Yesterday, I took a drive up to Newark – in deepest, darkest Nottinghamshire – with my friend Rajesh.

We were visiting the National Hamfest – an annual gathering of radio nerds.

Arriving at about 11am (an hour later than planned), we walked around the outdoor boot sale, looking for any bargains. Unfortunately for us, this was day 2 of the Hamfest and so all the decent bargains had already been snapped up.

It still amazes me though, what is offered for sale.  One stall was selling old radio and computer magazines, dating back to the late seventies and while there was an element of nostalgia for me – flipping through the yellowing pages of these periodicals that had both educated and informed me in my youth – I felt no desire to buy any of these old monthlies, so that I could read out-of-date material.  And yet, plenty of others were.

There were plenty of tables selling old tat and plenty of tables selling decent radio and electronics-related stuff. I bought a 100VA mains transformer for a quid!

Inside the exhibition hall, there was plenty of fantastic radios to see… and buy. But, I was well-behaved and my credit card stayed in my pocket.

Thirty minutes later, the heavens opened  and dropped a tumultuous amount of water. And that was the end of the car boot sale!

Over the space of a couple of hours, we perused every single stand and stall in the building, but all I bought were a couple of DC to DC buck converters and some small amplifier modules. Oh, and a 32GB SD card for six quid… bargain.

I met up with several hams who I have got to know over the years, and it was great to catch up.

Afterwards, we made our annual pilgrimage to the pub up the road, for some dinner, a pint and a debrief.

I returned home knackered after a long day.

Knackered but happy.