Talk:Hamfest

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[edit] Origin

What's the origin of the Hamfest? There must have been a first one somewhere. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Waxpancake (talk • contribs) .

[edit] Purpose

The first sentence, IMO, is misleading. While the majority of hamfests include a "flea market" section, not all of them do. In particular, the ARRL level conventions, which are often referred to as hamfests, usually focus on forums and meetings. There will be technical forums, legal forums (how to get permits to build a tower), "net meetings" where the hams who regularly check into the same net every week have a "grip & grin", etc. There are often new vendor displays. Some of the larger hamfests don't have flea markets, like the Annual Internationsl DX Convention in Visalia California. This event is about the third largest ham gathering in the state, and has no flea market at all, much as the Pacific Northwest DX Convention, similarly, never has a swap/trade element to it. The ARRL Pacific Division Convention (Pacificon), for several years had no swapfest associated, because the parking lot of the hosting facility was under reconstruction. During those years, the attendance did not drop.

If I were to re-write this section, I'd do something like this:

"The primary purpose of a hamfest is for hams, who normally communicate over the radio, to have an opportunity to meet face-to-face. Most, but not all hamfests feature a flea market, for the buying and selling of personally owned equipment. Most, but not all, feature VE sessions for license testing. Many feature technical forums, and many include a trade show element, where new equipment manufacturers and distributors show their gear and often make sales."

That's not wordsmithed completely, but you get the idea.192.65.41.20 01:18, 6 April 2007 (UTC)