*FINAL reminder mark it on your Calendar **ARRL Sanctioned Palm Springs Hamfest January 29, 2011* The air waves are A-BUZZ with talk of ARRL's sanctioned Desert RATS first event of the year! Our little ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest has in it's second year become the third largest ARRL Sanctioned Event in California, rivalling any Hamfest across the Western States! We anticipate an attendance of around 800! It's unique low cost 'one day' format has turned on it's ear the way Hamfests in California will be heading 'back to the future' are some predictions made . Well, the future is here in Palm Springs on January 29th. To quote attending AMSAT Representative Clint Bradford at the end of last years event:

Your Hamfest is causing many to think about the future of the 2- and 3-day conventions in our region. I mean,

you had most of what hams want at such a gathering - and I didn't have to pay a parking fee, didn't have to pay admission, was charged only five bucks for a lunch and only a buck for coffee ... "Compare that to, say,

PACIFICON coming up in October. It will cost $500 for me to drive up there and stay in their hotel for two days. Did you see what SANDARC is charging for their events? $23 for a breakfast $26 for lunch $43 bucks for dinner. $15-20 to merely walk in the door. Rooms are $135+ a night ..." (Clint will be doing satellite contact DEMOS throughout the Day)

Plus the vendors have to pay about $500 to start! At Palm Springs it's free! Our gift to the Ham Community! So if you are within 4 hour driving range of Palm Springs for the price of gas + a $10 dollar bill you can .... pay your entry fee, get a raffle ticket, and a meal. Where else could you go for a full day of fun these days with only a single $10 bill? (Also see Forum site below for Hotel accommodations if you want to make a holiday out of it in warm Palm Springs!) Sure we want you to buy more raffle tickets, so maybe bring an extra $20 bill. Yes, we will have raffle draws hourly, maybe half hourly, as donations keep rolling in. By the way, we don't charge vendors to attend including Swap Meet sellers. Pass the word around, the more that attend the merrier. It will be a veritable Shopping Mall for Hams as every major product line of radios will be there for sale at vendors such as HRO which deal in all the major Ham radios available plus other related Ham gear. HamCity (a Costco style Ham store with too many products to mention), DX Store where you can buy Icom and Heil products plus more. (warranted Icom products that were manufactured can be bought at a fraction of the cost of new boxed ICOM radios), RF Stuff has any type of coax connector you could dream of plus coax, antennas ...again more stuff than I have room to mention. Numerous antenna companies. I could go on but the article would be so long your mailbox would not accept the file size. Here instead is a partial list of vendors and some activities: ** if you play an instrument or sing or have a small band come on down and join in the JAMFEST or play solo at our lounge style out door venue call Peter 760-318-0186 to book your time or just show up AMSAT- Clint Bradford -DEMO ARES ARRL- Meet all the Guys from our Division! Elecraft -user group -sponsored by the factory to attend Yaesu ICOM a guest speaker will be there to speak about & answer questions about ICOM's radios throughout the Day Alpine Antenna Co. Buds engraving Byonics DX Store EDS Emergency Packs Ham Radio Outlet Impulse Electronics Ni Cad Lady Company Nifty Accessories R F Stuff Old Military collectables featuring Radios from all of the major wars DEMO W5Yi Gordon West San Bernardino Microwave Society DEMO M2 Antennas Hamcon 2011 Desert RATS Club Earth Moon Earth signal bouncing ....EME DEMO Hamcity Next Generation Antennas Swap MEET Tail Gaters Special Events Station WD6RAT RAffles Food FUN Fraternalism Winter Field Day sponsored by SPAR (Society for preservation of Amateur Radio) WD6RAT RATPEATER 146.940 -PL107.2 TALKIN and information NET at 8AM , NOON, 6PM Thursday, Friday and Saturday. CONVOY from Quartzfest ARIZONA will be on 146.520 then switch to the RATPEATER frequency. Club SALES Table to sell your items on consignment for you for 10% commission to the RATS bring your equipment from 8:30AM onward Last year this was one of the most popular swap meet tables there and we almost sold out of everything that was there, so bring in your old Ham gear to sell and walk away with a jingle in your pocket and a hand full of cash (so to speak) We accept credit card payments. (All sales will be paid to you by a cheque within 4 days) TEST the radios you want to buy at the Swap Meet before you buy at our free test Bench. Hamfest Special Event Station WD6RAT 6:30AM till 4:30PM Pacific Standard time on 14.251 MHZ... 7.240 ....3672..... find us live at SEND SPOT internet Beacon<http://www.dxsummit.fi/SendSpot.aspx> (click) *final reminder mark it on your Calendar * ON U-STREAM LIVE video and audio web Cam Desert RATS TV<http://desertrats.am/wd6rat.html> and CHAT Here is a link to our website : http://desertrats.am and here is separate link to our Forum that has all the Hamfest information you might want to know! http://desertrats.x.am TWITTER: hamradio <http://twitter.com/> PLEASE PASS THIS Notice ON TO YOUR FELLOW CLUB MEMBERS AND BUDDIES on AIR, MENTION IT AS A REMINDER ON YOUR NET IN THE NEXT 3 WEEKS ... *.**be proactive and help promote our event that we put on as our gift to the Ham Community!* THANKS " The Desert RATS" 2010 Hamfest Committee Palm Springs Hamfest January 29, 2011 ********************************************************************************************************************************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DIRECTIONS TO PALM SPRINGS HAMFEST ** (freq.146.520 for Quartzfest Convoy group January 28) TALKIN 146.940 - PL 107.2 on Desert RATS Ratpeater from Freeway In Palm Springs .... driving from Hwy I-10 go to Palm Drive exit ( south) follow right onto N. GENE AUTRY TRAIL (you should be going south on N GENE AUTRY TRAIL( 6.5 miles 11 minutes to Site) ...becomes Mathew Drive after crossing Hwy 111 then Follow Desert RAT Signs to: 4193 Matthew Drive ( on left) click on LINK below to view map marker... for the HAMFEST PARKING AREA LINK<http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=202109947446025097837.000498e493a969d7f5d52&z=19>