Our Annual Pilgrimage to Orlando

I guess I shouldn't call it an annual pilgrimage since it wasn't held last year; but that was because of 'rona, like 99% of everything else cancelled last year.  This weekend is the annual Orlando hamfest.  It was our 40th annual visit to the hamfest, and like every year since I retired, we went over today rather than the most crowded day (Saturdays).  It has been cool here, but warmed into the mid '70s as the day went by; I wore a short-sleeved fishing shirt and was comfortable all day.  By the time the temperature got into that "the sun is not your friend" range, clouds came along and kept it comfortable.

As I've said before the Orlando HamCation (real name) is now commonly referred to as the second largest in the world only behind Dayton's Hamvention (which is only Dayton in name - it's held in Xenia, Ohio).  Dayton tends to be the one where major products are announced.  Dayton, though, was cancelled both in '21 and '20, so while they're expecting to hold the Hamvention this year, they're out of practice. 

We were out of practice, too.  The last time we went to Orlando, we bought our tickets by mail.  In the past, we'd get an email that the show was coming and the way to get tickets was to send an SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) and a check.  We'd send it around the Christmas-New Year's week and the tickets would be here within two weeks.  This year, we went looking for the email around Christmas and it wasn't there.  A check of the website showed that there was a new procedure.  We had to order the tickets online and pick them up at a special office at the east end of the property where the 'fest was held.

I admit to being uncomfortable with the routine, but it went well.  Parking is always packed at the HamCation and we were directed to a place just about as far from that office we needed to get to as one could be and still be on the property.  Thankfully, they had guys with oversized golf carts giving people lifts everywhere and one of them gave us a lift to that office.  They had our tickets and everything went without a hitch.  

Think of this as a stock photo, except I took it a few years ago. That's the north room of the Central Florida Fairgrounds where most of the smaller businesses and individuals rent tables, and the most obvious feature is the table full of used laptops.  The tables full of used laptops were back (although in different places). 

As I've said about other years, these are turning into uninteresting things, and that's a bit sad to say.   I rush to add that my interests in radio tend toward the unconventional, so it's not really surprising that I'd find the same 40 or 50 (or more) year old radios that I see every year not particularly interesting.  If you have a shopping list of things you need, they can be great places to get that special part.  

I did pick up one thing; there's a rather popular piece of test equipment called a NanoVNA**, a clever way of making a Vector Network Analyzer at previously impossibly low prices.  A VNA was always pretty much the most essential piece of test equipment I worked with since the first time I saw one, in about '86.  I've mentioned many times before that I frequently use an antenna analyzer for working on my antennas.  There are two issues with the one I have, neither of which has been insurmountable but were leading me to think of alternatives.  First is that my analyzer is obsolete and no longer available. Software updates have continued for it, but chances are pretty good that if anything happens to it, it's irreplaceable.  Second is that it only goes to the 2 meter ham band (well slightly higher - 160 MHz, I think).  An antenna analyzer is a one-port VNA; the NanoVNA is a two-port which means you can align or test filters or other circuits with an input and output connector.  Oh, and it's rated to around 10 times the frequency of the one port.  At the moment, the new NanoVNA overcomes both drawbacks of my AIM4170 and looks like a good path forward.

Other than that little purchase, running into friends and catching up with people whom we see yearly or less often ends up being what the hamfest is mostly about.  

02-23-22 at 1115 AM EST Edit to add this:

**  A comment from AndrewG says that the asterisked link is not official, and the official website is here at NanoVNA V2 Official Site.  I will note that the analyzer I bought does not look exactly like either VNA published on that second site, the connector position is very different, so I don't even know if it applies to what I bought.  Mine looks like the one on the site originally published above. 

Since I have nothing to conclusively show me that one site is more official than the other, I've added AndrewG's link here.  This may be relevant only to NanoVNAs claiming to be Version 2 (V2), which mine doesn't claim to be.  As always, and doubly always when dealing with Chinese clones, "caveat emptor" - buyer beware.