The
Worked All PIY Repeater Contest is WVARA's own contest, and is a fun,
low stress introduction to contesting and the club members who use our
repeaters. In this contest, club members and visitors try to work as
many other people as possible in one weekend using just the association
repeaters.
The Association of Silicon
Valley Amateur Radio Organzations Flea Market, has
replaced the Foot Hill Flea Market, occurs every 2nd Saturday of
the month from March to October from 7AM to noon. (Actually, 4AM
to 2PM is usually what really happens.) Each month, a different
Emergency Services or Amateur Radio non-profit organization runs
the flea market and operates the food concession stand as their
annual fund raiser. Like most of the other groups, this is WVARA's
only annual fund rasier. Considering the high up-front costs for
insurance and supplies, this is a high-risk fund raiser beacuse
you can be wiped out by rain, lack of organization, not being set
up by 5AM, or having insufficient numbers of volunteers. WVARA
is one of very few groups to have actually made any money at all
on a rainy day when our flea market was rained out in 1998, but
only because we were early, organized and efficient.
In order to do well at the Flea Market, we need enough volunteers
to fill shifts from 4AM to 4PM. (As long as we have enough people,
an individual volunteer's shift can be short, like 2 hours during 4AM
setup, peak mid-morning hours, or 2PM cleanup.) By participating in
the Flea Market WVARA raises money which we use to put on association
activities such as Field Day, special event stations and our new ham
classes.
WVARA has been helping with one Foothill Flea Market each year since
1992. We got into a permanent slot in the rotation in 1997. (This was
extremely lucky - it was never guaranteed to happen but we worked hard
and earned respect with enough people.) The rotation puts each club
one month later each year. WVARA had the Flea Markets in September
1996, March 1997, April 1998, May 1999, June 2000, July 2001, August
2002 and September 2003. Upcoming Flea Markets (assuming the Perham
Foundation continues to schedule them with the same pattern) we
are scheduled for March 12, 2005.
The Livermore Swap Meet is the first Sunday of each
month at Las Positas College in Livermore, CA. The meet runs from 7:00
AM until noon, all year. Talk in is on 147.045 from the west, 145.35
from the east.For information, contact Noel Anklam, KC6QZK, at (510)
447-3857 in the evenings.
