Over the two days, the VE team tested 27 people resulting in 6 new Techs, 7
upgraded Generals and 5 upgraded Extras.
One young fellow (I swear) completed his Extra upgrade test (all 50 questions)
in less than 15 minutes with 47 correct.
73MarkK5MGJ
On Monday, March 6, 2023 at 07:10:50 AM CST, Eddie Runner via BVARC
<bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote:
Greater Houston HamFest is over
Next one is March 1st and 2nd 2024
WOW!
I’m not the only one that gave that as a description!
It was hard work, both physically, and emotionally. A lot of passionate
planning from many folks that really care for the last 6 months. There were
some veteran planners among us And a lot of new hams working with us that had
never been to a hamfest at all. This gave us a huge range of new ideas and
talent.
Some of us knew we could easily do a hamfest because we have done it 19 times
before, “lets just do what we have always done”, but a few of us wanted to see
it grow and improve. A few of us were very concerned about the budget, ALL of
us knew it would be taking a big chance expanding the budget to do a TWO DAY
SHOW.
Will anyone even come on a Friday?
Setup on Thursday was tough, but thanks to Mr. Washington and his Grandson for
setting up all the tables and chairs. We had a good amount of volunteers to
help on Thursday, mostly BVARC members, one notable volunteer who is not a
BVARC member who was there all three days ALL DAY is Chuck Hale – KF5UXP
(trying to talk him into joining the club) …
Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) came in for setup on Thursday with a huge retail
display, and they thrilled the Houston airwaves by checking into our Stir Crazy
Net as they drove to the hamfest. Wow, what a great retailer and supporter of
our hamfest.
Friday we were there early to allow more vendors to claim tables and start
setting up. (it was a sellout (plus))
It was busy for me, looking up tables and walking folks to the tables (lots of
walking) verifying they are no the right tables and happy.. thanks to Scott
McKee – NT5SM and a couple of others for helping me with the paperwork.
We had an onsite Paramedic for your safety, BVARC Member David Stevens – KI5LDZ
– He was also a big help with other volunteer duties when he was not saving
lives..
Opening to the public at 2PM, we had a couple of early gate crashers I had to
throw out. Yeah you know who you are… ha ha
We were fully booked and the folks started streaming in, the crowd got huge..
Wow, on a Friday? yes!..
At least as big or bigger than our past hamfests, as I was squeezing through
the isles at one point it suddenly hit me, WOW, this is Friday, and the big day
Saturday isn’t even here yet…wow
The show ran till 8pm, a lot of folks were clearing out by 6:30-7ish, around
8pm Walter (K5WH) and a group of Balloon guys were the only ones left… Planning
for an 8pm close was probably too late.. Lesson learned for next years show.
Saturday morning at sunup the tailgaters were already swarming, and our doors
opened at 8AM.. A few VENDORS showed up for a table they should have claimed
already (Friday and Saturday)
It is a sell out! Where were you Friday? We counted you as a NO SHOW!
Sorry I sold your Tables to someone else!
NO REFUNDS…
I was just being mean to drive home the point that we are a two day show, we
need vendors here for two days!!
but of course I am not really mean,
I was prepared to set up some new tables and I did have a place for them ..
(being mean for minute was part of my plan)
Initial vendor reaction was RAGE (wanting to beat me up).. ha ha
When I told them I was joking, I do have a table for you!!
I think I actually made a few new friends out of this crazy plan.
The Doors opened and wow, another huge huge crowd of people, by noon even the
food vendor was overwhelmed with a line of maybe 50 folks(?) waiting on burgers
..
it was difficult to to even squeeze down the isles..
Thanks to many companies (list on the houstonhamfest.org website) we had NINTY
SIX, count em, NINTY SIX donated door prizes PLUS three MAJOR RAFFLE prizes (I
heard between $7000 and $8000 total) .. With that many prizes to try to give
away, we almost didn’t have enough time (in two days!!).
What in the past had been a prize an hour, or a prize every half hour, BUT this
year it become our announcer’s main job we had constant door prizes..
After recently traveling a couple hundred miles to a hamfest ( I won’t mention
which one) I was disappointed to find out they BAN ALL DOGS except service
dogs.. I brought my two Boxers and my wife stayed in outside with the dogs
while I walked through the show in 20 minutes)
As a joke – (sortof) In some of our early hamfest website blurbs, and on at
least one of our marketing hamfest emails, I mentioned ALL DOGS ARE WELCOME,
just bring your human…
It worked I think over both days we had more then 10 folks with dogs.. I meant
to buy some treats but forgive me, next year I will be more prepared.
Tailgate area:
We charged $5 per space this year, and it was very busy.. We even had some on
Friday.. Saturday though the tailgate area was busy and well defined. One guy
had several spaces and was there all day, in fact he was still out there
selling after the show, in fact he was still out there selling when I finally
left the fairgrounds.. Is he still there today? I don’t know.?
YouTubers were there in force, Jason from HamRadio 2.0 and a group were walking
around all day Friday and I found them a free table for Saturday… A lot of
folks thought it was great to have the YouTube celebrities at the HamFest…
ISpark was there with a robot fighting arena, lots of sparks..
Walter Holmes K5WH did an amazing presentation and his group had a huge display
with floating targets (EEERR…) I mean Silver Balloons.. They did several (many)
Balloon launch (click these links) Balloon Launches
We had a lot of trouble working with food this year, it started out negotiating
about BBQ from the swinging door, but eventually the owner would not talk to
nor call me back.. Then it was proposed anotherBBQ joint to do some BBQ and
BLUES (yes music in the back yard stage)then went to our BVARC January Banquet
caterer, due to an emergencythat fell through.. and on a recommendation Gloria
and her company (who won cooking awards at the Austin County fair) came through
for us at in the last couple of weeks (down to the wire) …(did you try her
french fries with the shrimp and crawfish sauce on top…??) With our far
greater than expected attendance, she may have been a little overwhelmed..
Anthony W5LIC worked mostly outside managing the tailgate and other things, but
folks were asking at the BVARC booth where he was because they just wanted to
meet him…. The other Half of the Dynamic Duo KORI WX5KR was keeping folks
operating the popular HF station (KK5W CLUB CALLSIGN) table..
Eddie Runner – NU5K
Co-Chairman
w...@bvarc.org
713-569-8799and
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________________________________________________
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BVARC mailing list
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Publicly available archives are available here:
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