Back From Pacificon 2007
Posted by Jack on October 21st, 2007
OK, I’m back from Pacificon 2007. Will have photos up in the Gallery soon. Also check here for the ‘MultiMedia Meditation‘ I gave on Saturday morning (you will need to view this in Internet Exploder, sorry).
Plenty of exciting things happening in ham radio and this weekend surely conveyed that to the better-than-last-year attendance. The vendor area in the hallway/entry seemed like there were less vendors, but certainly more people. Sunday morning the flea market had about half as many tables as last year. I didn’t find any treasures. Inside the vendor area there were plenty of great displays. I confess my favorite was the Northern California Contest Club.
The Elecraft K3 is now probably the most coveted new rig these days. I think I now know why. The specs are impressive alone, but the expandability of the design makes for some interesting choices for future mods. I heard mention of being able to take advantage of the DSP to handle phasing of the signal out to the two SO-239’s in the back for phasing verticals or arrays.
The QRP Forums were always great. I now know how to do SMT soldering in a much more efficient way.
| John Haslett, KC5KHA speaking on his adventures aboard a balsa raft with descendants of the Manteño was probably the best adventure story I’ve heard in a LONG time. And it was all true. This YouTube video shows the launch of one of the rafts John lived on during his expeditions. |
Best of all was meeting up with friends old and new and hanging out letting our geek flag fly. I can only imagine what that wedding party thought of us sitting at the table drinking and doing Morse Code.
By the way, my main buy this year was the Porta Paddle kit by American Morse. I can’t wait to put it together!
I plan to use it for portable work, go figure.