|
Winterfest 2008!
The 9th annual Winterfest was, by all accounts, a roaring success. The weather outside was cold but the hangar was warm inside and the deals were hotter with the largest collection of gear ever seen at the event.
By dinner time Friday evening more than 50% of the stuff had changed hands. Some felt the variety and quality of gear was the best ever. Saturday morning it became apparent that forecast deteriorating weather coming in from the West was ahead of schedule and people started bailing out following breakfast. Most of the remaining gear sold within 2 hours and by 10am everyone was gone and on the road.
While the event is officially all day Friday and Saturday morning, as usual, people started arriving on Thursday and by that evening when more than 20 early arrivals headed for the local pizza house for chow, the tables were 75% full!
Friday evening we had our usual potluck dinner and by all accounts it was the finest collection of food, mostly homemade, ever. Normally we have leftovers for lunch Saturday and our door prize drawings wrapping up Winterfest but with the pending bad weather neither occured. The door prizes for this year will be held over to next year and the drawings will be held on Friday evening before dinner.
One of the highlights of this year's event was live music provided by Bob, K7QKV a professional musician who still plays 4 gigs weekly in the Bothell area.
Bob - K7QKV
We had 50 hams register at the event, along with several XYL's, and as usual several who attended that didn't put themselves on the list. Attendance probably topped out between 60 and 65.
Attendees came from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia. The long distance award goes to Brian, W1LYD from Skagway, Alaska and Bob, N7UA who flew back from vacation in Mexico to make the event.
Post-action reports indicate a good time was had by all. Standby for the 10th Annual Winterfest coming up on January 30 & 31, 2009!
Here are some photos from this year's Winterfest.
|
Early arrivals on Thursday
|
More Thursday stuff
|
KE7DHA, W7TRO & K7YIR Thurs.
|
KC7PH & VE7GA on Friday
|
Going full-tilt Friday afternoon
|
Lots of Stuff
|
Serious negotiating full speed ahead
|
W7TRO & KE7GPO with Keith's stuff
|
W7ACM strolls the rows
|
VE7KHZ & K7RLD negotiating?
|
A serious Eyeball QSO
|
KA7WOC, W7IXZ, W1LYD & KL7OF
|
K7YIR, N7FYP, KB7RIK & K7LFE
|
Late Friday pm, tables getting bare
|
Some of the gals planning dinner
|
K7QKV warming up the crowd for dinner
|
Dinner line - what a spread!
|
Some serious chowin' down
|
Winding down late Fri. afternoon
|
Part of the group enjoying dinner
|
|
Click image to see a larger version
|
|
Technical Links of Interest
Watch this 17 minute video and see how this Frenchman builds his own triodes. Turn up the sound.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/make_your_own_vaccum_tube.html
____________________________________________________
Thanks to Rudy, W7RHZ, here are links to the Voice of Victory 1944 movies on development and construction of the venerable BC-610 transmitter. 14 & 13 minutes in length, these are a must see!
Part 1: www.archive.org/details/VoiceofV1944
Part 2: www.archive.org/details/VoiceofV1944_2
__________________________________________________________________
Here's the link to the web page that contains all of the amazing projects from Dave, WA7JHZ in Lewiston. Check out the photos and schematics of a lot of interesting ones, including the combo Dave has been running on 3870 see in the picture below.
Here's the link: http://myweb.cableone.net/adamsmed2/catalog.htm
___________________________________
N7UA Makes Long Path 80mtr AM QSO with OH1TX in Finland 11-22-07
Here's the rig that got the job done, Bob's 304TL's modulated by 304TH's. Looks like Chuey the cat has its eyes tuned for max output as well!
Here's the N7UA operating position showing the Valiant which is used to drive the 304 rig!
Bob was using a 6 element wire beam for the contact while the other guy was running about 700 watts using a 32V2 and amplifier and receiving on a 75A1. The guys over there are really into vintage AM gear. They have a group like ours on 3870 in the afternoons.
___________________________
W8ER Gears Up For Heavy Metal Night - 2007
with his K7DYY Senior (photo from Bruce)
 | 
