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Boost Hamfest Frequency, Attendance, & Offerings

I wrote about this on one of the Amateur (ham) Radio forums probably over a dozen years ago. I came up with the idea after attending several small hamfests with a dismally small number of tables. I'm talking about four or five tables. While the number of tables was small, the number of people coming through the door was quite large. What if everyone coming through the door could bring a radio item to sell, and they could place it on a "community table" at little or no cost? If not free, I'm thinking a maximum of $1.

The person leaving the item would tag it with their name, call sign, and any important information deemed relevant. The community tables would monitored by members of the club hosting the hamfest. Those members would be in radio contact with the member at the public address microphone. The owners of the items would be required to stay in the area to respond if paged to the table.

These are the broad strokes. Clubs can fine-tune the idea to make it work for them. If your club is thinking about hosting a hamfest, but you think the population of the surrounding area is too low, give this idea a try. You'll have to figure out how to get the word out, or people will show up empty-handed.

WF5TX