Monte Sano and the Huntsville Hamfest

What a great weekend!  I had the opportunity to travel to the Huntsville Hamfest, and spent the night on Monte Sano.  Huntsville was my first large scale hamfest.  I soaked it all in, met several new friends, and even won a door prize!

After paying my entry fee I was greeted at the door by N1XIO.  He had a real nice backpack rig setup, so I had to take his picture.

 As I walked in I was surprised how many people and vendors were present.

 The place was packed with Ham's, and full of all sorts of possible new toys.

Ohhhh yea!  The Elecraft Booth

 I checked out the new PX3.  It looks real nice.  I am waiting to see what software Elecraft rolls out in the near future before I pull the trigger.  Boy was it pretty.

A friend for Kimber!

Huntsville also had some great QRP based forums this year.  Jim Stafford, W4QO gave a great QRP presentation.  John Henry, KI4JPL & Glen Popiel, KW5GP provided some great information on Arduino, and how it was utilized to transform a Ten-Tec model 506 Rebel into a JT-64 machine.  Very cool.  The Arduino information is defiantly worth a second look. Buddipole  also presented information on some different Buddipole configurations.

During the forums I won a great door prize.  

80 Meter QRP Transceiver Kit - Model 1380

 Thank you to the guys at Ten-Tec for donating this sweet door prize.  It will be my first kit build!  I guess I need to brush up on my soldering skills!

Saturday night I headed out to Monte Sano for the evening events!

I ate some BBQ, mingled, and met some new friends.  

It was a fun night on the mountain.  After the festivities I set out in the dark and activated Monte Sano!  Afterwards I crept back to my campsite, and passed out in the back of my Jeep.  What a great weekend.  I didn't even spend too much.  Just purchased some 26g Wireman antenna wire to redo my SOTA antenna.  Pics in the future!

I would like to say thanks to Steve WG0AT, John W9FHA, Gary W0MNA, Martha W0ERI, and everyone else I had the privilege of meeting.  It was a great learning experience to meet such knowledgeable hams, and share their stories.  Also thank you Craig, NM4T, for putting together a great event on Monte Sano.

The Huntsville Hamfest was a great event.  I recommend it to anyone next year!