Hamfest features swap meet, demonstrations

The Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club, W6AJF, is holding its annual ARRL Hamfest from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 26, at the Sonoma Valley Veterans Memorial Building, 126 First St. W., Sonoma.

Admission is free for the hamfest, and “hams” and those interesting in amateur radio are encouraged to bring the entire family. Raffle tickets will be distributed at no cost to each person registering, with door prize drawings held every half hour.

The event will include a walk-in volunteer examiner exam session with registration starting at 9 a.m. with testing for all license elements immediately following.

For those people looking for an electronics bargain, there will be a radio and electronics swap meet with both indoor and outdoor spaces available and mounds of electronics goodies for sale. Sellers can start setting up at 7 a.m. with spaces renting for $10. Space will be made available at no charge for amateur radio organizations or other public service agencies for informational tables and displays.

The club will serve a full breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m., including eggs, sausage, all-you-can-eat pancakes, juice and coffee or tea for $7. Ongoing demonstrations will include an operating low power QRP station, phone and digital radio stations, emergency communications vehicles from several local public safety agencies, a display of homebuilt equipment, the club swap table and a beginner’s D.F., or direction finding, transmitter hunt. Guest operators are welcome to sit in and make a few contacts during the morning. There will be PSK-31, APRS and other digital mode demonstrations ongoing during the hamfest.

This year the event is expanding to include another aspect of the hobby, FPV, or First Person View, radio control aircraft flying. A demonstration table will be set up during the morning with quad-copters and radio controlled aircraft carrying video cameras transmitting on amateur radio frequencies. Observers on the ground will get an in-aircraft view of Sonoma as the aircraft fly over the event site continuously transmitting real-time video back to the ground. With all the interest in drones, this is the chance to learn how anyone can fly a video camera equipped aircraft with only a ham radio license.

For details, see the club’s website at vomarc.org/ and click on the “Events” link. Talk-in will be on 145.35, -600, with a PL of 88.5.