Lobstercon 2006 Redux - KI6DS
Lobstercon is now history, and it was a marvelous time for me. Everything went very smooth from the beginning to the end. The weather was perfect, (Dan Puckett you have your work cut out for you next year at Dayton to improve or even match the weather at Lobstercon this year.)
We arrived on Thursday about 6 PM. Carl, Jim Cluett, Cy the LED guy and Dave Siegriest were there as the advance guard, and they were busy working on setting up antennas. We parked the trailer, unhooked and drove to Friendly’s Restaurant to have dinner with Vern and June Wright who had flown out for the event from Sacramento. Vern is the owner of W6MMA SuperAntennas and he had a version of his rotatable dipole up for demo for the entire weekend. It works quite well, as Vern was able to snag a HB9 on SSB on 20 meters.
Seabury Lyon, AA1MY, showed up with a new trailer, and without Sharon. She had to stay home and work, what a bummer. Sharon we missed you ... Keep practicing that guitar. I was going to trade you a guitar lesson for a kayak lesson. Maybe next year.
Steve Weber, KD1JV, was there and had a great donation to the prize pool. Steve built a ATS-3A with all the band modules and had me auction it off Saturday night. He autographed it and wrote that it was a special Lobstercon 2006 Edition. The rig brought $220 and Rex Harper outbid me for it. The money went to support Lobstercon. Steve also had a couple of prototypes for Hendricks QRP Kits, and I was tickled to see them. I will announce them when I get home in August, grin.
Charles and Nancy were there again from Maryland, but had trouble with their brand new car. Hope that they got it fixed ok. The Canadian contingent was well represented with Jeff, Mike, John, Suzanne, Laurey and his wife, Pat, and a couple of others I am probably missing. Jeff’s son, Ian, who is 2 ½ and I had a great time together. I miss my grandson, and Ian was a great sub for me. JoAnne managed to make sure that he had plenty of ice cream and animal crackers, grin.
Jim Fitton, Brian and Sara Riley, Dennis Marrandos, Jim Cluett, Jerry Terres, were all there from New England, Mike Kennedy, Dan Puckett, Mike Pechura, WA8BXN, both drove all the way from Ohio, and Bill was there with his flute.
And of course we can’t forget Bill Legge, NT1R, with his marvelous chef skills at cooking lobster. This year’s feast was truly that. The best lobster I have ever eaten!! Great job of cooking Bill.
Saturday at noon, Pacific Antennas and Hendricks QRP Kits were the hosts for a hamburger and hotdog barbecue lunch. We fed about 75 people, and everyone had plenty to eat.
After the luncheon. We sat up our qrp flea market on the picnic tables. Brian Riley had his FT817 power kits there and sold several. He is the guy to see for this product. Cy the LED guy had LED’s for sale of course, Graham was flogging his book and several other items from the G-QRP Club. I had ALT tuner kits, PCB Vises, plus some toroids for sale. Also, Steve Weber and I donated 50 DC40 Transceiver kits to all licensed hams who were in attendance and registered. Everyone thought that was a great idea and they were a big hit, grin.
One of the interesting people that I met was a lady named Ann who is in her mid forties or so. Her husband isn’t a ham, yet she became one a couple of years ago, now can copy over 20 wpm and has built 2 of Steve’s ATS-3 rigs!! Quite an amazing lady.
Saturday night we had lobster, and lobster, and more lobster. It was delicious. I ate 3 ½ of them and finally had to quit!! Thanks to Rex, John and all the guys who make it possible.
Sunday morning featured breakfast at Mae’s in Bath, and about 40 of us ventured over for a fantastic meal arranged by John Grow. It was fabulous.
We came back to the campground and pretty soon a very attractive young lady, Clarissa Staples, Miss Maine of 2006 came by to say hello to all of us. Wow were we shocked that such a beautiful young lady would take the time to be interested in a group of old men playing radio. She was delightful and several of us had our picture taken with her.
We stayed Sunday night along with Carl, the Heatheringtons, Charles and Nancy, John and Suzanne Grow. We all did our separate thing on Sunday afternoon, and had a potluck dnner on Sunday night. It was great. I must say that Ian Heatherington is a very, very well behaved young boy, and his parents are doing a great job raising him.
So, Lobstercon is over for another year. I loved it and will be back again next year. JoAnne really enjoyed herself this time too. She even drove a group of ladies over to LL Bean for a shopping trip Saturday afternoon!! My thanks to all who make lobstercon what it is. Thanks Rex, John, Suzanne, Brian, Sara, Bill Legge, and all the attendees who make it what it is. See you next year.
72, Doug Hendricks, KI6DS
