[PPRAANet] Duke City Hamfest/ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention Update

Sun Aug 26 16:55:57 EDT 2018

Rhoda and I are going. Anyone else?

Mike WV7T

-----Original Message-----
From: Albuquerque Duke City Hamfest <webmaster at dukecityhamfest.org>
To: John Roth <wv7t at aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Aug 23, 2018 8:08 pm
Subject: Duke City Hamfest/ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention Update

To our amateur-radio friends in the Rocky Mountain Division and beyond,

We’ve posted a preliminary schedule at https://www.dukecityhamfest.org/schedule. You’ll find all of our activities – from forums and all-day classes to banquets and Wouff-Hong – presented in list form or as a grid (user selected), along with the current speaker roster and bios. We’ll leave the individual track links posted for those who may want a quick scan of topics on each track. 

With the schedule up, we thought we’d take a moment or two to focus on a few of several highlights to the upcoming Duke City Hamfest/ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Sept. 21-23, at the Isleta Resort and Casino’s convention facility. And we’ll toss in a couple of key reminders at the end.

Build Along With Rex: Rex Harper, W1REX, of the QRP kit site QRPme.com, will hold two, count ‘em, two kit build-a-thons this year. Rex, the Bob Ross of kitters and builders, holds build-a-thons at Dayton’s “Four Days in May” each year and at conventions and hamfests throughout the US and in the UK. 

At our gathering, Friday morning’s build is a 10-watt, bidirectional wattmeter. First introduced at this year’s Four Days in May, the kit has undergone additional improvements that will help make it a must for your test bench. Or, if you haven’t outfitted a test bench yet, this will be a great first “hire” for it.

The second build, on Saturday, focuses on an RF probe, a 10-watt dummy load with RF pick-off point, and a frequency counter. All three of these kits will be solderless! It’s his NoS (no solder) Three-fer. OK, you can solder the connections if you like when you get home. But the idea is to finish these kits early during the three-hour session so you have time to learn (or review) how to use them. Rex will bring along some “ailing” QRP transceivers so you can learn how to isolate buggy sections. If you built the wattmeter on Friday, you’ll see how to integrate that into testing and alignment. Oh, yeah, you can use it to monitor the VSWR between your rig and antenna, as well.

The wattmeter kits are $45 each, and the NoS Three-fer is $35. To reserve a spot and a (the) kit(s), email Rex at w1rex at arrl.net. He’ll be handling sign-ups. 

These kits are not just for QRPers. They provide great introductions for anyone wanting to learn how to work with electronic components. These build-a-thons are fun and great opportunities to learn kit-building and troubleshooting from a pro.

Test Along With Tim: Speaking of test benches, Tim Fuller, KC5TCF, and his wife will have a table set up in the flea-market area, complete with test gear, so you can get a sense for just how well that boat anchor you are itching to buy works. Or, after you’ve bought it, stop by for a boat-anchor check-up to get a sense for what, if any, additional TLC you might need to provide to get it on the air.

The Audiologist Is In: We’ll have an audiologist on hand for four hours on Friday and again on Saturday, depending on demand. The quick test is designed to gauge your hearing’s frequency range. The information is useful in its own right, but it also would be useful in test-driving Bob Heil’s new Parametric Receive Audio System. In essence, it’s an equalizer designed to tailor the frequency response of your rig’s receiver output to your hearing ability. Bob will be demonstrating the system at the convention. And we'll be raffling off one of them late Saturday afternoon. For more information and to sign up for an appointment, visit https://www.dukecityhamfest.org/audiologists.

And, of course, we’ll also be tailgating in a section of the resort’s parking lot adjacent to the convention facility. The tailgate sessions run from noon to 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 21, and 6 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 22. The slots are $15 each at the gate, $10 if you preregister. The slot fee covers both days. For a map showing the location of the tailgate area, visit https://www.dukecityhamfest.org/vendor-maps. The tailgate sessions are in addition to the action in the indoor vendor/flea market sales hall, Hall B/C. The hall will be open for business from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday.

For details on additional non-forum items -- VE testing, QSL checking, SKYWARN® training, the day-long courses, the Wouff-Hong induction ceremony, and other activities -- see the Program page at  https://www.dukecityhamfest.org/schedule.

A couple of important deadlines to keep in mind:

1. The cut-off for reserving banquet meals and on-site lunches is midnight Sept. 9. These purchases help us meet our financial obligations to Isleta, so we urge folks to sign up for them. It's also a convenience for you. No waiting in long lines at the in-house cafe, and no commutes into Albuquerque to the sounds of rumbling stomachs. Please note that the lunchtime concession stand that will be set up in Hall A between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday are for distributing pre-ordered lunches only; they will not have lunches to sell to general attendees.
Each meal reservation automatically qualifies you to be included in raffles held for people who preregister for banquets and lunches. For a look at the prizes, check out the prize page on our website, which you can find at:
https://www.dukecityhamfest.org/prize-policy

2. The deadline for preregistering for the hamfest is 23:59 on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Preregistration saves you money on the hamfest registration fee; it qualifies you for yet another raffle, the preregistration raffle to be held at the Friday Night Mixer; and it smooths the path when you check in. Walk up, check in, receive your registration packet, and you're done. You can smile and wave goodbye across the registration tables at the walk-ins, who will be filling out forms, waiting for change as they pay, waiting for badges to be printed, and waiting for the extra raffle tickets they buy to be counted out to them. We're big fans of walk-ins, too. But preregistration greases the skids when you arrive.

If you already have registered and want to add meals, a flea-market table or two, a tailgate slot, any of the all-day classes, or as an ARRL member would like to take part in the Wouff-Hong induction ceremony Saturday night, you can add any of these except meals between now and the Sept. 18 preregistration deadline. For any activity involving a meal, or for on-site lunches, you'll need to add these by Sept. 9, as noted above. This is our cut-off date for getting meal information to Isleta. Just return to the main registration page, click on the "Add Items" button at the top of the convention registration form, then continue to your choices. 

Until our next update, arise and digitize, pound brass, key the mic, activate whatever your favorite mode(s) or SOTA summit might be, or become an Elmer to a Tech, and we’ll see you soon!

The Duke City Hamfest Board of Directors

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