With Techfest 2014 coming up in January, I thought this would be a perfect time to share my review of this event from earlier this year. While there is no question that amateur radio is a technical hobby, I’m often more interested in some of the social practices and customs of its participants than I am in some technological apparatus or the movement of electrons to and fro. That’s what makes this event interesting to me- you get the technology and then someone who wants to tell you all about it. Maybe my review will be of interest to you.
Please read below the fold for more, and with pictures!
“The hamfest that isn’t” could be the tag line that the Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society should use to describe the gathering they hold in early January at the Gwinnett Medical Training center. The chief criteria for an event to be considered a hamfest is that it must have its main focus centered of the exchange of ham related merchandise and services, presentations, table displays, examinations for licenses, food and fellowship; but the event must be mostly commercial to truly be a hamfest. Techfest has everything one could need for an event to be considered a hamfest, except there are no commercial vendors present. The main focus of the event is to share your knowledge with other hams about whatever interest you are pursuing in the hobby at the moment. This can be anything from RTTY operation to APRS positioning software and everything in between. You get exposed to other peoples interests, which I think is a good thing as there is plenty of room in amateur radio for everyone and their particular slice of the hobby.
It’s a great venue and event- the venue recently changed from a church basement to the much larger Gwinnett Medical Training Center. The new accommodations have comfortable chairs and spacious tables located next to many outlets evenly spaced along the wall. The tables line the perimeter of the large carpeted room which leaves plenty of room for the expected crowd to mingle. The only negative feature is the difficult access for any antenna setup (if needed) to be used in a table display. This can be overcome by using a recording for any necessary display needs you may have. You can read the most up to date news about Techfest here and take a video tour here.
The organizer, point man, and ombudsman for the event is Norm Schklar, WA4ZXV, or as some call him, “the patron saint of Techfest.” He is, without question, chief of the cat herders- organizing an event of any size isn’t always easy, and trying to round up enough people to put on displays and give talks takes a considerable amount of time. I shudder to think about the amount of work Norm and his crew of magic elves invests in getting this organized and executed. Thanks Norm & Co.!
Of course, no mention of Techfest would be complete without mentioning what many find to be the best part- other than the fierce competition for best chili and the randomness of luck in the drawing for all sorts of cool items- is the free food. It’s quite a spread with lots of hot dogs and burgers with drinks and snacks on the side. Everyone brings enough chili and everyone gets to have a bowl. I’ve spoken about the chili cook off elsewhere, so I won’t duplicate that effort here, but I will suggest that perhaps you should make the trip to Techfest just for this!
There were quite a few exhibitors this year, though I couldn’t tell if there were more people in attendance last year than this year or not. Last year, I came and only stayed for an hour or so, as I had just had hand surgery that week and was a little under the weather, as you can imagine. This year, I didn’t have that difficulty and really got to take in the event and enjoy it.
Of the exhibits on display this year, I believe the most activity was generated by the Freeside tables, manned by Randy Farmer, N4FET (Randy also is a member of the Atlanta Robotics Club). Freeside Atlanta is a hackerspace located on Metropolitan Parkway (formerly Stewart Ave.) in a warehouse space which once housed an ammunition plant for munitions produced during WW2. There were a collection of devices on hand- 3D printing, lighting that could change color in response to a tweet and all sorts of other neat things.
While Freeside may have generated the most interest, the loudest noise was generated by their neighbor, AB2CD, Jim Phillips and his creation, The Learning Center. I didn’t get a chance to speak with Jim or his wife who were demonstrating a Tesla coil, which what was making all the racket, but it appeared that many children seemed to enjoy the demonstration, and that’s the important thing.
I visited with the Southeastern VHF Society for about half the event (I spent the other half with Newt, N4EWT and Jim, N4BFR visiting and checking out the other displays) and visited with Charles, K4CSO, Mike, KC4RI and met Bob, W4ZST. Bob brought his laptop which had pictures of he camprground the W4NH Fourlanders group mounts their VHF contesting efforts from. Bob has everyone over to his garage/shack for the January contest- never know how the weather is going to go in a North Georgia January! A lot of history with the W4NH group and I’d wish there was more time to go over the many different slideshow/photos and memories that Bob brought along.
Ran into a couple of different hams from around town. Atlanta’s “Time Nut,” John Ackerman, N8UR, (from whom I later purchased an Icom W32A) was in attendance and chatting with the ringleader, Norm, as seen above. John has a very neat setup on his website, which shows active lightning strikes around his QTH. Dayton Hamvention’s Ham of the Year, Jim Stafford, W4QO, was in attendance and seen helping children learn to solder at the kit building station. Got to meet Phil Graciter, W3HZZ, who made the comment that, “no one seems to feel the pressure to learn CW that you do voice,” which certainly makes sense, as none of us are born with keys in our hands!
I did at least do a “drive by” of the many different tables and exhibits, of which there is a list below for your review, and am sorry I didn’t get to visit with every one. There is a lot to see, friends to catch up with and free food. Somehow, this makes the time go quickly and hungry for next year to hurry up!
Lastly, the QCWA club was there- get to join in a couple more years!
There were many different exhibitors this year, the ones I mentioned above and those that I did not include the following:
| Fun with Low Power Radio (QRP) | North Georgia QRP |
| Build an interesting beginners kit | North Fulton Amateur Radio League |
| Hams on Cams Using Video to Promote Amateur Radio | HamsOnCams.com |
| ARRL Section Manager | ARRL |
| ARES in Gwinnett County | Gwinnett ARES |
| D-STAR in Georgia | Georgia D-STAR |
| A Marriage of Old and New Technology – The Original Text Machine | Alford Memorial Radio Club |
| Military Auxillary Radio Service | Georgia MARS |
| QCWA | QCWA Chapter 49 |
| Meteor Scatter, WSJT, Moon Bounce, VHF contesting | Southeastern VHF Society |
| GARS Youth Lounge | GARS Youth Lounge |
| TechFest | Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society |
| VE Session | W5YI VE |
| Venture Crew 73 Scouts | Venture Crew 73 |
| Remote your HF Station | Ray Bailey |
| CW Keys and the fun of CW in Amateur Radio | CW Keys |
| Preview of ARC’s Second Sunday Sessions | Atlanta Radio Club |
| Ham Radio Sound Webinar by Bob Heil | Bob Heil |
| ARISS | John Kludt |
| Freeside Atlanta – an Atlanta Maker Space collective. | Freeside Atlanta – an Atlanta Maker Space collective. |
| SOTA Georgia | SOTA |
| The Excitement of DX | SEDXC |
| Our Club and Keenahoochee Hamfest | Keenahoochee AmateurRadio Club |
| Technology Learning Center | Jim Phillips, AB2CD |
Good write Mr. Turner. Thanks for reminding me how much fun I had. I need to finish curing the ham and get busy on next year’s chili creation.
Thanks for the great write up. You really captured the meaning of the event. It’s a huge task, but worth all the time it takes. I get to meet folks from several clubs in the organization process and meet face to face with hams that I wouldn’t normally cross paths with. We try to keep it low key and enjoyable for everyone. I’ve had several new hams say that attending is one of the things that made them go ahead and get a license or upgrade.
We’re looking for another great event in January 2014.
73 and Best Holiday Wishes to ALL
Norm , WA4ZXV