If you missed our Hamfest, you missed a lot of fun. It was a great day and hams came from all over Southern California as well as Nevada and Arizona. March 14th 2015 was an unseasonable hot day, even for Palm Springs. That did not slow down over 500 hams from attending the 6th annual Palm Springs Hamfest. There were around 15 commercial vendors and 7 service groups represented at the day long event. Included were ARES, ARRL, CAP, Skywarn, CERT and RACES. There were also 4 guest speaker forums including the ubiquitous Gordo and speakers on Makers Faire, Broad band Hamnet, Curing RFI and an Antenna forum.
PALM SPRINGS HAMFEST 2015 also offered VE testing for the first time at this year’s event. Eighteen candidates took exams with a total of 11 passing: 8 for Technician, 2 for General and 1 Extra. Six members of the ARRL VE Team from the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club (aka C-BAR-C) in Highland provided the testing service.
All of this was held at the beautiful Palm Springs Pavilion, a wonderful 10,000 sq ft facility with hard wood floors, AC, good lighting and a stage. There is also a kitchen that served up delicious ‘burgers and hotdogs at a good price. Coffee and doughnuts were made available for early arrivals. As the day was 3/14/15, a special dessert was available; a pie for pi day. Only hams would figure that one out. At the other end of the parking lot is a ball field that was used for the tailgate sellers and overnight RV parking.
Inside was a club consignment table, a private seller with lots of used gear, new gear from HRO and Elecraft. New parts were available from a variety of vendors, hats and t shirts and Herca Solar, a solar distributor with an inverter that will supply 120vac, even when the grid is down.
Everyone had a good time, learned a few things, some won some of the $7000 in raffle prizes and many got a chance to meet up with old friends. So we look forward to doing this all again next year.
