Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club
Hamfest

Hamfest 2008

SBARC Hamfest Flyer (includes schedule, map, and registration)

Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club
HAMFEST 2008
by Dave Hackleman, K6VML, Hamfest Chair

This year the Hamfest is Sunday, August 10, 8:30 am to 2:30 pm, outdoors on the grounds of Elks Lodge #613 in Goleta, located at 150 N. Kellogg Avenue, just off Calle Real between Patterson and Fairview. The parking lot has abundant space for our swap tables, as well as lots of parking space. When you arrive, please park on the mountain side of the building. The other side is reserved for Elks members. Overflow parking, if needed, will be readily available on nearby streets.

Vendors and swappers, we want you! Come as early as you like and take all the time you need to set up. Call Dave K6VML at 805-967-9313 or to reserve parking spaces in the swap area. The first space is free, additional are $10 each. If you don’t reserve a space we may not be able to put you in the swap area, but you can still sell from your tailgate anywhere in the parking lot.

The Elks Grove offers a beautiful, shady area for eyeball QSO’s with lots of picnic tables, a barbecue pit for the tri-tip and chicken barbecue, a drinks booth, and games for young and old including—of course!—the Transformer Toss and QLF Contest. As always, bring your QSL card—plain, fancy, or whatever—and fill up Darryl KF6DI’s bulletin board with them. Our expert panel will judge them, and game and QSL card contest winners all get nice prizes.

We will have a Transmitter Hunt open to all to participate—novice and veteran T-hunters alike. The winner gets an especially nice prize. And as always we will have a VE Session, after which you can enjoy the Hamfest!—contact Darryl at 805-969-2326 to pre-register. See the flier on our website for more details. An ARRL representative or two will be on hand. Get to know them and let them know your views. And check out what’s new at the SBARC Bookstore.

We are very glad to welcome back Eric Christensen K6EJC from Ham Radio Outlet in Burbank. Check out the store’s catalog at www.hamradio.com. You say you wish you could buy various lengths of coax with the PL-259 connectors already installed? They’ve got ‘em in the store waiting!

Roger KD6CNY and Kim Deane of Wired Communications in Scottsdale, Arizona will return with their wide assortment of connectors and cables. Chances are they have adapters you never knew existed! Look for them at www.wiredco.com.

Sal N6SPD and Dorothy De Franco from the Monterey area will also return and provide personalized mugs, T-shirts, caps, and badges with your call or whatever you like on them. A cap is waiting with your name on it hi hi! Look them up at www.avantiactivewear.com.

Niel Borden of Global Imports in Orange County is returning with his batteries, laser pointers, magnifiers, toys, and so much more! We enjoyed having him last year and so did the kids!

Now what would our Hamfest be without demonstrations! Pat and Chuck McPartlin and others from the local astronomy club, the Astronomical Unit, will return with their solar telescopes set up for public viewing. Come by and see what ol’ Sol is up to. This time you just might see sunspots in the upper latitudes from Cycle 24.

Rod Fritz WB9KMO will again have our ever-popular Amateur Television and Robots demonstration. There’s always something new in ATV, whether it’s repeaters, equipment, or just finding better ways to do things. Rod will tell you how you can do ATV whatever your budget.

And back by popular demand, we will have SBARC’s own Ken Owen, N6KTH; demonstrate making satellite contacts on his handheld during an actual satellite pass. We get requests for this every year and Ken’s enthusiasm for it is contagious. Ken is an AMSAT Area Coordinator. Check out his website at www.n6kth.com and click on the Satellites link for more information.

And now for something completely different—the Alternative Craft demonstration. Santa Barbara’s own Jeanne Sayre will demonstrate how anyone can paint surprisingly beautiful flowers or other objects using single brushstrokes. (Guys, if you want to try it, it’s okay.)

Come and see what’s new with the ARES Van used for emergency communications and our nimble Rover vehicle that we use for public outreach. Both will likely be pressed into service for our antenna and power needs during the Hamfest.

Along with the delicious barbecue, we will have more neat prizes again this year. We’ll have a popular feature-packed HF transceiver for our Grand Prize, and lots of fantastic secondary prizes. Buy your tickets for the Grand Prize and Secondary Prizes, and the barbecue, using the order form on the back side of the flier included on our website.

The first 100 orders will be entered into the Early Bird drawing for a Grundig G5 AM/FM/SW/SSB receiver, which is popular among hams for casual listening on the bands. Buy your prize and/or barbecue tickets by mail and you won’t have to wait in line, and the ticket orders help us determine how many people to expect. When you arrive, we’ll have your tickets ready for pickup in your pre-registration packet.

Come a day or two before the Hamfest and enjoy a weekend in beautiful Santa Barbara. Make your room reservations early. Take in a show at the Gladwin Planetarium in the Natural History Museum. See the shops on the wharf, or walk along the breakwater at the Harbor. Or stroll the peaceful grounds of the Stow House and Goleta Depot Railroad Museum.

We hope you’ll take away some nice prizes from our Hamfest. After you’ve had dessert and the prizes are all raffled and the Grand Prize is drawn, you’ll be all set for the drive home. Do drive carefully. We’ll see you in August!

Dave Hackleman, K6VML
2008 SBARC Hamfest Chair

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