June 4th, – Manassas Hamfest. A beautiful sunrise. No humidity. The temperature just right for a spring day.
OVH volunteers started arriving around 5 AM. Our doors opened at 6 AM for the vendors & general admission was 30 minutes later. After a 2 year hiatus, we were ready.
Boy, were we ready. OVH members came out in droves to support us. What a tremendous amount of support. And this didn’t happen by accident. As usual, Theresa, KG4TVM, was the Head Talent Wrangler, the Chief Cajoler in Charge. After weeks of prompting, all of her efforts were paid back in spades. A veritable army of volunteers.
Dr. Bob Heil was to be our featured speaker. However, due to the load on the Manassas Park Community Center’s wi-fi infrastucture by the other parties present, we did not have enough bandwidth. The OVH had sent down previously, two teams of two members each to the Community Center on separate days to test their wi-fi setup. Those tests passed on both days. As President, & also one of those team members, I will take the hit on this one. Mea Culpa. Nonetheless, lesson learned. If & when the OVH does do another remote presentation, regardless of software package, we will have a wireless hotspot in place.
But, a perspective – his was one of four presentations, the other three of which went flawlessly.
Karl Berger and Jack Smith both had groups following them out the door to continue discussions.
If you didn’t already know, Jack Smith, KE4LWT, is our ARRL Section Chief.
And the Virginia QSO Party had its usual standing room only crowd. A big thank you to the Virginia QSO Party team for joining us at Manassas Hamfest. Once again, an outstanding presentation to a packed house.
Table sales were good. We had 35 assigned tables. Additionally, we had approximately 300 tickets for general admission & we had about 60 tailgaters, some taking up multiple slots.
The Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club (SVARC) was assigned to be the VEs for our Hamfest. It certainly was a long enough drive for them, even in the ideal weather that day. Another thank you to them for being instrumental in helping the Ole Virginia Hams in bringing new hams into The Hobby.
In closing, I’d like to thank everyone that came out to lend a hand with our 48th Hamfest last Saturday.
I am overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from our members. Especially so, in such a challenging environment as we find ourselves today. Job well done. All of our teams came together as one and executed well. Very well.
I’d like to publicly recognize our ticket sales team, as well as the kitchen, parking, and door monitoring teams.
I’d also like to acknowledge our vendors & tailgaters, who were both efficient and professional.
We made a fair amount of money which will greatly help our operations for the upcoming year.
Once again you all did a great job and made it fun!
To see all of the great pictures from George, K4GVT; Pinky, KN4ZLY & Theresa, KG4TVM, please follow the link:
OVH Hamfest 2022 (k4gvt.com)
With gratitude,
73,
Ken
KN4DD