Southern California Mini Gathering

The Southern California IOOK Vice-presidents (Poway Chapter Vicepresiding) celebrated a Mini Gathering the weekend of February 6-8.

Arriving in town to attend the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association (AFCEA) annual WESTCON show, IOOK VP (K8EI) representing Bountiful Utah met IOOK VP (NN3V) of the Poway chapter for convention merriment and discussions.

Then, the afternoon of Friday Feb 6th, K8EI's YL (Judy) arrived in town and the Utah contingent joined NN3V and YL (Eli) at their home to begin the festivities of celebrating a reunion.  K8EI proved once again that he can consume a greater amount of food than anyone (and still remain hungry) by devouring for dinner the largest T-bone recorded during the ongoing grocery strike in Southern California.  This after also consuming a large portion of refried beans, jalapenos, and cheese.

The musical evening was followed next Saturday morning by K8EI and NN3V joining the Palomar Amateur Radio Society (PARS) for the weekly breakfast at the Hamburger Factory.  K8EI once again devoured 4 eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and a variety of breads, while enthralling the Poway hams with his tales of Field Day escapades with the Woodbridge Wireless, and the MVARC gang.  Of particular importance to the morning was the excellent advice provided a local ham who appeared at the breakfast with the latest HRO catalog, wondering "what rig should I buy?".  As he drove a Lexus, the gang figured he would go for the top of the line, and to the IOOK Technology Center Director's amazement, the cheapskate just wanted to be sure he could save a buck.  He was surprised when the table had religious zealots from the Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, Ten-Tec, Swan, Heathkit, and several other religions.  He left assured that he should buy one of each and then figure out why each was better than the others!.

K8EI and NN3V departed for a science inspection of the latest technology on display at Fry's.  While surprised that Fry's is having trouble keeping pace with the technology advances occurring daily in the IOOK, the Vice-presidents had no trouble dispensing with a moderate amount of cash to help Fry's clear the aisles.

 That set up an occasion for Loyd to once again feel the pangs of hunger (after all, they'd been gone from breakfast for a total of 3 hours!).  So NN3V proceeded to deliver Loyd back to the Hamburger Factory for another mass consumption of cow.  While there, the IOOK VPs took advantage of the Poway Midland Rail Road museum adjacent to the restaurant.  A delightful downtown Poway attraction, the railroad operates a steam train (the steam engine is undergoing regular overhaul as shown in the attached pictures) and a corvair powered (yes, the railroaders adapted a corvair engine underneath a trolley) trolley car that takes grownups and kids around a 1/2 mile oval track that is set among early 1900 homes and railroad station that have been restored in Poway.

Finally, the afternoon of Feb 7th. was the time set for the official gathering.  N5AAA (John) surprised the gathering by his appearance (proving he indeed is NOT a SK), together with his YL (Jan).  Merriment ensued at NN3V QTH, followed by a trip to the Claim Jumper Restaurant.  For those outside California, the Claim Jumper Restaurant chain is renown for the absolutely MASSIVE dinner portions served.  No troubles mate!  K8EI astounded the waitress by the consumption of 1/2 a steer, while the rest cheered him on.