The Wakefield Rally

I asked a few fellow hams if they were going to attend this rally , those were Craig 2E0RIZ,Barry M6SBO,Wolfie M6FZR and Craig 2E0CSD, Craig had to back out at the last minute but we were fine  for going. Most of the hams I talked to said that they were waiting until the Blackpool rally in april,one of them said  "no I cant make it sorry " that was Kevin M0XLT who turned up anyway. Nice to see you Kevin.This man has one of the most recognisable voices in the Whole of Yorkshire, you only have to hear a few syllables of that voice to know who you are talking to ;-)

Along with Kevin I said hello to Terry  G4AFS,Richard 2E0NTT, Jeff G0GNU,Andy M1ATT,Karl G1YPQ and others who's call sign's I cant remember at the moment,but it was nice to stop and chat. 

When I started going to this rally it was in Leeds, well that is to say back in the 1990's it was. and it was HUGE. I remember walking around 3 floors of the Leeds university, OK so most of the stuff I saw then I didn't understand  and that's because I wasn't a radio ham then, I was "into" CB radio .Now I have been a licensed radio ham  since 1998.

The rally then moved about a bit and eventually ended up in Wakefield, in a sports hall, were I went to see it.The sports hall then  was FULL ,now however with the recession kicking in and our present government sticking it to us , it appears the even the radio ham community has had to tighten their belts.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the manufacturers of radio ham equipment who's prices have not stayed in line with our rather meagre budgets. Consequently some of the rally's have died and gone to rally heaven along with some of the shops that we used to buy our gear from.

But  we have fleabay don't we? you can pick up some good radio gear on there? yes you can and I have but you can also pick up some right DOGS too,after all you can't test them can you you can at least return it to the rally if it doesn't work but I digress , this rally has been hanging on for a few years now but has been getting steadily  smaller, today  I managed to walk round it and buy what I wanted and a couple of hours later I was done and ready to go home. even after eating my BooF sandwich my can of pop and a chokie bikkie.

That is not to say that there wasn't some bargains to be had .
My first port of call was to LAM communications table to buy a new mobile 2 mtr antenna. a multicom M-285 a 5/8 wave , I got that for only £16 ,   I am going to use that to make  a dipole for my shack. seeing as I cant get on the roof (yet) add a post and two clamps , oh and another trimming tool, which I promptly lost after paying £2 for it ("SIGH") throw in a U  bracket and a continuity testing screwdriver  and I was done.

OK so it wasn't a big rally but there were bargains to be had, I just didn't want any of them.

I am looking forward to Blackpool and I am hoping to make a day of it with the same people.
The Blackpool rally is shrinking but not as fast as the Wakefield one so lets hope it keeps going for a good few years yet.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment  at your leisure.