Well I attended the radio rally, held by Swansea ARS today and was quite impressed especially considering the change of venue. I believe however a number of people were disappointed at the poor parking facilities. In fact one local amateur having driven around 20 miles to attend the rally and being unable to park, turned around and went home. Lets hope if this venue is used again the parking is better organised.
I think it is important to try and support local radio rallies, certainly they are not as numerous as they were in these days of web shopping and mail order.
I came away with what I needed- not much- a new logbook (I still keep a paper log), some rechargeable batteries and some antenna wire. I also had the opportunity to say hello to a few people who I know are licensed but I never hear on the air!
Its always best not to take a cheque book or credit card to rallies and to remember the difference between " I want" and "I need". In any case, on this occasion my wallet emerged reasonably unscathed! There was some interesting gear for sale including the vintage FR50B receiver pictured above but for now at least I won't be adding any additional equipment to the shack.
