Hamfests & Conventions

There are only 172 days until HamX—the 2025 Northeast HamXposition and New England Division Convention! 

HAM-CON, the ARRL Vermont State Convention will take place Saturday, February 22nd, 8AM-1:30 PM at the Hampton Inn Convention Center, off of I-89 Exit 16 in Colchester.

HAM-CON is the only ham radio convention of its kind: a fully hybrid show held live in beautiful Vermont and also on-line at ham-con.org. Be sure to attend! But if you cannot travel to the show, buy a ticket and on watch the events on line either live or after the show.

HAM-CON brings together hundreds of ham radio operators, computer wizards and electronic enthusiasts all in one location. A variety of activities will be running all morning, including an electronics flea market, live on-air ham radio station, forums on a multitude of communication topics and demonstrations of radio and electronic equipment.

Why should you attend? We will have a tremendous line-up of stuff which any ham will find exciting. If you are a contester or DXer, we will have presentations on the K1TTT super station and the top flight W1NVT Field Day operation and even provide valuable hints on how to make all those QSO’s on QRP. Are you more into digital? We will have forums on the HF digital modes and the microwave-based Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN).  We’ll have a sneak peak at some new equipment and even hit you with a wild game show based on ham radio.

But there is more! Our Convention station W1V will be on the air with a snazzy display. Get on and operate as we’ll award a prize for the furthest DX. Aircraft safety has been in the news lately. Along those lines, we will have a display of ADS-B which will allow you to track aircraft in your area. And don’t forget about the flea market where you can peruse all the goodies while chatting with your buddies.

Admission is only $7, if purchased on-line by February 14th, or $12 after that. Be sure to bring the kids for a chance to win a new HT – admission is free for those 18 and younger.

So don’t just sit around thinking about ham radio. Get out to HAM-CON to meet and greet hams from the North Country or if that is not possible, join us on-line at the show.

Full details and advance tickets can be found at: https://www.ham-con.org.

The next Vintage Electronics Swap Meet is…

HamX is the largest annual gathering of Radio Amateurs east of Dayton and north of Huntsville. And it fields more talks and workshops than any other ham convention in the world. We’re not just a trade show, we convene to exchange ideas. Here’s your chance to participate. Locally, 2025 will be celebrated as the 250 th anniversary of “the shot heard ‘round the world.” But we all know that for over a century Amateur Radio’s signals have been heard ‘round the world.

Every year’s talks pretty much run the same gamut of subject areas—Antennas and Propagation, Contesting and DXing, EMCOM/PS, League, Operating Activities, Organization and Innovation, Technical, and Training. This year we’re emphasizing “signals heard ’round the world.”

So, consider volunteering to speak on signals.

• How we generate and transmit Amateur signals. (our bands, equipment, remote systems, antennas, propagation, etc.)
• How we modulate our signals. (CW, phone, digital, image, etc.)
• The uses we make of our signals. (on-the-air activities, EMCOM and public service, DXing, contesting, traffic, repeaters, EME. etc.)

Even if you can’t speak, you must have some ideas regarding what you or others want to hear about—elementary topics for the newcomers among us, intermediate-level topics for the general attendees, even advanced topics to challenge and educate us all. Pass them on as a
request.

Here are this year’s planning and preparation milestones:

• January through April – Individuals propose presentations. The Convention’s Programs Committee also solicits presentations. Speaker Login webpage active.
• By 30 April – Solicited presenters reply.
• By 1 June – Potential presenters commit to speaking if scheduled.
• By 30 June – Closeout: presentation curation complete. Presenters notified.
• By 30 June – Presenters finish populating database with personal information, talk title, and talk summary. (Minor grammatic and spelling edits are permitted until the database is locked.)
• 15 July – Database locked. No further editing by presenters.
• 31 July – Scheduling resolved, locked, and provided for brochure preparation.
• 10 August – Brochure submitted to printer.
• 21-23 August — HamXposition 2025!

It’s never too early to start planning! Contact HamXposition Program Chair Skip Youngberg at K1NKR@hamxposition.org.

Carl Achin, WA1ZCQ, writes on the New England QRP mailing list:

* “Chowdercon” is a full day of eating (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and operating on Four Tree Island, New Hampshire. Get to Four Tree Island before 8AM to get a good parking spot in the Four Tree Island parking lot. As usual, lunch is at Geno’s and our farewell dinner/banquet will be at a New restaurant this year, due to the closure of our usual eatery closing/closed.

Four Tree Island can get cold, even on a warm day so bring a windbreaker and hoodie/sweatshirt. And don’t forget your favorite low-power Field-Op rig, wire antenna,  etcetera.

* More information to follow in another upcoming email next week.

We’re touching on 3 decades now (2000’s, 2010’s, and now the 2020’s) of this Annual Celebration of the end-of-Summer / beginning-of-Fall convention/conference of low-power radio enthusiasts operating on, Four Tree Island, New Hampshire.

Come join-in on the, Fun, Excitement, and, Camaraderie, of “Chowdercon 2024”!

* * * DATE: Saturday, September 21st, 2024, … the Equinox Weekend. – (Rain date is the following Saturday, the 28th.

7 3 . .

P.S. – Read about,  and, check-out past pictures of Chowdercon here:

https://www.flickr.com/people/55212399@N02/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/55212399@N02/