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Hamfest 2004 review
A review of this years Hamfest event hosted at the FRARS HQ
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Written by:
G3PFM (
Tony Baker )
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Wednesday, 15 September 2004 |
 Hamfest 2004 Report.
I should like to begin by thanking all those who worked so long and hard to make Hamfest 2004 a success.
Many of our members were involved this year, some during the Hamfest weekend and others who were involved with arrangements throughout the year.
Each year we are joined by a large group of ex-members and others who come along and assist us over the weekend with jobs like setting out the P.A. system,connecting up the electrics for the field as well as a host of other tasks.
On the day we were assisted by the St. John Ambulance, by RAYNET who provided talk-in on S22 and the Air Cadets who did a splendid job (as always) with the parking arrangements.
On behalf of FRARS I should like to take this opportunity to thank them.
The field made available to us by the landowner was a little further away than we would have liked but the situation was alleviated by the use of a "shuttle bus."
On the Saturday evening we were joined by some of the traders for our social event and this made for an enjoyable gathering. On Sunday the weather was not as kind to us as we would have liked. After a long period of warm weather we just happened to catch the tail end of a storm which produced some rain about 1130. However, it could have been a lot worse.
We made a great effort to improve the Hamfest road signs for this year's event and many visitors remarked on the improvement. It was also gratifying to hear that people appeciated the improved catering arrangements.
It was good to see so many people enjoying themselves and finding bargains. As I talked to some of our visitors I realised just how far some of them had travelled to reach the event.
Chuck (G0MDK) ran his popular Tesla coil demonstration and found it necessary to run an extra session due to the large number of people who wanted to see it. The coil produces up to 200Kv and can gererate very healthy discharges!
Some of the proceeds of the rally will be used to further Amateur Radio in this area. Funding is provided for the long running repeaters in Bournemouth; GB3SC on 144MHz. and GB3SZ on 433MHz. and it is hoped that an ATV repeater
will be granted the necessary licence before too long.
FRARS also helps with the funding of the microwave beacon complex in North Dorset. There are currently beacons running on 2.3GHz, 3.4GHz. 5.7GHz, 10GHz, 24GHz. and 47GHz and these are proving to be most useful to the microwave fraternity.
Best wishes,
Tony Baker.
(President of FRARS)
Note the majority of the pictures were taken around the site before the public gate opened.
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