Near-Fest Spring 2010

[Zappa]

Who plans on attending the next Near-Fest?

http://www.near-fest.com/

It looks like they pushed the date up a week this Spring to April 30/May 1

I plan to be there as usual with the pop-up camper.

 

[C-pher]

You tried to get me to go to this last year...but something came up...I don't remember what it was...

Anyway, I might have to come up for this one this year...

 

[THUNDERCHIEF]

I have not missed a Near-fest or Hosstraders in years. I will be there. I usually camp overnight. Maybe we can put together a NES campsite up there if there is enough interest.

 

[n1oty]

Who plans on attending the next Near-Fest?

http://www.near-fest.com/

It looks like they pushed the date up a week this Spring to April 30/May 1

I plan to be there as usual with the pop-up camper.

The Taunton crew will be in the commercial building again.

John
N1OTY

 

[SandBagger]

I will be there with the BARS group camped out over night as usual.

 

[matt]

For some reason I was thinking this was in the fall...

Doubt I'll camp, but I'll probably be there. Likely I'll take the bike up if it's good weather. (need to figure out how to rig my HT on the bike...)

 

[THUNDERCHIEF]

For some reason I was thinking this was in the fall...
QUOTE]

Twice a year. One in Spring and one in fall.

 

[tele_mark]

I'll be there at some point. An NES campsite would be great.

 

[cockpitbob]

IN. Probably just for the day. If I camp I'll have my 2 young boys with me. How loud & drunk do the hams get?

 

[R1ch]

IN. Probably just for the day. If I camp I'll have my 2 young boys with me. How loud & drunk do the hams get?

About as loud, drunk and smelly as you can imagine! Have you been to a flea-market lately?

 

[cockpitbob]

About as loud, drunk and smelly as you can imagine! Have you been to a flea-market lately?

Just the recent Marborough flea. They didn't seem like the loud type. Drunk, maybe. Smelly....I get your point.

 

[Turbocharged]

I'll be there. NES campsite sounds awesome.

 

[Zappa]

I've had my camper set up in the same spot for every event since NF1.
It's on flat ground, in the lower area, away from the main crowd.
It also has an open view of the sky to the Southwest, which is very important if you want to set up a satellite dish.
It doesn't get too crowded and there are level cement slabs for the campers/trailers, with water and electricity.
I propose we congregate in this area. Here's the map of the fairgrounds, I marked the area with a blue circle.
If anyone remembers the guy selling all the satellite dishes at NF#2,3,4 and 5, that was me.

 

[C-pher]

I've had my camper set up in the same spot for every event since NF1.
It's on flat ground, in the lower area, away from the main crowd.
It doesn't get too crowded and there are level cement slabs for the campers/trailers, with water and electricity.
I propose we congregate in this area. Here's the map of the fairgrounds, I marked the area with a blue circle.

Map didn't come through...

 

[Zappa]

Map didn't come through...

It's there, refresh the page, I made an edit.

 

[Turbocharged]

I've had my camper set up in the same spot for every event since NF1.
It's on flat ground, in the lower area, away from the main crowd.
It also has an open view of the sky to the Southwest, which is very important if you want to set up a satellite dish.
It doesn't get too crowded and there are level cement slabs for the campers/trailers, with water and electricity.
I propose we congregate in this area. Here's the map of the fairgrounds, I marked the area with a blue circle.
If anyone remembers the guy selling all the satellite dishes at NF#2,3,4 and 5, that was me.

Sounds good to me. How early should we plan to set up in order to secure that area?

 

[Zappa]

Sounds good to me. How early should we plan to set up in order to secure that area?

If you can get there when the gates open that's fine.
I usually get there between 10-11am on FRIDAY morning.
KB1/FX gets there early and parks his car on the slab I use and reserves it for me.
When I show up, I call him on 900 and he comes down and moves it for me.
Nice to have friends!

 

[Zappa]

I found the aerial photo that was once posted, and now gone from, the Near-Fest website.
It was taken by Kim WA1/PBU while flying his plane over the fairgrounds during Near-Fest #1. He sent me a full resolution copy, which I had to scale down by 50% to make fit here. I circled the spot where I was set up, on the camper slabs w/water and electric hookups.

 

[tele_mark]

Is it me or does the ground in NH just look better than Mass?

 

[BigBird]

I hang out with the PRA group and the GEMOTO group on a triangle across from a mens' and ladies' room.
I check in with the BARS group as I'm a member and VE for them.

Note to Bob...NEARFEST is way smellier than Marlborough. There are people there who only leave their cellar ham shacks on Nearfest weekends. The "greenies" are a trip.

I've been a wimp lately and have been hoteling it.

 

[Radio]

Is it me or does the ground in NH just look better than Mass?

Not better, just "Freer" Is that a word? "More Free" maybe that's grammatically correct!

I will be at DeerChester in all my Pigfest glory!

Zappa, I think I can see my truck but not sure, can I have a peek at the high res version?

 

[matt]

Note to Bob...NEARFEST is way smellier than Marlborough. There are people there who only leave their cellar ham shacks on Nearfest weekends. The "greenies" are a trip.

yikes... I was willing to let myself believe that the... ahem.. aroma... was due to the venue being a school cafeteria...

Maybe there would be a market in ham radio accessory shaped soaps... we could offer various scents to entice hams to use them: "burnt resistor" or "ode de ozone", maybe "hot phenolic". We could make some money while bringing hygiene to the ham community.

 

[Zappa]

Note to Bob...NEARFEST is way smellier than Marlborough. There are people there who only leave their cellar ham shacks on Nearfest weekends.

Oh, you must be referring to the Canadians that make the trek down.

 

[cockpitbob]

Note to Bob...NEARFEST is way smellier than Marlborough. There are people there who only leave their cellar ham shacks on Nearfest weekends. The "greenies" are a trip.

Hmmm, maybe my boy and I will just spend the day (on the upwind side of camp).

 

[tmacie]

Looks like I have the 30th off. I'm going to try to make it over. Last spring was my first adventure at NEAR.

 

[Zappa]

Is the spot I chose at the camper slabs an agreeable place for all the NES'ers to congregate?

 

[Turbocharged]

Is the spot I chose at the camper slabs an agreeable place for all the NES'ers to congregate?

Works for me.

What do people think about choosing a common frequency for reaching other NER'ers? 2 meter or 440, depending on what people have for HTs.

 

[cockpitbob]

Works for me.

What do people think about choosing a common frequency for reaching other NER'ers? 2 meter or 440, depending on what people have for HTs.

Good idea. I vote 2M. My HT does both but isn't 2M more common?

ETA: Wow, simplex. I haven't done that yet.

 

[Turbocharged]

Good idea. I vote 2M. My HT does both but isn't 2M more common?

ETA: Wow, simplex. I haven't done that yet.

Well, we can always have a 2 meter and a 440 option.

How about 147.485MHz with a PL of 146.2 for 2 meter; and 446.315MHz with a PL of 146.2 for 70cm?
No reason for suggesting those frequencies, they're just listed as Simplex frequencies under the ARRL band plan.

 

[C-pher]

Why are we going to put in a PL for Simplex?