[Paul Stenning]

Well I have just arrived after a long and tiring, but thoroughly enjoyable day. I arrived at the hall at 6am and was manning one of the doors from 7am to 9am when the vendors were unloading.

I took a lot of photos of the event and telegraph display for the NVCF website, so they should appear in a few days (I'll post here when they are online).

Although telegraphy is not my area of interest, I joined Fons' last demonstration and explanation at 4pm and found it very interesting. I hope some of you found half an hour to attend one of those, as it was worthwhile.

Everyone who had taken the radios and other stuff I offered collected them. It would good to see most of you at my car at 12 noon, as it was helpful to do most of them in one go. Dave Moll received his IBM PC AT too.

The food was reasonable, though some parts of my breakfast (at around 9:15am) were not as hot as I would have liked. It was a lot better than a motorway services breakfast though - and after a 5am start it was very much needed!

The event itself seemed busier this year to me. At around 10:30 the queue for entry extended back to the car park. For the first hour or so of normal entry time the hall was very busy so some patience was needed, but everyone seemed good natured.

I didn't spend much money, but hadn't intended to (due to house move). I paid for and collected a Cossor FM alignment generator from Steve Harris that I had claimed from his magazine a few months ago. I also bought a pair of Bose 205 (I think) speakers for £20 - sold as working. These are intended for wall mounting and should be better than the little Acoustic Solutions ones with my workshop 80's hi-fi setup.

I met several forum members throughout the day, and it was good to see you all. Sorry to those of you I didn't recognise even though I met you last year - I am useless with names and not much better with faces....

All in all, a great day out, and I'm looking forward to next year.