posted 11/16/10
Howdy all! The 2010 Fort Wayne Hamfest is now history. As you will see in the photos provided below, a great time was had by all the IOOK'ers who attended the hamfest. Thanks to the Allen County Amateur Radio Technical Society for doing such a fine job of organizing the hamfest!
Friday, November 12th
This is the hotel where we stay for the weekend. Our
thanks go out to Betty, KC8PCQ for taking care of organizing the reservations
for our group again this year!
During the afternoon the gang began arriving at the motel.
Around 4PM Zed W. Jay invited the guys who were interested in joining him in a trip to the Coliseum to drop off the stuff at the flea market table.
Here we are waiting in line to drive the van inside.
John, N5AAA
Big Al, KB8FJB
Dave, W8TVC
Keith, WA8ZWJ
John just had to have a photo of this bumper sticker on the
car in front of us in the line!
The boxes of sales items (junque) have been loaded on the
table and Flat KBob prepares to take his place guarding the equipment!
While we were at the Coliseum the gals and N0BIX were
visiting at the hotel.
Here's a rare photo of Zed W. Jay talking on his cell phone
to Lou, N8KXM to see how their progress was so we could time our dinner plans.
Here's a N0BIXie shot of Jan (KA9VQS) and Jean.
The gang visits in the lobby while we await Lou and Sandi's
arrival.
And now, heeeeere's Lou! Sandi was still in the car
while Lou checked in.
We went next door to Don Hall's Tavern at Coventry for
dinner! You can see Big Al's IOOK shirt in the window.
This is the front side of what you just saw from outside.
Checking menus before ordering...
A bit closer shot of the far end of the table...
We all enjoyed our dinners and we had a nice visit while we ate.
The hotel has a complimentary breakfast each morning.
Today's special was sausage gravy and biscuits and there are always waffles!
The "early" crew head to the hamfest to set up
our table.
Our table is next to Glenn, W8AK's Here he is taking
his vehicle out of the Coliseum before the doors open for non vendors!
It is 9AM and we are ready for the buyers to come clean off
our table!
Under Lou's left hand is his RC-D710 which he has hooked up to an HT and it
is beaconing our location via APRS.
Look out! It is our old buddy Tom, WD8JPP!
The "O" stands for OBSERVER!
N0BIX, W8TVC and KB8FJB arrive. Here Bob has taken a
photo of the Coliseum sign.
Here is the main entrance for folks to come to the
hamfest. We suppose that Bob took this photo so Keith could see where the
non vendors enter since he has never been through those doors! Har!
Vendors enter through other doors on the end or back of the Coliseum.
They have arrived!
N0BIX took this shot because the YL was wondering how she
could join our club. I had to explain to her that we are a non club group
and the only way you can become an IOOK'er is to be assimilated!
Shopping time.....
During the late morning Keith took a walk out to the van to
drop off some purchases and caught Lou's beacon on the screen of the
TM-D700. Pretty cool!
This is a panorama photo taken from one end of the arena
just to show the size of the place. The commercial vendors are at the far
end of this photo and cannot really be seen here.
After the hamfest closed for the day we met in the lobby to
continue visiting until dinner time.
Yes, it was raining a bit as we made our trek across the
parking lot to dinner.
Any guesses where we ate dinner?
Here are Gary, WB9DIA, his wife Debbie and John,
N5AAA. We figure that Gary will be assimilated at HamVention 2011.
Gary has had the flea market table behind ours for several years now.
Jan, KA9VQS, Betty, KC8PCQ, Dave, W8TVC
Bob, N0BIX, and Jean
Sandi and Lou, N8KXM
Big Al, KB8FJB
Keith, WA8ZWJ and Marian, WD8CJD
John, W9KD, Brandon and Angie
Here's our group photo for the 2010 Fort Wayne Hamfest!
As many of you know, a few months ago John and Jan
purchased Big Al's motor home.
John related that when they first saw it that he always
asked Big Al if he was taking good care of their motor home. :-)
You can imagine how happy they were when Big Al offered it
to them when he decided to sell it.
Soon after John and Jan acquired the motor home, John began
looking for a suitable photo for Big Al to commemorate the wonderful memories
that Big Al and Lenore had shared.
Big Al was deeply touched by this kind gesture.
The plaque was on the side of the motor home. It
reads "Designed and built by Lazy Daze for the Snyder's".
Ah yes, it is breakfast time again. This morning the
special was scrambled eggs and sausage.
Then John, Lou and Keith were off to the hamfest.
Today we had two tables as Glenn did not plan to return.
John and Lou did a bit of repair work to Lou's laptop computer while they
awaited the doors to open.
Here's our friend, Gaylen, WB0W!
Lou managed to sell enough stuff that he was able to
purchase a new Kenwood TM-D710A!
John is grinning because he got to help spend Lou's money!
Early in the afternoon the flea market started to clear
out. You can see many empty tables as John and Lou visit.
John checked door prizes and discovered that Big Al had won
two tickets to HamVention 2011! Way to go Big Al!
To our knowledge, Big Al was the only IOOK'er to win anything this year at
the Ft. Wayne Hamfest!
At about 1PM we bid farewell to the hamfest and rolled our
tubs of sales items (junque) out and headed to lunch.
Bob took this photo of the gals during their shopping
spree.
Jan is on the phone with John finding out that we are ready to leave the
hamfest.
After meeting in the parking lot at the hamfest site, we
headed to Decatur to the Back 40 Junction and their Sunday Buffet!
As you will see, Bob took these photos while we were
eating, so, some of the expressions are reflective of that fact! Har!
N0BIX and WA8ZWJ exchanged photos after lunch and we all
bid each other a safe trip home.
As you can see, we had a fun filled weekend! I believe Bob summarized the weekend quite well in this e-mail he sent out after returning home:
"Greetings all,
We made it back home about 8:30 CST. A great visit!
Keith, thanks for being the executive vice president and hosting the flea market space. Good organization.
Marian, good seeing you and enjoyed our little swim together.
Dave, thanks for bringing down the cherries and driving Big Al down.
Betty, much thanks to you for the motel and dining arrangements. You're a great hostess.
Big Al, glad you made it down. Enjoyed the puns as always.
Lou, thanks for not actually ruining any photos!
Sandi, enjoyed your humor.
John, enjoyed our stroll around the flea market. Great job on the presentation to Big Al.
Sorry about all the flash blindness.
Jan, great to see you after a whole year! A special thanks for being a good friend to Jean.
Jean, very glad you were along for the trip. I love you.
Hope you all survive the withdrawal from the Ft. Wayne 2010 mini-gathering in good spirits.
73,
Bob"
Bob, thanks for all your photos even though you do receive a bit of grief from time to time about your taking them!
It is not too early to begin making plans to attend next year's Ft. Wayne Hamfest on November 19th and 20th, 2011!
Respectfully Submitted, Keith, WA8ZWJ
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Debbie, WB9DIA's XYL, used to work with John, N5AAA. She scanned the item below.
As you look at the scanned item, first check out the date in the top left hand corner. Then look at the second photo and see if you can distinguish John, N5AAA with dark hair! Yeah, we know the shot is not great but it is fun!
