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Not sure if any others in the group made the trek, but Eric and I had a pretty fun time.? Things started a little rough with steady rain Friday morning, which drove everyone inside an jam-packed the building aisles.? Could hardly move anywhere, aggravated by the usual FFC traffic jams.? But the rains quit around 11:00 or so, before the mud in the flea market got too bad. Friday afternoon was overcast but no rain, so the flea market returned to life.? A friend from my working days is trying to refurbish a 1940 Philco radio that his grandfather used for, among many other things, hearing the reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor.? I managed to find all of the tubes he needed, but struck out on the 450VDC electrolytics he needed.? I probably just missed them amongst the other debris in the boneyard.?

Business was brisk on Saturday.? Lots of people with money to spend, and I sold enough stuff to pay for a new IC9700 (well, almost).? M2 had a great deal on the LEO pack antenna setup, so I picked up one of those as well.? I also managed to find one of the little S.A.T. boxes that provides all you need to work satellites using the 9700 and the yaesu azi-ele rotor.? It does the satellite tracking, rig interface, and rotor control, and only needs a wifi connection to something (laptop, ipad, etc) to see the displays.? Seemed like a cool thing for field day.? Lots of folks were selling them to ship to you, but only HRO actually had them there, so that’s where I bought it.? So I’m about to re-engage with the satellite world.? But first, of course, I have a lot of RTFM to do (unless I can get Eddie to do it for me).? ?

Flex made their anticipated big announcement about their 8000 series.? No 8700 model (yet), but some hint there might be one day.?? I didn’t see a great deal of “new products” from the other big manufacturers, although to be honest, I wasn’t looking that carefully.? I didn’t notice anything new at ICOM.? Kenwood’s new product is the same THD75 HT they were rolling out last year.? (Phil Parton said their next product would be a mobile.? As usual, no details on if it’s vhf/uhf only or also HF, or what the price might be, or what decade it might be available for sale. )? The only thing I saw new at Elecraft in a quick pass through was a 5W 7m-15m CW transceiver about the size of an HT.? Hand-held CW transmission is for someone way more into CW than I am.? I never went into the Yaesu display.? Just not a Yaesu guy I guess, and I already have a lifetime supply of Yaesu ball caps.?

FWIW, basically everybody was selling radios for the same price as you could buy it online—nothing special for hamvention .? .? .? except the folks at Chattanooga Radio (or something like that).? Everyone else sold the 9700 for $1750 + tax (after the instant rebate).? Got it from Chattanooga Radio for $1675 including tax, IF you paid cash.? So there’s at least one guy offering a bit of a deal.?

I didn’t interact with the ARRL folks or get any update on the web site problems.? I’m pretty fed up with ARRL at the moment, and I was pretty sure that any interaction I had with Minster or Roderick wasn’t going to end well, so I didn’t let it spoil a wonderful hamfest.? I also skipped the Saturday ARRL forum (Glad I did, because it was at about that time that carrying the AL-82 became someone else’s problem. )? I’m sure someone will post a summary of what transpired at the forum at some point.?

This was one of more enjoyable Hamventions in recent years for me.? I hit a sweet spot of balancing time between the indoor exhibits, wandering the boneyard, and hanging out at our flea market spaces.? Had a blast catching up with Eric and chatting with folks passing by—even got a packet of vegemite from a passing Aussie!? Best of all, I managed to sell the AL-82 amp so I didn’t have to lug that beast back home.? The IC9700 is way easier to carry.?

Dave UW