I've always been lucky in ham...

So Sunday was the Fredrick Area Father's Day Hamfest. Last year's hamfest was a financial success and the source of some cool pictures so I was really hoping to sell this year. Alas, it was not to be - bsom was off getting married, two of the students were going home that weekend, and the 3rd needed to catch up on sleep. I don't like to go and sell alone, because then there's nobody to watch my merchandise and cashbox if I have to go pee or want to browse what vendors are selling.

But since I didn't have anything better to do on a Sunday morning (sleep is overrated), I figured I might as well go to browse. So at 7am I hopped in my truck, armed with a Venti Starbucks drip coffee and a raspberry scone, and drove the 50 miles to Fredrick.

My only purchase at the Hamfest was a $10 Kensington Orbit Trackball mouse - it was new, sealed, and I prefer trackballs to mice - easier on the hand, plus I don't need to move crap on my desk so I can roll it around. Walked around for a while, dropped my ticket stub in the door prize vat, and went home (after stopping at Sheetz for two hot dogs and 44 ounces of diet mountain dew).

And I figured that was it. Didn't buy anything for $1 that I could resell on eBay for bunch, but I didn't die in a horrible car crash either, so all in all a draw. Then on Monday morning my cell phone rang. Number I wasn't familiar with, with a different area code, so I let voicemail get it. Checked it later and found out that I'd won second prize in the door prize drawing. An Icom IC-208 mobile ham radio.

I've been debating about getting my ham license for a while. I don't really have much desire to talk to people I don't know around the world, but I probably could use a hobby. Plus, I could get one of those cool amature radio license plates with my call letters.

And now I have a radio, so I really don't have any excuses. The guy from the radio club is supposed to drop it off at my house on Saturday morning.