Pacificon 2019

I recently attended the Pacificon Hamfest in San Ramon, and I wanted to share with you a few photos from that event. The sponsoring organization, the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club is a very active club, with activities that include an active ATV Net along with voice nets on their repeaters, and even a member that enjoys what he calls “Parachute Portable” Operation – as seen in a recent QST Magazine.

Pacificon is a good-sized event, with great participation from both industry manufacturers and seminars from subject matter experts. On the first day of the event, they host an Antenna Seminar, with a wide-selection of topics of general interest. I was most interested in the Minimal EME Station and Slot Antenna presentations, but all the presenters were interesting and informative.

As I often do, I offered to volunteer to assist the organizers (when I’m lucky enough to attend Dayton Hamvention I volunteer for a few hours, typically driving attendees to their cars in golf carts) and was asked to work “security” for a couple hours. I was glad to do it, and had a fine time walking the floor helping keep an eye on things. I highly recommend volunteering if you ever have the opportunity – my shift was late afternoon on Saturday, 2:00 – 4:00 PM, so I was able to jump on any bargains when the event opened up Saturday.

Below are some pictures, hopefully you’ll get the opportunity to attend this well-run hamfest.

These hallway tables were for non-profits and area clubs
Well-stocked kit-building area, typical blinky-light or code practice oscillator kits
Flex Radio and Expert Amplifiers were in attendence
Elecraft Radio and Elk Antennas
Spot the YouTube Celebrity, Randy, K7AGE
Let’s play a game called “Where’s Ray Novak” – one hint, he’s not facing the camera!
Tubes, glorious tubes!
Loose tubes of unknown condition, for aesthetic purposes (every shack needs some tubes!)
There were several retailers of odds-and-ends in the swap meet area
The MDARC Comm Van, note the 23cm beams, used for remote ATV links
There was something for every budget!
What shack is complete without at least one Astatic D-104 microphone?
Most vendors stayed on the show floor all three days, but a few left after Saturday

Well, I hope that gives you a glimpse into Pacificon 2019.

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