who had the table next to me. I paid him put it on my table and went to look at the other stuff being put out (this was Friday PM). When I got back, someone had "bought" the rotor box from me and left the $5 on the table (which is what the rotor control sold to me for).
Ah well, my bad for not putting it under the table like I should have.
Nick had a few things in his "free" table, one of which was a "Brimstone 144" two meter rig made by Satan Electronics. I remember these crazy things from the pages of 73 or CQ (I don't think QST would run it since it was an unknown obscure supplier). It was one of the many outfits racing to capture the new synthesized 2M rig market. I'm sure it doesnt work but I'll take most any interesting radio for free.
I turned down a tabletop amp he had (pair of 813's) complete and filthy for $15.
I have a new HF radio on order for now....5 weeks....and waiting.....
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What table did you have ? I made quite a few laps and sorry that I missed you.
Next fest (Cary SweatFest?) I'll try to be more organized and prepare ahead of time.
I'm a RARS member since '95, yes the number of tables has declined as well as many radios from the past and less non ham related stuff.
Just like the gun shows, you gotta get there early and even buy a table to get what you want.
Just like the gun shows, you gotta get there early and even buy a table to get what you want.
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Yup, I remember seeing that jrc. You donāt see too many jrc products so it stood out and looked to be in very nice shape. I did indeed walk by you about a dozen times, hahaha.
Best my machinist eyes can tell, on that tuner, the threads are good, just no screws.
Yes itās the light version with no meters. They were rated for 250w am, so they can do substantially more on ssb. Iām only doing around 500 ssb so it should have no trouble there.
Best my machinist eyes can tell, on that tuner, the threads are good, just no screws.
Yes itās the light version with no meters. They were rated for 250w am, so they can do substantially more on ssb. Iām only doing around 500 ssb so it should have no trouble there.