W2QW Hamfest

The day dawned clear and a bit chilly. Getting up at 4:00 AM to be on site at 5:00 AM was no picnic. As the sun rose, the temperatures rose also and a big, hot cup of coffee went a long way towards warning me up AND waking me up.

The first job of the day was working with Tim AB2ZK and Craig AC2FE to park the seller's cars into appropriate spots. We had a pretty steady stream right up until the 8:00 AM start time. We almost filled the lot thanks to the spectacular weather, but not quite. One of these years, we will.

All photos courtesy of Jim Roselli N2GMA

The VE Testing session began almost as soon as the parking duties were done. We started the filling out of paperwork at 8:30 AM, so that we could begin testing at 9:00 AM, sharp. We were expecting about four, five or maybe six candidates at the most. Imagine our surprise when we ended up with nine candidates!

The team, which was the K2ETS VE Team, did a magnificent job keeping everything flowing smoothly without the slightest hitch or hiccup - except for the breeze. Halfway through the exam session, a pretty good breeze kicked in. We were using keys, HTs, anything we could find to use as paperweights to keep papers from blowing all over Creation.

In all, out of the nine, we were able to award one new Technician license, four upgrades to General and one upgrade to Extra.

Photo courtesy of Pete Fierro KD2ARB

After the exams were over, I was able to spend some time with Dave KD2FSI who bought a Hallicrafters receiver that was in EXCELLENT shape. It didn't look like it was new, out of the box, but it sure wasn't far from that condition. Then I got to spend some time in the shade with our ETS of NJ Group who had a club table at the hamfest. Before long, it was time to come home, to process the VE paperwork and get it into the mail so that the ARRL can get the new license and upgrades to the FCC as soon as possible.

Did W2LJ buy anything? Not really, besides a pork roll, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. My goal for the day was to find a 9V wall wart to use with the little o'scope kit that I'm building. There was a box of wall warts at the K2ETS table, so while I was doing the VE thing, Dave W2OIL and Dan KC2YRC went through the box and found one - and of course, typical for them, they wouldn't accept anything for it.

So, yeah, it was a great day with friends and a very productive morning to boot.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!