There are only a few hamfest‘s that I would classify as “classic”. The Benson hamfest in Benson, North Carolina is one of those. It has your typical environment of a large parking lot with people parking their cars and selling tables full of old Ham Radio gear out of them. It has a large grill cooking thick hamburgers for everyone to enjoy at lunch. Inside there are long tables with vendors selling either used equipment, test equipment, wire antennas, in various and sundry different things that are difficult to find. This is usually one of the better attended hamfest but it is a smaller one. Big enough that you can go around and see everything in a couple of hours, have a hamburger and then go home. This year I woke up at 4am and drove with Doug K4ROK and his daughter and son-in-law. When we arrived, we set up tables out in front of his minivan and unloaded a lot of equipment that came from two different estates. He managed to sell a lot of the stuff sitting out there enjoying the beautiful sunshine. Half of the time there’s a lot more talking about radios and experiences than selling. It is a good time to have “eyeball QSO’s”.
The mission to go to the hamfest was just to look and not buy anything. Oh well, the best laid plans went astray. The first thing I find is what looks like an aluminum box off a ship that is some kind of tuner for 160 meters. Looks like it has potential. Get it home, clean it up and paint it so that it can hide in the bushes and tune a hidden antenna!
Other things that I could not live without soon appeared in my bag like antenna wire, chokes and baluns. Of course you cannot have enough adapters from the RF Connection (yeah Joel!). Finally two thick hamburgers later, we went home and took a nap! The end of a perfect hamfest day. Look forward to the next one as I know I forgot to buy something.
This time I will bring things to sell!
73 Peter, N4PVH
Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club 