"Ken Finney" wrote in message
...
The Puyallup hamfest was this past weekend (biggest hamfest in Washington
State). For the second year in a row, it seemed about the same size as
the year before. In previous years, it was shrinking about 20% a year or
more. Lots of boat anchors and other stuff that is expensive to ship, the
lighter stuff seems to all be going to Ebay. Impressions:

1. There is only one store in attendance (HRO), and they were doing a lot
of business. Other stores should consider coming as well. I guess the
last "local" ham store has gone under, they weren't there.

2. A couple of ham related from previous years organizations weren't
there.

3. Most of the heavy smokers from 20 years ago, who were pushing their
oxygen carts around 10 years ago, aren't there anymore.

4. A lot of people were looking for newer stuff. Some "new technology"
vendors could make a killing. The first that comes to my mind is MPEG FTA
satellite TV. If someone had set up a demo outside, when would have been
sold out. There needed to be seminars like there was in the past. ICOM
is local, and while they had their normal nice booth, should have a D-Star
traveling road show.

5. The crowd lines up about an hour before the opening, the line winds
back and forth, and when the doors open, there is a mad rush from
different parts of the line. They really need to set up "velvet ropes" to
organize the line; one person saying "please stay in line" doesn't cut it.

6. The snack bar needs to improve. People are often travelling several
hours to attend and probably leaving early because they are hungry. They
probably should be selling coffee and doughnuts to the people in line
before the opening.

7. The "talkin" repeater was pretty quiet. I think this is a bad sign
for future growth in ham radio.






And, they had sold out of the good silver coax ends by the time I got around
to that vendor