National Hamfest

[G6Tanuki]

Personally, I think rallies should open later and close later.

If I need to get to a rally for 10:00 and it's an hour drive away, that means I have to get up at 06:00 so there's time for ablutions, breakfast and a couple of hours of dog walking before I set off to the rally.

An event more than an hour or so away means an overnight stay at the nearest Premier Inn or Travelodge to the venue.

A later start also gives more time for the traders to set up their stands/gazebos etc, not sure what happens at single day events but in the past when I was an exhibitor at trade events we set up the stuff in the hall the day beforehand then spent the evening down the pub with the other exhibitors. Of course that's not going to be an option for the small seller on an outdoor pitch with a couple of wallpaper tables.

Another consideration is always the weather. I suspect that quite a few potential visitors will look at the forecast late the night before the event and decide to skip it if there's rain forecast. A possible way to persuade these people to come along even if the forecast is poor would be online advance ticket sales. Having already paid upfront, and with the QR code sitting on your phone so you can get into the venue quickly, is likely to encourage you to attend even if the forecast is bad. Maybe also offering 'specials' - £15 in advance gets you admission to the event, a "Builder's Breakfast" sossidge-bacon-and-egg roll and a mug of coffee or tea.

There are always innovative ways to boost attendance.

[ortek_service]

Yes, I think Rallies have now got earlier starts - certainly earlier finishes.
And having to get up and out too-early on a Sunday, doesn't always seem that right
(Although at least if travelling << 10am, then can mostly-avoid much traffic from the Sunday-Shoppers etc).

As many rallies haven't lots of space / tables, so these can sell-out, then most of these will probably require pre-booking for sellers
- So these can't always have sellers decide to just turn-up on a whim, if weather is looking to be OK, like with Car Boot sales (Although many of those get cancelled at short-notice if forecast is looking bad the day before).

The weather hasn't really deterred me from going to any, as it can often be rather-different from that currently at home, some distance / time away.

The National Hamfest does actually give visitors an advance online eTicket ticket discount
- But only £1 less (=£7), until the date of the event / £2 less (=£6) of bought back in July.
I hadn't known they were doing this (I seem to recall they'd previously stopped giving n online discount) until when I looked the day before
- So bought one then, to save needing to take even-more cash (as they probably weren't able to take card payment on the gate).

[CambridgeWorks]

The Centre of England rally introduced a policy of traders not packing up until I think 1600. So as to give the half dozen or so extra visitors opportunity to look around, having arrived say 1400 and paying full admission.
It definitely was not popular with sellers. Many had set off maybe 0500 -0600 and the rally visitors used to start to leave around 1200 onwrds. By 1400 maybe just a quarter (if that) of visitors were looking around. By 1500 maybe just a few dozen.
This was the only time I recall that greatly disliked (by all traders) policy being enforced.

These days the (smaller) rallies/car boot style that I visit have a seller admission time (often buyers as well) stated as from around 0700 (amazing how many arrive and are already setting up even at that hour!) and the rallies can be dead or dying fast by soon after 1200.
In fact, Kings Lynn, we left soon after 1230 as very few visitors remained. Those that were there were just socialising.

Regarding the weather, that is a big problem at such outdoor events.
This summer I didn't visit Barford or Bury St Edmunds rallies due to a rain forecast.
As I only visit about 5 maybe 6 rallies a year, that was a big chunk out of my clearance opportunities.

Catering is complicated for small events.
Maybe 20 years ago Spalding club did refreshments and bacon butties at a small local hall venue used for our junk sales. This involved 3 of the wives getting a qualification and food hygiene certificate, paid for by the club.
As time moved on and often the amounts of uncooked food not needed and then selling it at cost or usually less, this ceased.
It did add a little to club funds though if well supported, and it usually was.

These days it is a burger/tea van turns up and we are usually lucky with even that attending I imagine.
With a junk sale attendance of maybe just 40 or often a lot less in total (on a reasonable day) I am often wondering whether the caterer will continue for such a small number of sales, that is assuming everyone even uses it? They don't though! I don't either as I just drink a small bottle of tap water and having had a cereal breakfast can wait until I am home when it ends, usually around 1230-1300.
I can only assume the caterer would not pay the club anything for providing this service?
However, I imagine much larger events will charge a caterer to have exclusive rights on site.

It is all down to finance in the end and what people are prepared to pay.
With small club type events, many visitors and sellers want to pay as little as possible to attend.

Rob

[G6Tanuki]

Another suggestion: a rally could offer a Calibration Clinic.

Bring along your old AVOs and for £25 put them up against reliably standards-traceable voltage and current challenges.

Built a kit or homebrew radio - let's look at optimising the carrier rejection in the balanced modulator or minimising IMD/spurii in that linear amplifier.

£25, great value because not many hams can afford to house and calibrate a SWOB or Mr. Anritsu's analytical gear.

[CambridgeWorks]

Years ago, Didn't the RSGB offer some sort of testing, but provided by hobbyists at a convention or similar? Such as noise figure of preamps maybe istr?
I imagine few would know what a calibration standard might REALLY be used for these days in amateur radio terms.
Rob

[ortek_service]

Well the BVWS RetroTech (Prev. NVCF) had a (H&S policy) no-trolleys allowed until 4pm end. So very few sellers were able to leave early.
But it could take many hours to have a proper look around, and it doesn't open until 10am (Unless you pay a lot more for early-admission), so can still be a reasonable number of buyers there until not long before then.

