[sdiy] Learning electronics now - was Real cause of DIY death

[KA4HJH]

>Quothe R J, from writings of Tue, Jul 19, 2005 at 05:57:40PM -0700:
>> Tom... you are correct... I am in Sunnyvale.  6AM though????
>> Really?  =)
>
>At some hamfests, things are very laid back and one can arrive early
>and walk around while people are setting up their tables... those
>hamfests, one wants to get to early.  The only time that I get up
>early enough to be somewhere by six o'clock in the morning is when I'm
>going to a hamfest.

Same here. I've bought stuff at 5:30 before with a flashlight in one hand.
Some of my best hamfest buys were well before 7:30.

By about noon I'm usually so punch-drunk from lack of sleep it's a good
thing someone else is driving. And that's when dealers start packing up to
leave and giving stuff away (cue the handtruck...)

>However, at some other hamfests, they don't allow
>non-sellers in until a specified time; meanwhile, people who are
>selling things at those hamfests, and those working for the
>organizations sponsoring those hamfests, get first pick and some of
>the best finds.  I won't forget having to stand still in a long line,
>until exactly eight o'clock in the morning, to get into one hamfest;
>that was the last time I went to a hamfest sponsored by that
>organization... never had to do that before.

This is something that I've seen change about some hamfests. They didn't
start out this way but that's how it is now. In one case they claimed that
the owner of the site demanded this change, yet they've been having it on
the same site for many years.


I once got a Geochron for $20. I didn't know what it was at that moment but
I knew I'd scored. It looked like something from off the wall at Mission
Control. Too bad refurbishing it costs hundreds--maybe I'll do it myself?

-- 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"