2016 Hamfest Finds!

Looking over the treasures I found at the 2016 Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club's Superfest hamfest. I didn't bring too much back with me, largely as a result of not having much money going spare. Though the crowd was larger than that of previous years, there also wasn't as much stuff around that I found interesting. There were plenty of computers to be had, but most of them were Pentium 4 systems and those I don't bother with any longer unless they're free or very close to.

(One computer that I did seriously consider buying was an Optiplex GX280 packaged in the later "Matrix" style BTX case. I didn't know Dell had repackaged that system in a BTX design.)

I hope you'll excuse my misidentifying the Smart-UPS 700 as a "1500". Mistakes happen when you're playing "beat the battery, mosquitoes and sunset".

Although I'm not a ham radio operator, I have some friends who are. They're the ones who introduced me to the concept of a hamfest, and this hamfest in particular. I've not missed a year since then. I'm quite content to simply listen to radio transmissions, and no license is required to do so. Nor do I have a good place for a "radio shack".

You need not be a ham radio operator to find interesting and useful things at a hamfest. There is plenty of stuff for anyone who is interested in electronics and computers.

I'm not sure what croaked in the FS200's power supply and Canon used a security Torx fastener to secure the case. All that's going to do, and in fact all that it did, was to slow me down and make me irritated.