Made the trip as planned to Plano this morning to the HamCom show. After doing the math I deduced that this is the first big ham radio show I've been to since Dayton in 1993. Much has changed in 16 years.
First thing upon arrival I sought out Tarheel Antennas, hell bent on getting an antenna before doing anything else. Had a talk with Gaylon WBØW and settled on the Model 200A-HP package with a ground radial kit and an extra 50' length of control cable. This lightened my net worth by some $600. Stuffed the whole lot into the car then went back to see the rest of the show. Grabbed the adapter cable to mate my Heil Classic 5 with the K3, and found the BNC-to-screw terminal adapter that I needed for the KX1. Shopping spree completed, I did my walkabout; The Best Damn Wife Ever™ parked herself in a chair with her Kindle and waited patiently as I ran around like a 5 year old at Chuck E. Cheese's.
I was happy to finally get my paws on some of the newer rigs like the Icom IC7800/7700/7600 and Yaesu FT-9000/2000 and spin the knobs and push some buttons. All of these radios had front panels that remind me of an instrument panel in a 747 -- lotsa' stuff going on. The K3 by comparison is minimalist and elegant, not that I would mind having any of these rigs in the shack. The 7600 was especially nice as it might be something I could afford someday, though I'd be hard pressed to replace the K3 with anything from Japan.
Elecraft had a booth, showing their new W2 wattmeter and K144XV 2m Module for the K3. Eric WA6HHQ was off giving a presentation so I didn't get to grill him about the lack of AM Synchronous Detection in the K3 as promised. Almost bought a K1 kit, but held off because I already spent way more than I should have already on the above mentioned , and also because I know I'll never use it. But I just have itch to melt some solder and wind some toroids.
Sadly Ten-Tec was absent from the show. Too bad, I really wanted to have a look at the Omni VII and Orion II.
And then there was Flex Radio. Wow. Just... wow.
I can imagine one of these in the shack someday...
Field Day Plans Coming Together
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Thanks to the due diligence and the yeoman efforts of Dave KD2FSI, our
Field Day location has been secured. We are returning to Spring Lake Park,
which i...
45 minutes ago
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