Plus the BVWS events (like some rallies in the fast) have often had lots of stuff being given away / for much-reduced clearance prices shortly before the end, so I'm normally one of the last few to leave.

I know some used to head straight-to the Burger van, before even visiting any equipment sellers!
But I've always eaten at home first so never needed these.
Although I think some rallies like Harwell (now cancelled) etc. did have on-site facilities with quite reasonably-priced food & drink (even publishing a full price-list in the leaflet).
And BVWS Swapmeet at Biggleswade also appears to offer this (as did RetroTech).

But a Burger van etc. is probably not economic at the smallest village Hall ones. I did see one at St Neots (Ramsey) as well as there also being one at Dunstable. Plus I think Princethorpe, but Milton Keynes rally new-site is probably now too-small (with fewer traders and all over by just after midday this year) to have one.
I can't remember if the new McMichael (Reading) venue had one this year, but as it was about the hottest day of the year an Ice Cream van was probably more-appropriate!
Sometimes too-hot rather than too-wet weather can make people stay away / decide to go elsewhere!


Doing full-calibration services may be rather involved (there are companies that will come to you with a large-lorry to do on-site calibration for companies that don't want to send their equipment away - at a price!).
But how accurate do you really need an AVO to be / there probably aren't too many adjustments in these that drift and need re-adjustment.
Multimeters tend to either work, or a range-resistor gets burnt-out.
So it's probably cheaper to just buy a cheap < £2 DMM (which should normally be better than 1% accurate) and compare / adjust to read the same.
Similar with adjusting frequency counter references, where having your own GPS-DO is probably more economic and useful (In the 80's I used to connect mine to a Colour TV Receiver sub-carrier osc., that was locked to a TV transmission (that itself was locked to traceable standards) and adjust for correct readout.
More recent equipment tends to be low drift / have temperature compensated low-aging references, so does really need that frequent re-calibration (especially if only for home use, and not in a commercial test environment).

The RSGB stand did have a 'Buildathon' event - Which (having only read the show Guide), was where you could build a free FM receiver kit I hadn't known they were doing.
And there were many Test Equipment dealers there, with instruments powered.
- So I guess there were facilities where you could maybe test something as part of a free equipment demo?

However, there was a company (Tetra Comms?) who were offering a valve testing service (£1 a valve?). And I think some club stands may have also offered a (free?) service to test any rig you'd bought.

Several rallies also offer a free raffle, but I usually don't notice there's one in the programme-leaflet, unless they announce it in advance a short-while before they start the draw!
And that may encourage buyers to stick around (Although it tended to signify the end of the McMichael rally, at 1pm, as soon as the prizes had been given, with a bit of a mass exodus / pack-up straight afterwards).

This year's National Hamfest did have (two? each day) raffle-draws - I only discovered the later one, when everyone crowded around the (Moonraker?) stall. I presumed I had missed the entry-form in the show guide, but looking later at this I couldn't see one
- So I guess you had to buy a raffle ticket there for this?

[Sean Williams]

Makerfaire in Hannover has PTB attending, where they bring a reasonable array of test and calibration equipment, and will check most things against calibrated standards.

Obviously they wont be doing a full calibration, but you get a sheet filled in at least telling you any errors.

And, best of all..... It's totally free of charge!


The Microwave Round Table events used to offer assistance with testing equiment, some of which was very exotic.

I do think more of an effort needs to be made to attract more visitors to the one National show we now have, sadly, I do not think this is a priority for the organisiers.

I had a demonstration display at Newark a few years back, and by the time I had paid for the table,electricity, camping on site and covered the cost of fuel, the event cost me in excess of £300. I wasn't even selling anything!

Special interest groups and demonstrations help make an event more than just a place to buy or shift equipment. Perhaps this is somehing that would attract more visitors?

[ortek_service]

Originally Posted by Sean Williams

>>

I had a demonstration display at Newark a few years back, and by the time I had paid for the table,electricity, camping on site and covered the cost of fuel, the event cost me in excess of £300. I wasn't even selling anything!

Special interest groups and demonstrations help make an event more than just a place to buy or shift equipment. Perhaps this is somehing that would attract more visitors?

Well the National Hamfest does have a couple of rectangular blocks of tables areas at the end that are marked as Clubs, Societies, Special Interest - So I had assumed these (along with power, if required) would be provided free when most of these aren't selling / the Clubs are providing volunteers to help run the event.

When I've exhibited at Retro-Computing events, then none of the exhibitors are usually charged (although most aren't selling anything) - just get free admission (although not often much time to look around the rest of it!).
But these are generally held at computer / technology Museums that are getting an increase in income from the visitors (sometimes being sold-out, and need to pre-book a ticket to visit). And I'd probably have been going for one-day anyway, as a visitor if not exhibiting so only a bit extra transport cost (was cheaper for me to drive back home, than even the most budget hotels + parking).

[Sean Williams]

That was my thinking as well, though, even with discussion with the organisers, there are no free display tables offered.

I think maybe if you are an affiliated national society than it may be different.

Certainly at Ham Radio Friedrichschafen, and Makerfaire we are not charged for exhibition space.