So the annual PARG Fest was upon us and we travelled down to the Mandurah bowling club to walk around the tables of once loved radio gear and associated bits and pieces.
Colin (VK6JE) had booked 4 tables and had an early start from home in the Perth Hills, with a car full of gear he was hoping to off load.
As usual “Exhibitors or Sellers” were allowed to go in to the Bowling club at 8.00 am to set up their stalls, whilst the general “Buying” public could not enter before 9.00am.
When Ian (VK6IMG) and myself entered we were carrying a few bits of very old gear from my workshop as I store it on behalf of HARG , simply as we do not have anywhere near enough space at HARG for the members let alone the gear we need to store and with our presidents approval we had planned to get rid of a couple of bits that needed to go as they were well past their life expectancy.
Ian and myself just walked on in at 8.45 and put it on Colins table and by 9.00am we had paid our entrance money, purchased some raffle tickets and the place was filling quite quickly and it was great to see some faces that we did recognise.
I think in previous years the coffee came out of a general Hot water earn but this time there was a Coffee van parked outside, possibly as our coffee palates are getting more sophisticated, there was also a good selection of muffins, and cakey-buns and stuff like that.
The raffle ticket gig seemed overly complicated in one way but having your purchased ticket numbers emailed to you was a great idea for those people who wanted to get away before the raffle was drawn.
I was talking to Steve Kennedy (VK6SJ) who had a table with some Flex Radio’s on and he was telling me that he was off to Christmas Island on Tuesday to do some HF Radio and I told him that I have lived on and off Christmas Island over a
two-year period. 2009-2011 and that I had a Christmas Island Driving licence numbered as 8124
As they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure is so true and I did see a fella walking away with a rusty old oscilloscope that was free to the first taker, so he was delighted, but not quite as much as we were having brought it down to Mandurah from Roleystone this morning.
It was also great to see a few HARG shirts in the melee of people and I have listed the HARG guys we saw there.
| VK6JE-Colin | VK6LD-Rob | VK6QM-Gerard |
| VK6GMP-Gavin | VK6DY-Mark | VK6PM Peter |
| VK6ZMS-Martin | VK6IMG-Ian | VK6HQ-Andy |
| VK6BCK-Will | 2E0EGZ-Tim (Our visiting friend of HARG from the UK) |
Andy VK6HQ
