Sunday, July 14, 2013

Indy Hamfest

     The biggest amateur radio swapmeet in Marion County! Tam and I went yesterday and left before making a second walk-through; I was all worn out.  So much so that I napped after unloading the car and only got up for supper.

     It was a great hamfest.  After many years at a smaller venue, they are back at the Marion County Fairgrounds and there were a lot of new sellers.  I did manage to pick up a few items and will have a post about them later, probably over at Retrotechnologist.

     Interestingly, the Marion County Fairgrounds are posted "No Firearms."  As the Fair is run by a private non-profit, they can do that; it has the same force as such signs at private business: if caught, you can leave or be charged with trespassing.  However, at least one retired LEO an INGO member spoke with suggested being caught carrying at the fairgrounds would rate a trip to the lockup.

7 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I went out about 6:30 and left at 9:30. Walked back and forth a couple of times and bought some dipole parts and a tuner for my rig. Now if I can just get the antenna up, maybe I can get on the air.

Oh, and I bought a hat. Got to have a hat. :)

Unknown said...

How often do they have these? I have /got/ to try to make it to the next one.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I think the Indy is an annual event. But there are others around the state.

Roberta X said...

It's annual, as are most -- I think the next ones in Indiana are later in the year.

There's one in Batesville, August 17: http://www.rcarc.net/HamFest.html ARRL has hamfest listings by state: http://www.inarrl.org/hamfest.html

Roberta X said...

By the way, Nathan, 120 feet will just about do an 80M dipole and it will certainly do a full-size (105') G5RV.

You'd need to have a couple feet at each end drooping down for an 80m dipole: 124'.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Cool. I've got lots of #12 and #10 stranded wire. If you need any, let me know.

Unknown said...

Thank you, Roberta. I checked out the ARRL schedule page and the page for the one in Batesville. That's a pretty easy drive from here, so I'll definitely try to make it.