[geeks] TCF 2011

[Bob]

 That's what I was going to do.  But I could do that at other times.
When I got up this morning, I just couldn't see myself driving down there
in an ailing car just to spend a few hours. 
There was someone inside who had a bunch of Apple stuff but he left the
newer stuff home (?).  He gave me his
name and contact info but I can't find it now (grr).  There was some
other stuff I was thinking of picking up but
some of those people I've seen at hamfests so I figured they might have
gone to the splitrock hamfest today (gee,
I thought the ARRL was trying to prevent conflicts like this).

I was very disappointed this year.  It wasn't TCF.  Even the wrist bands
didn't say TCF but a ham call.com.  It's turned
into a hamfest were computer geeks show up.  Only three computer clubs
were sponsoring it this year.  The
others either passed on it or passed into oblivion (grin).  Nobody seemed
to know how to hang up a sign! They
weren't expecting crowds (no porta-potties nor food although spring break
might have had something to do with that) 
I guess with eBay and other internet sites, shrinking club  attendance
and the economy (notice how it went from
"Time for a change." to "Time we left you with just change."), these
types of shows are dying.  Shame. Even the
first one was better.

Bob

Apr 3, 2011 01:28:54 PM, geeks at sunhelp.org wrote:

  Bob,

  The indoor vendor area is a ghost town today, the flea market is
  about 1/3rd
  what it was yesterday. There's a guy with some great radios (SWR &
  Ham), but
  nothing too exciting.

  I got some very interesting SATA cables (SATA power and data
  connector that
  clips on to drive, has a 12" data lead and a 6" molex female power
  connector),
  perfect for converting an older box to SATA. It incorporates power
  adapter &
  SATA data in one $3 wire. If the data leads were longer i'd have
  gotten a
  bunch.

  I'll post pics on Flicker later today for those who couldn't make it
  & may be
  curious.

  My son is going to try and take his Amateur Radio test today, fingers
  crossed!

  Lionel

  On Apr 2, 2011, at 9:47 PM, Bob wrote:

  > Obviously, we missed each other. I picked up a few things (some LED
  120
  > V bulbs, a dual G4 tower with no supply, freeplay wind-up
  flashlight,
  > some power-pole connectors) and my older son was with me who also
  got a
  > few things. I might go back tomorrow. There were other things that
  I
  > passed up because I had to go see a couple of used cars. My Mazda
  is
  > about ready to die (meaning it's getting too expensive to fix it
  for what
  > it's worth).
  >
  > Bob
  >
  > Apr 2, 2011 12:26:25 PM, geeks at sunhelp.org wrote:
  >
  > I'm at the Trenton Computer Festival, turnout is light, flea market
  > is small,
  > but weather is decent. I think most are here out of habit...
  >
  > I picked up a Lian-Li mini-ITX case (NIB) for $65, two quad port
  > Gigabit PCI-X
  > cards for $25/ea, and a $5 USB FAX/modem (NIB).
  >
  > The chassis is for a future project.
  >
  > The quad port Gigabit cards are for my Dell T605 and T105 servers
  > which I use
  > to host VMs - the will replace dual port Gig cards I bought a year
  or
  > two
  > back.
  >
  > The USB FAX/Modem is so I can configure a FAX server on a machine
  > with no
  > slots & no serial ports (Windows Home Server).
  >
  > I have a wrist band for re-entry tomorrow, but I may not come
  back...
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