As in the last three years I volunteered to help man the Elecraft Booth, but this year there was a change as Eric WA6HHQ and wife would not be attending, but I would get to work with Lisa, who I had spoken to a lot while placing orders over the phone, Dave and Bob K6XX who I had spoken to but never met.
The trade show exhibitors this year started earlier at 0800 and officially closed at 1800, making a long day. Lots of questions, the most popular being "When can i get the KXPA100 100W PA for the KX3" , which was on display. The other new Elecraft item for me was the K3/0 mini, which is a remote front panel for remoting the K3 in a just sufficient box; you wont need to carry a full size k3 box in future. Bob was remoting his HF station in California using one, which worked as well as the Plano conference centre's wired internet would allow (horrible latency/reliability). The ISDR app for the Ipad to produce a panadaptor display (demonstrated by Eric at last years Hamcom) for the KX3 also generated a lot of interest, but a lot wanted an Android app!
I did see a useful aftermarket product for the KX3 which was an extended pair of sidepanels and a perspex cover to protect the front panel knobs on the KX3. http://gemsproducts.com/covers.html So useful i ordered a set Sunday morning
The outside flea market wasnt too exciting, but i did get a GPS board with CDMA modem assembly for $1. The Inside Fleamarket produced a couple of the HP 12V 47A PSU (like i used to power my 100W 3400MHz PA) for $20 each and a Flexible solar panel. I also discovered that Buddipole now have a "knurled whip sleeve" to put over the telescopic whips with the 1/4-20 thread (as I use on my PAC-12 HF antenna) to stop the whip assembly wobbling in its ferrule, so I ordered a few
I did get to meet John Langridge. KB5NJD who also operates on LF as WG2XIQ, a station i hear often on 474.2kHz. Unfortunately I could not get to his talk, but I did persuade him to email me his Powerpoint which made for interesting reading.
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