David KC2JNS submitted these photos from the Western Connecticut Hamfest in Newtown CT. As you can see, ham radio is still a young, vibrant hobby on he cutting edge of technology and popular culture.
The main drag – one of CT’s largest hamfests
Checking out the wares
Assorted old electronic shit, a orbital sander, a Linksys router and a phone with no dialing-thingie
Again, proving that Ham Radio is a young, vibrant hobby
Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll find microphones from *this* century.
The amazing ‘everything for 50 cents’ box. Even the Gameboy with a broken screen.
The submitter’s son tries vainly to find anything of value. Even the broken Gameboy got a pass.
No Hamfest is complete with a table of crap manned by a woman in a wheelchair.
Thanks!! If you want to submit photos from your local hamfest, send them to [email protected]!!
Oh my god! I was at a hamfest about a month ago and saw that same pile of crap with that same woman behind it in South Jersey. Amazing the distance such shit may travel. However she wasn’t in a wheelchair there even though she should have been. She was gimping around freaking out most of the people there.
Dibs on the broken gameboy!
Hamfests really aren’t for people looking to buy working ham gear. They’re for the people who need obsolete electronics (cheap replacement tubes for guitar amps, etc.) or are experimenters building radios/transmitters with outdated parts (i.e. the people who buy Lindsay Publications books.) Not the people who need a decent 2 meter/70 centimeter handheld, or guys looking for an Icom amplifier – just the bits and pieces to build stuff from scratch. The ARRL should force the Hamfest organizers to call these things what they are: scrap electronics sales.
And yes, I know it’s been five years since the original post. However, this needed to be written.