12 November 2016

OVARC Hamfest 2016 and Ten Meters Presentation

The Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club held their annual Hamfest on November 12, 2016.  This is a nice event, a large one for a local hamfest.  This year, I had a busy agenda as I was attending as a Speaker for a forum session, an Exhibitor for Ten-Ten International Net, a Volunteer for the club, and a Flea-Market Socializer the rest of the day.

The morning began very early, as I had volunteered to staff the entry booth from 5:00 - 7:00 am.  This turned out to be an easy job, since the only hams allowed entry during that period were vendors and exhibitors.


Once the gates opened, and the sun rose, things began to get a little busier.  There were many hams from Tucson and even some out-of-towners who drove in for the fun.


My presentaion was in the first time slot for forums at 8:00 am.  I gave a talk called, Ten Meters - An Ideal Band for ALL Hams.  It went very well and I gave lots of real-life, current examples of successful 10 meter QSO's.  It's my belief that many hams are under the mistaken impression that 10 meters is a dead band, but there is plenty of technology that easily proves otherwise!


After the talk was over, I returned to the parking lot, which is a great one for an Arizona hamfest because it has solar-panel covered parking spots which are used for the vendor area.  This gives both sellers and buyers some nice shade - although it was cool, the sun is still strong here in the Southwest.  Our booth for Ten-Ten International was staffed by myself and Bob Farrow, N6OPR, who is a Director of 10-10.  Bob drove down from Phoenix just to promote 10 meters and as always provided plenty of entertainment.


It was a nice day, thank you OVARC!