The Shelby Hamfest is back

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The Shelby Star reports that after five years of being held in Dallas, N.C., the amateur radio festival will return to the Cleveland County Fairgrounds during Labor Day weekend.

“We are just tickled pink,” said Cleveland County Fairgrounds Manager Calvin Hastings. “We are very excited about it returning to the county for the community. People come from all over the United States and will bring in a lot of revenue to the county.”

The Hamfest is the oldest and one of the largest gathering of amateur radio operators in the United States, O. Max Gardner III, legal representative of the Cleveland County Fair, wrote on The Star's Facebook page.

“We are just tickled pink”
— Calvin Hastings, Cleveland County Fairground Manager

“I can confirm that the Fair has signed an agreement with this group to return the event to Cleveland County during the Labor Day weekend for 2013 and thereafter,” Gardner wrote.

“The Fair is grateful for the confidence the group has shown by agreeing to return. The annual Hamfest will bring thousands of consumers to Clevland County and will have a major economic impact.”

Read the full Shelby Star report - http://www.shelbystar.com/news/hamfest-comes-home-1.76544

Qatar to host Ham Radio Festival

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Qatar will host an international festival for radio amateurs in Doha to coincide with the National Day festivities.

It is believed the event will take place on 18 December 2012.

Read the story in the Gulf Times - http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=537396&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Qatar Amateur Radio Society (QARS) - http://www.qsl.net/a71a/

Spring VHF-UHF Field Day

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It's springtime in Australia, and 24-25 November 2012 is the time for the Spring VHF-UHF Field Day.

The VHF-UHF Field Days provide VHF-UHF operators with the opportunity to "head for the hills" and see how far they can work.

The Field Days have separate sections for single and multiple operator stations. The duration of the Field Day is 24 hours, but there are also 8 hour sections for operators who may not be able to camp overnight.

Most club stations prefer to operate for the full 24 hours.

The Field Days also generate plenty of activity from home stations, so there is also a separate Home Station section.

The scoring is based on grid locator squares. Each new square worked gives quite a boost to the score, and this encourages the entrants to operate from locations in grid squares that normally don't have a great amount of amateur activity.

There are no mode restrictions, except that all contacts must be simplex<br />so contacts through repeaters or satellites are not allowed.

It is possible to do very well with only modest antennas if you pick a good hilltop. Another option, if your station is easily transportable, is to operate from more than one grid square during the contest period.

The overriding aim is to get away for the weekend and have fun!

But next after that, the aims are:

  • to encourage more activity on VHF and microwave bands;
  • to encourage people to work greater distances than usual by operating portable and to provide opportunities for people to activate or work into new grid squares.