Last Sunday was the Portage Hamfair in Randolph Ohio. This is over an hour and a half drive for me and, while not the most distant hamfest I have ever been to, it is also far enough that I don't go every year. The Portage Hamfair is at the Portage Ohio County Fairgrounds which is a perfect facility for a hamfest. It has ample indoor table space where you can drive right up to your table to load and upload. The flea market space available is well-arranged and close to the indoor tables so you don't end up walking all day to cover the whole hamfest. The price of spaces and tickets is reasonable--two spaces and two tickets totaled $22. I didn't have any of the food but 2 years ago it was above average for hamfest food. Only about 50% of the indoor tables sold but the flea market had a good turnout. The day was sunny, hot and ridiculously humid. As a rough guess, I'd say there were 45-50 vendors and 250-350 attendees.
I brought more of my junk and sold another $150 or so worth of it. Sam Hevener was there and bought some of my weird military bits and pieces. I bought a Valiant with a parts rig for $200. I picked up 2 Hickok 209A VTVMs in fair shape for $5 each--I'm going to make one good one out of the two for my growing VTVM collection. I also got some small stuff--knobs, a box of microphone parts and a Radio Handbook 19th edition (1972) that was one of the editions I was missing. Stuff I saw: Johnson Ranger $165 sold Hammarlund HQ-180 $150 sold Hallicrafters S-40 unsold National HRO-50 in rough shape with 1 coil: $225 unsold National NC-57 sold didn't get price Hallicrafters SX-100 sold didn't get price Swan 250 with 117xc $125 sold National NC-125 with speaker $115 sold Heathkit SB-401/301 pair unsold didn't get price Hunter Bandit amplifier $200 sold Drake TR-4/MS-4/AC-4/DC-4/VFO $375 unsold Drake TC-2, TC-6, SC-2 (or whatever that receive converter console is) $600 for the set unsold Various Heathkit CW monobanders some sold some didn't--didn't get prices Various Hallicrafters speakers $25-$50 each. Some sold, some didn't There was lots of old Eico and off-brand test gear going begging. There was the usual collection of Kenwood this and Icom that but I didn't bother looking at them. One guy showed up with a lot of great old display tubes including a huge magnetron but he wanted your first-born for them. Lots of computers, tag makers, hat embroiderers, etc. I assume that that stuff sells but I didn't see anybody carrying any of it off. And that's the full report. It was a good hamfest and I'll try to go back next year, GLWATCDR. 73, Don Merz, N3RHT
