Setting the
pace for amateur radio in Cleveland County and Shelby for over 50 years.
Proud Sponsor of ARES of Cleveland
County | 100 % ARRL Affiliated since 1959
K4KUT
W4PZH
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Setting the
pace for amateur radio in Cleveland County and Shelby for over 50 years. |
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Thank You! … And Please Comment! The Shelby Hamfest and the Shelby Amateur Radio Club would like to thank all of our loyal friends for attending this year’s Hamfest. As you know, this was a difficult year of transition for us. We begin our Hamfest planning meetings in January each year, and have our tickets printed and ready to begin selling at the Charlotte Hamfest in early March. The week before the Charlotte Hamfest, we learned that we could not agree on a contract with the Cleveland County Fairgrounds and had lost our “home”. We never planned to cancel our Hamfest, but due to bad publicity and many rumors, it was “publicized” that the Shelby Hamfest was cancelled! The fact that we decide NOT to sell tickets in Charlotte (since we didn’t know “where” we would be) only added fuel to the fire! The Gaston County Director of Tourism contacted us and showed us the beautiful Biggerstaff Park in Dallas, NC, and we knew immediately that we would like to make it our new “home”. Because this was a public park and because there were almost no camping facilities, there were many details to negotiate and “everything” was unknown this year! By the time the final contract was signed and the campsites were ready for occupancy, it was the day BEFORE “Marking Day” (August 23)! Without a great deal of help from the Director of Tourism, the Director of Parks and Recreation, the town of Dallas, the Gaston County Amateur Radio Society and ALL the members of the SARC, this year’s Hamfest would not have been possible. Gaston County who use the park on a regular basis for letting us take over their park for the weekend. We were very pleased that so many of our loyal friends came this year to check out our new site. We know that a lot of mistakes were made in planning and that we have a lot of room for improvement to make the 2009 Hamfest run more smoothly. This year was a learning experience for us and we have already started our list of things that WILL be changed next year. Our biggest problem this year was the shuttle service from Gaston College parking area, but the problem was not with the shuttle service itself but OUR miscalculation of the number of people who would need to ride the shuttle! We apologize for the long lines that you experienced this year and appreciate your patience as we worked to get you to and from the Hamfest. We also had camping problems caused by the fact that the campsites were brand new with freshly dug trenches and the fact that we had 4 inches of rain on Monday! We appreciate the patience of our “first year campers” as we were still working out “sewer details” AFTER you arrived! We appreciate all of the positive comments that we heard at the Hamfest about our new location and appreciate your patience with us as we made this difficult transition. Our Hamfest planning was seriously affected by the loss of John Ledford (W4JL), affectionately known to us as “The Boss”. His help in planning and taking care of “details” was sorely missed this year! Many of you visited our website regularly for updates and probably noticed that sometimes it was updated MORE than once a day. Our Webmaster, Susan Melvin, did an excellent job of getting information posted as soon as it became available and making our website “user friendly”. We don’t have definite numbers for attendance yet, but feel that our attendance was UP significantly this year as you all came to show support for our efforts to keep the Shelby Hamfest “alive”! We thank you again for attending this year’s Hamfest, for showing respect to the park and it’s staff by not leaving large unwanted items on the park grounds, and by leaving all of your trash in the trash cans. We look forward to seeing you again next year in our “new and improved” location in Dallas, NC. If you have comments (either positive or negative) or suggestions for improvement, we would appreciate your taking time to share those with our Hamfest Committee. Your suggestions will help to make the 2009 Hamfest run more smoothly. Please send an email to: chairman@shelbyhamfest.org. We will look forward to hearing from you!
Robby Hamrick, WA4RH
LOST AND FOUND The following items were found at the Hamfest site and are available to be retuned to you with a proper identification of the items:
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