Another Timonium hamfest has come and gone.
Buyer turnout seemed pretty good, vendor turnout was slightly thinner than last year, although there seems to have been more tailgating than years past. Most likely due to better weather. I didn’t see too many capital expenses being made although I heard someone talking on the local repeater net saying he sold an entire silent key’s vintage Collins station. Laurie got a chance to use her new HT, which I was sure she really enjoyed keeping up with everyone. No large purchases this year, simple odds and ends and new antennas for our HT’s, but we got a chance to meet up with the 1900 guys from as far out as Pittsburgh and South NJ. Overall another successful hamfest! Can’t wait till next year!

View at Picasa The 1900 Group. Timonium Hamfest 2011

View at Picasa Laurie and I. 2011 Timonium Hamfest.

The following day, Laurie and I made some adjustments to our 2 meter stack by adding a tilt-over base which allowed me to change the polarity on the cubical quad. Now I can get into N2KEJ’s repeater in South Jersey.

View at Picasa Make shift tilt-over for aluminum military mastNIKON COOLPIX L100 , 4.7, 19.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 211

View at Picasa Cubex 2m Cubical Quad and Diamond CP22E verticalNIKON COOLPIX L100 , 4.3, 12.2mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80

Last night while on the 1900 Net, I heard that it was possible to run the Icom 746 with separate transmit and receive antennas. According to Sky’s Daughter’s FAQ it was possible to do this running split, setting VFO-A on Antenna 1 and VFO-B on Antenna 2. Unfortunately I have been unable to make the Antenna selection follow the VFO but I’m going to keep trying to figure it out. Links available below:

Sky’s Daughters 746 FAQ PDF Link
My local link to the 746 FAQ PDF