Hamfest!

Took the day off to go to the Mike & Key Club's Annual Hamfest/Electronics Flea Market.

Got a somewhat late start, as I have been feeling like I've been skirmishing with a bug of some description. The way I felt this morning when I woke up, if I hadn't already had the day off, I would have called in. Eventually I felt up to an excursion, so I left...

I was looking for a power supply for my Yaesu FT857 (not D), and wound up buying one that is admittedly rated at lower amperage than the max power from the 857, but should be enough to get on the air. Two tables had the Duracomm LP-14, one selling them for $80, which is $20 less than MSRP, and the other (claiming to have bought several pallet loads "to get a decent price") had 'em for $35.

Now I need to either get some wire and some powerpoles and cobble together a power cable, or get a molex-to-SAE connector adapter. Which is probably available on eBay for $5.00, $12 shipping and handling...

While I had originally intended to take this occasion to test for the Amateur General license, my study time has been devoted to working on my application for promotion at work, so that will have to wait. I got my Technician license at this event last year; they have two test sessions, with up to (as I recall) 36 people testing in each. When I arrived at 11AM, the line for the noon test session already had at least that many people in it...

Saw a couple of co-workers, but not everyone I expected to see. Saw a few friends, including one I don't see often enough; which, considering how active an activist she is for both amateur radio and firearms rights, is either to be expected, or surprising...

(A bunch of the gang from AR15.com were supposed to be there, but I didn't see any of the few folks from there that I know  by sight. Why a bunch of bitter gun-and-religion-clingers is so enthusiastic about amateur radio I'm not sure, but there it is.)

Since M&K bills this as an electronics flea market, a lot of what is for sale are old radios. I'm not into boat anchors, so I couldn't tell anyone whether there were any rarities for sale, or great deals, or whatever. No reason to fly out to Seattle for this if you live in, say, Indianapolis...

And a lot of what was for sale looked like folks trying to get rid of all the stuff they no longer use but couldn't bring them selves to either toss, recycle, or donate. I think I saw more old computer stuff than radio communications gear, although there were a few military surplus units that were kind of interesting, including an old ComBloc R-105, which brought back bad memories... (Probably worse for the commie radio operators I was listening to hump the things, than to me, in what would have passed for luxury to them.)

The ICOM booth had all kinds fo goodies to drool over, of course. Being local, they always have a presence at these things, and often give presentations at the local amateur radio club meetings. In fact, my own club (Federal Way Amateur Radio Club) was running a demonstration of the D-STAR digital mode. (Developed by ICOM, but open source.)

The line for the Ham Radio Outlet booth was... impressive. HRO has the closest amateur radio store to the Seattle area, in Tigard, just south of Portland, Oregon. If HRO or one of it's competitors ever decides to open a store in the area, it will do very well indeed--as long as they stay out of business-hostile Seattle.

A bunch of us were supposed to be getting together after the flea market ended for an early dinner, buy by the time I had purchased the power supply and seen every table twice, I was really dragging, and so I made my apologies and headed home. Mrs. Drang was still out shopping, so I took a shower, and then Ratbane the cat and I had a bit of a nap.

Payday's Monday, so I'll probably be spending some more money then. For one thing, they have opened registration for the Communications Academy...