Whew, I just got back from a nice day at the SEA-PAC 2009 convention in Seaside, OR. Due to the *ahem*unstable*ahem* financial situation that I have recently found myself in due to the current economic conditions, I decided a few months ago that I would skip the show this year. However, things ended up changing, as they often do. Since I’m now working for Buddipole, I figured that it would be good to make an appearance, if for nothing more than getting in some time at the booth, soaking up the feeling of the chaos, and maybe trying to learn a thing or two. The deal was sealed when Chris, W6HFP called me last night to let me know that he had an extra exhibitor’s pass that I could use. Being a ham, thus cheap by nature, I jumped on the chance.

The morning started a bit late for me since I was busy doing some much-needed hibernation the night before. I ended up rolling into Seaside around 1030. Surprisingly, I didn’t have much trouble finding a parking space within a few blocks of the convention center. After a quick check-in at the Buddipole booth, I started off with a first walkthrough of the convention floor. As usual, the sheer mass of stuff, along with the throngs of hams smashed together in narrow aisles kept me too distracted from finding much that I wanted to buy. However, when I was about ready to quit my first pass through the show floor, I found it: my reason for being there. The thing that I knew made the trip worth it, regardless of whether I found any other good purchases. Sitting on a lonely swap table in the middle of the main floor was two first edition copies of Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur (SSDRA). For those of you who aren’t homebrewers and don’t listen to SolderSmoke, just know that SSDRA is a long out-of-print book that can command quite high prices on eBay and other reseller sites. These two copies carried a cover price of $7.00, but the seller had marked them down to $5.00! Immediately, I snagged both of them. However, I’m not quite as greedy as it might seem. I had loaned out my 3rd printing copy to W8NF, who hadn’t had access to one for years. Since I knew he needed one, I had to save one copy for him (coincidentally enough, he had brought along my loaner copy to return to me). I know that still puts me in that club of hoarders who have more than one copy, but I don’t really care! I’ve got two copies of EMRFD (1st edition and Revised 1st edition), so it feels right to have the first and third printing copies sitting on my shelf. Don’t hate me.

After that small bit of excitement (yes, I’m a geek to the core), I went back to the Buddipole booth for a stint in helping out. What I thought would be a fairly small amount of time behind the booth turned out to be about three hours during some fairly busy periods. I was at a pretty big disadvantage because I couldn’t remember the prices on most items, and I had to bug poor Chris numerous times to ask. However, I started to get more comfortable fielding questions as the afternoon wore on, especially regarding the technical side of things. The best part was getting people pumped up about our new A123 nanophosphate battery packs and chargers. A lot of folks were interested in these things. I also ran into a few people of note while manning the booth. First off, I got to meet Randy K7AGE when he stopped by the booth. He was a really nice guy and I got to tell him how much I appreciate his YouTube videos, especially the 6 meter stuff he recently released. A bit later, Dan KK7DS and his wife (Mrs. D-RATS, according to her t-shirt, LOL) stopped by. You may remember him from our January Eggs & Coffee, where he was kind enough to stop by to demo D-RATS. Dave W8NF, came to the booth to give me my copy of SSDRA, and I had the pleasure of surprising him with a copy of his very own.

Across the way from the Buddipole booth was a vendor selling ham radio-related t-shirts. I had to do a double-take at one point because I saw someone well-known to the locals browsing the wares across the way. Paul Linnman, who used to report for KATU and now broadcasts on radio station KEX, was right there, along with who I assume was his wife. He was there to give the evening banquet speech regarding the famous Oregon Exploding Whale story, which he covered as a newbie reporter back in the day. I pretty much expect media types to kind of look down their nose at us nerds, but Paul seemed genuinely interested and amused at the hamfest. Speaking of the t-shirt vendor, I spotted a shirt that I just had to pick up. I don’t normally go for the extremely nerdy fare that you find at these things, but if you check out the photo to the left, you’ll probably appreciate why I had to have this one. Of course, I got a ton of eye-rolling from Jennifer when I brought it home, but it’s not like I plan on wearing it out everywhere we go in public. Or maybe I will, just so she’ll be embarrassed to be seen with me.

Even with all of the cool stuff that I saw, the best was still to come. After my stint at the Buddipole booth, I had a bit of time to kill before the seminar I wanted to see. When I was wandering near the front doors of the convention center, I spotted the ham homebrewer #1 rockstar, Wes W7ZOI. I’ve communicated with Wes a few times via e-mail but I’ve never met the guy in person. I almost walked up to introduce myself to him, but chickened out, figuring the poor guy didn’t want to be ambushed by some unknown geek at the front door. So I continued browsing the tables to see if I could find anything else I couldn’t live without. As fortune would have it, I ended up right next to Wes once again on the mezzanine level right by the table full of old Tek junk. Since it appeared that the universe was giving me a second chance, I got up the nerve to walk up and introduce myself. Surprisingly to me, he actually recognized my name and mentioned that he had been hoping to meet me at some point, since I’m one of the few locals who is out there homebrewing and publishing my work on the Internet. To say I was flattered is a huge understatement. He also invited me over to visit his shack some day; asking why I hadn’t come over sooner. My reply was something along the lines of “I didn’t want to be a crazy stalker”…or maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but you get the gist of the message. Wes is a really nice guy, and it was truly an honor to finally meet him. When I do get over to his shack, you can bet I will get some photos and a write-up for you.

The end of the evening was a presentation on “Construction & Design Ideas” by Jeff WA7MLH. Jeff is a protege of Wes, and it showed in his really neat presentation. He brought along a PowerPoint deck showing off his shack and many of his homebrew rigs. He discussed strategies for acquiring parts cheaply at hamfests, techniques for repurposing used chassis,  design elements for receivers, transmitters, and transceivers, as well as a bunch of other random homebrewer wisdom. After an hour-and-a-half, he still wasn’t done with the first part of his presentation, but I had to go! Which was a bummer, because I really wanted to stick around for part two, which was about building crystal filters. Alas, real life had to intrude into my geek bliss, and I needed to return home.

This was the best time that I’ve had yet at any hamfest. Even though I’m a pretty shy guy, I got a lot of socializing in this time. I’ve come away really reinvigorated to get building more stuff, but unfortunately I don’t have much time for that right now. But that’s OK, because the fire is really burning once again. Thanks to everyone who I met at SEA-PAC this year, and a special thanks to Buddipole for giving me the opportunity to get reconnected with a lot of good ham radio stuff.