Bright and early this morning, my grandson Alex and I loaded up and headed to the first AIMfest tailgater held at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance on the west side of Indianapolis. This tailgater was done through the efforts of the Indiana Elmer Network, and the school. Gates opened up at 7AM and the event ran until 11AM, I would estimate we had maybe a dozen guys selling stuff and maybe 50-60 people walking around shopping and socializing. The weather was beautiful, sunny, low 70's and amost no humidity...which is very RARE for Indiana in August. For a FREE tailgater they had some great prize giveaways, thanks to Radio Oddity and N3FJP. They gave away two sets of R2 FRS radios, a GD-77 dual time slot DMR HT, and a set of the N3FJP logging software to four lucky hams. Wayne AC9HP did a most excellent job of gathering donated prizes and his wife Mary was awesome running the Nacho and Hot Dog booth.
One of the best parts was when the B-29 they call FIFI flew over at about 9:15AM. It was a true sight to behold and is only one of TWO remaining B-29's still capable of flight.
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| B-29 FIFI in Flight |
Paul KD9IAO and I picked up a big honking air variable cap from Phil N9RKA and we are going to try and fashion a nice big magnetic loop antenna for 20, 30, and 40m....stay tuned for that. Mike W9ODX brought his brand new radio, the mcHF SDR radio and man is it a beauty. He is using his rain gutters as his antenna and I know he's going to have a blast with that rig.
Great Hamfest! Great Food! Lot's of great folks there making it happen. I had a great time and I look forward to next year!
Hawaii QSO Party is on the air right now...and I need Hawaii. Wish me luck!
Best 73 de KB9BVN
We have an historical military aircraft restoration place close by and they have many vintage aircraft. I constantly see the Lancaster bomber out flying in the area, they offer rides (for a fee) to help support the restoration efforts. My wife and I had the please of seeing FIFI in an air show up this way a few years ago.
ReplyDelete73,
Mike