Radio Rally

I took a trip down to the West of England Radio Rally today held at Frome in Somerset. This is one of the few remaining rallies that are within reasonable travelling distance for me. The event looked to be fairly well attended  with exhibitors both inside the main hall and outside in the open air, luckily the weather was dry!
The rally was perhaps a little unusual in that there was no talk in station nor was there a bring and buy stand.
A useful rally for picking up those bits and pieces we all need. I emerged with a reel of Coax cable and a book.

The rally venue "The cheese and Grain Centre" at Frome

Inside the hall

Some exhibitors outside

Radio Rallies

I attended my first radio rally of 2011 today. Held by the Swansea Amateur Radio Society at the Neath Sports centre.
This is not a particularly large rally but it seemed well attended and it was nice to meet up with some friends old and new. One of the highlights for me was meeting fellow blogger and local CW partner MW0IAN, Ian.
I came away from the rally with a few small items-a couple of BNC plugs, a dipole centre piece and some 300ohm feeder (I am thinking of making an HF doublet).
The next rally for me may be at the end of June (west of England Rally), these radio events are quite thin on the ground now, when I started in the hobby it seemed like there was a rally almost every other week!

Last rally this year

This morning despite suffering with the start of symptoms for a nasty cold I headed off to the Blackwood and District ARS rally at Coleg Gwent, Crosskeys about 45 minutes drive from here. I wasn't looking for anything particular at the rally, other than some coax cable, connectors and fuses, all of which I found. I also purchased these books from the RSGB stall which looked interesting

  I have only had time to have a quick scan through these books but I notice that "Stealth Antennas"  has a case study featuring the antennas of a certain G4ILO!

Way out West

Today I attended the West of England Radio Rally held at Frome, Somerset. This is not exactly a local rally as it involves a round trip of around 160 miles (250 Kms) but once you get of the motorway it is actually a very scenic journey particularly with the lovely weather we are enjoying at the moment. Leaving home at around 8am, I arrived at the rally at around 940,  in plenty of time for the opening at 1000. At that stage there was already a queue of fifty or more waiting to go in.
The rally itself is relatively small, with the major traders in a main hall under cover and other traders in a car park area at the side of the building. There were a few "main dealers" there but in the main the traders were mainly selling components, antennas and accessories and various second hand items.
I had a successful visit as I managed to get what I was looking for- a boot mount for an HF mobile whip  and a 20 metre whip. There were a number of items that I would have liked if funds allowed but they didn't. There was a good selection of portable antennas, masts and fibreglass poles as well as some interesting second hand HF gear.
Sadly as with almost all radio rallies there were the usual few unwashed bodies, the stench from which would clear a room in 30 seconds! I am not sure why this seems to affect radio rallies so much, perhaps the people concerned wish to clear others away from the traders stands to get a better view! It must be said that today those people were in the minority, I have experienced much worse. Why people cannot have a quick shower and change of clothes before leaving home is a mystery, an unanswered question in the same league as- 'if so much CB equipment is advertised on Ebay, why is nobody on 27mhz?'
Anyway a good day, with a pleasant journey and I even got back in time to see the England v Germany world cup game- but now I rather wish I hadn't!

Radio Rally time again

Tomorrow I will be attending one of the few local radio rallies that are held these days. This one is at Neath, it should have been at a sports centre in nearby Port Talbot (The Afan Lido- pictured above) but sadly that venue was destroyed by fire earlier this year. The new venue was a last minute arrangement so it will be interesting to see what the new site will be like.
One I first became interested in Amateur Radio it seemed like there were radio rallies to attend almost every week. That's not the case today and those that are left are generally smaller events. Still it is nice to catch up with familiar faces and obtain those bits and pieces needed for the shack.Myself I am not intending to purchase much, but I do need a new logbook and some plugs and connectors.
The higher bands continue to prove interesting and most of my recent PSK activity has been either on 21 or 18 Mhz. I have heard a limited amount on 24Mhz, but as yet nothing on 10 metres. When I have had the opportunity to listen in the daytime I have also noticed that 40 metres seems very lively with stations from the UK and Europe boomimg in.