Subj : Hamfest Overview (1)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Mar 21 2019 12:06 am

                         Hamfest Overview
                         ================

The term "hamfest" is short for "ham radio festival"...a place where you
can go to meet other ham radio operators, make new friends, renew old
acquaintences, buy and sell new and used gear, take a license exam for a
new or upgraded amateur radio license, attend informative forums on
various aspects of the hobby, and more. For those who have never attended
one of these fun events, this bulletin/message thread is a "brief guide
to a hamfest". 

Hamfests Big And Small

Hamfests can be as small as those hosted by one local club...it can be a
state, regional, or division convention...or go all the way to the king of
the hamfests, the Hamvention in Xenia, Ohio in mid-May. It originally was
in Dayton at Hara Arena, but MOVED to the Xenia area fairgrounds in 2017.

The latter has been termed by some as "a 3 day ham radio orgy". Not to
sound vulgar, but if you want to eat, sleep, and do whatever else as it
relates to ham radio, Hamvention is the place to be. They say "If you
don't find it at Hamvention, it doesn't exist!!".

Depending on the scope of the hamfest, there may be just a morning and
early afternoon event (usually on a Saturday)...to lasting 3 full days,
such as the Dayton Hamvention.

Admission and parking fees...as well as to how big the parking areas and
the event venues are...can vary widely, depending on the size of the event.
Be sure to check with the contact persons for all the information noted on
the specific hamfest website.

You can search for a Hamfest by going to the ARRL website at www.arrl.org
and clicking on the Hamfests Link. That will take you to the Hamfests And
Conventions Calendar, enter the desired search criteria, and click on
Search.

If nothing shows up, then there are no hamfests scheduled for the area you
requested.
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