National Hamfest 2009

Lincoln Short Wave Club National Hamfest
October 2nd and 3rd in association with the RSGB

As you may have heard the Lincoln Short Wave Club has increased the size of its annual Hamfest at the Newark Showground.

The club has a long tradition of organising Hamfests.
Using the Dayton Hamvention as their inspiration, Lincoln Short Wave Club decided to start a local ‘Hamfest’ in Lincoln for local operators to meet up. This was back in the 1950s.

A few decades later, in the early 1980s, the Lincoln Club organised a Hamfest again but this time on a bigger scale at the Lincolnshire Showground. From then the club has never looked back, holding a Hamfest every year.

Now Lincoln Short Wave Club members are building on their experience to host the National Hamfest in association with the Radio Society of Great Britain. The National Hamfest will be the biggest radio event of the year in the East Midlands and will be held in the George Stephenson Hall at the Newark Showground.

For those who have visited the Lincoln Hamfest before, it is worth pointing out that the new venue is over twice as long and almost as wide as the previous hall used. Measuring 102 metres by 24 metres it comprises two and a half thousand square metres of exhibition space, allowing numerous spacious stands and large aisles giving easy wheelchair access. To give you an idea of its size, the new Wembley pitch is 105m long. If you have 141 double decker buses, you could park them all in the new exhibition space.

Several major retailers have already agreed to take up large stands with displays of all the latest gear. Small traders will be made very welcome too as well as special interest groups who will be setting up stands. There will also be a large flea market.

Catering facilities will be provided both inside and outside and there will be a bar available inside the hall. There is extensive car parking immediately outside the venue and it will be free. Blue badge holders will be parked very close to the hall.

The Newark and Nottinghamshire Showground is ideally situated just off the A1 at the A46 and A52 junction. Newark is on the East Coast Mainline with London Kings Cross just an hour and 20 minutes away. From the north, Newcastle is around two hours away and Leeds and York an hour. There are also train services from all over the west midlands via Nottingham to Newark. For example, Birmingham New Street is around 2 hours. At the Newark railway stations there are taxi ranks. Taxis are readily available to the show ground just 2 miles away.

LSWC chairman Jonathan G6JUT says, “It is a great privilege for Lincoln Short Wave Club to be hosting the premier radio rally for 2009. An event of this nature takes a lot of organising and running. I know the members of LSWC and our friends in neighbouring clubs are up to the challenge. We will make sure the National Hamfest 2009 is an event to remember.”

There is a dedicated website where advanced bookings and great ticket deals will be available. www.nationalhamfest.org.uk

For those interested in aviation, Hamfest tickets also give you discounted admission to the Newark Air Museum adjacent to the Newark Showground. There are dozens of aircraft to see from a Vulcan to a Tiger Moth. Several years ago the museum was awarded lottery funding and some of their exhibits attract ‘benchmark’ standard classification.
The museum’s own website gives a list of the impressive number of aircraft on show: http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/aircraftlist.htm

If the XYL or YL are coming with you, Lincoln is just 20 minutes away with its Cathedral, Castle, Museums and shops. The uphill area of Lincoln near to the Cathedral has a number of locally owned small shops and the olde-worlde Steep Hill is a definite area to visit. In the main shopping area at the bottom of the hill there are numerous national retailers in the pedestrian area of the High Street. On a pleasant day, there’s nothing better than having a coffee or snack at one of the many café/bars watching the swans float by on Brayford Pool. There’s also a walk and ride bus to get you back up the hill.

Some people are making a weekend of it and there are a number of certified hotels and guesthouses in the area charging from as little as £25. Lincoln has Holiday Inn Express, Obis and many other hotels as well as the famous White Hart hotel which stands between the Cathedral and the Castle.

In the next few weeks we’ll be updating you on the retailers that are attending and what they will be bringing. We’ll feature another attraction at the Hamfest and give you some more ideas about other things to see and do in the area.

We hope to see you at the National Hamfest at Newark, Lincoln Short Wave Club’s bigger and better Hamfest in association with the RSGB.