I attended the 2009 Charlotte, NC Hamfest Saturday March 17th, 2009 and had a pretty good time even though it poured a cold rain all day. The best thing was that I got to ride down with my best friend WZ4I Mark and also had WN4B Randy along for the ride too.I thought they were ridiculously high on the admission price of $10.00 considering that the upcoming Catawba Valley Hamfest April 18th, 2009 in Morganton, NC is only $5.00 at the gate! I got aggravated at the Hamfest officials when I went to the stage area and asked the guy to page my friend Don WD4CWE who had driven from Burlington and he told me they were only paging on the half hour and that I'd have to come back later although the PA system was not even in use at the time!I've been talking to Don regularly for almost 2 years now and had never met him in person until that day.Hopefully things will improve next year since WZ4I Mark has been invited to join the Charlotte Hamfest planning committee.I wound up coming home with a Pop Comm magazine, a CQ magazine, 2 ceramic dogbone insulators, and a MFJ/Ameritron coffee mug.
That was it.I took 3 straight CW keys with me hoping to maybe find someone who might have a bug key they'd swap, but no luck. I did lay an eyeball on hopefully my future HF rig, a Yaesu FT2000D! (Seen Above). It is now written: "I shall have one, oh yes I shall!" Anyway, until next blog, very 73 de Cliff KU4GW (Photo Above Left to Right: NC4JS Eddie,WZ4I Mark,KU4GW Cliff,& WA4HKY Donnie)
I agree on the fest being overpriced. But there was NO WAY that I was NOT going to be there! I was promised something last year, and wanted to receive it this year. Oh well. Guess I'll have to wait another year..
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