The Huntsville Hamfest is usually the weekend closest to august 16, but this year, in order to accomodate the ARRL Annual Convention, it was held August 22/23. As usual, it was at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
Setup started 10:00 AM on Friday, and by 3:00 we were setup and had visited with a lot of friends who came by our booth. Vendor setup in Huntsville is a pretty slick operation. Vehicles pull in through a giant door on one side, a local crew helps unload and carries the booth product and supplies to the booth, and then the vehicle pulls out through another door on the opposite side. The traffic control team runs a smooth operation, everyone gets in and out with no hitches at all.
Parking was in the vast underground parking garage. Friday it was no charge, but Saturday and Sunday it was $15/day, up from the pevious rate of $10/day. The parking rate was set by the Von Braun Center, not the hamfest folks. There were less expensive parking options available, but it required a pretty good walk, and after standing at the booth all day, an extra five bucks seemed a trivial expense to avoid the long walk.
Saturday morning, we arrived at 7:00, uncovered our tables, and prepared for the day. The public entered at 9:00, and it was like the floodgates had opened. Everyone was friendly and seemed genuinely glad to be there. The MSA window passthrough panel kits got a lot of attention, and the OPEK antenna products were very popular. New vendors and flea market booths who bought some magic number of tables were treated to lunch by the hamfest, and the lunch was good.
The hamfest closed at 4:00, and getting out of the VB Center was easy peasy, thanks to the underground parking.
Sunday went 9:00-3:00, and the pattern was the same as Saturday, just with less floor traffic.
Door prize tickets were limited to one per admission; no stacks of tickets were sold. Two (TWO!) grand prizes were given away, one Icom 7300 MKII on Saturday, and one Icom 7300 MKII on Sunday. You did not have to be present for the Saturday Grand Prize, and Sunday? On Sunday, you had to be present to win. This guaranteed a larger-than-usual Sunday attendance at closing, and several no-shows were pulled from the pile of stubs before an on-premises participant was selected.
There are around 40 different forums held across Saturday and Sunday, including a diversity of topics such as How To NOT Learn Morse Code, Adult Soldering 101, Meteor Shower Comms, Balloon Sats, Lightning Protection For Hams, Lunar Mission Updates, etc. Whether you were a freshly minted tech or a grizzled old Extra, you could find forums of interest at Huntsville.
Over 70 new vendors lined the front part of the hall, designated as such by red dividers. The Flea Market area (where we lived) was in the back part of the hall, where we had five of the hundreds and hundreds of tables. The chance of walking in and getting a table that day was somewhere between none and zilch, since all the tables sold out almost as soon as registration was opened. Late registrants were assigned to a waiting list, and if a table wasn’t paid for by mid-summer, the table was released to the next-in-line on the waiting list.
All in all, this hamfest was a great success. Total attendance was 6,558.
About 5% of the Flea Market area as seen from the Fat Cat Parts booth.
KJ5HOC, the Booth Babe herself, models my hamfest hat during a lull in the chaos.
The blue table covers were the Fat Cat Parts booth. Some of our Collins gear and new OPEK products can be seen from this angle.