[Milsurplus] NEAR-Fest Musings

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 11:39 AM, J. Forster <jfor at quik.com> wrote:
> On Friday and Saturday the semi-annual NEAR-Fest was held at the Deerfield
> Fairgrounds in NH. This event was fka Hoss Traders or just Deerfield.
>
> To the wuzzies who were deterred by the cloudy skies and threat of rain...
>  you blew it. Friday, between 8 and 5 it lightly spotted a couple of
> times. You lost. LoL. I was not able to attend Saturday.

Yep, discussed this with a few other folks who mentioned the WX. Those
of us who used to attend the old Deerfield and later Hosstraders
events and who now provide the replacement NEAR-Fest are in unanimous
agreement: you don't attend for the WX, you attend for the people, the
stuff, the overall experience. If you let the weather determine your
sked, you'll always miss out.

This year I made the trip from NC to NH via VA, MD, CT with WB3HUZ,
W3JN, and K1JJ respectively. We got to our motel Thursday night to be
ready for opening the gates Friday at 9. Breakfast around 6:30 over on
Rte 4 was accompanied by a downpour. Not a drop at the event 5-7 miles
away, mind you.

Wasn't looking for anything beyond a few parts, but managed to score a
nice, original SP-600 cabinet for $20, box of HV relays and assortment
of 1/4" shaft couplings for $5, 4 boxes of mostly JAN and RCA NOS
tubes for $20, and a nice 1957 handbook from the Amateur Radio Retail
Lobby for $10.

There was actually a lot of nice commercial and military gear there
both days, with bargains to be had all around. Along with the Friday
night R-390A workshop with George Rancourt K1ANX covering the R-725
this time, Wayne Green spoke on Saturday about amateur radio, its
past, present, and future. Didn't get to attend Wayne's talk, but
folks sure enjoyed it. George's workshop is always a 'must attend'.

All said and done, another great event. Well worth the drive and few
brief sprinkles felt Friday.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4