Nutmeg Hamfest 2009

The Connecticut Nutmeg Hamfest for 2009 went on in glorious fall weather on October 11.
Note: Click on photos for more detail.

A hamfest always begins with checking out the competition's mobile installations. Relatively few HF installations compared to Dayton.

Always enter by way of the flea market to see what's up. People noted that the larger stores and manufacturers were absent this year. There were still a lot of "mom and pop" flea market vendors.

This was the ARRL Connecticut Convention. Left, our Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI. Right, Section Manager Betsey Doane, K1EIC.

A small, but engaged audience for the League Forum.

Joel Hallas, W1ZR, gave a popular talk on multiband antennas. Guess which favorite antennas really don't work very well on the HF bands!

Another rapt audience.

The flea market had some beautiful nostalgic equipment on display. No, it wasn't selling very fast, but it was nice to look at and reminisce. I got a Boonton grid dip meter, just like the one I used 35 years ago!

The Shore Point club (West Haven) had its very snazzy emergency communications trailer on display. It doesn't look like it's worked through many disasters yet!

The Shore Point trailer command desk. Two people, five microphones, and then some.

I thought this was the highlight of the show. It is W1RT's HF - 10 GHz hill-topping van. An amazing collection of gear, all oriented to VHF, UHF, and microwave contesting.

Overall view of the vehicle area. There was also a converted ambulance from the Danbury group.

I didn't know they gave license plates for Unix veterans, but here is one I found: