Yeah! I managed to be in Friedrichshafen ham fair 2022! We traveled on "day -1" so we were not in a hurry and we could be at the gates at the opening time. Also we could enjoy the evening in town.
Like most of these events, even the self-proclaimed #1 in Europe is shrinking. The side with commercial operators and associations was full to 2/3rds (my estimation), while the private sellers area was one hangar and 1/3rd (my estimation). Hint for the future to organisers: unless we will fit in just one hangar, keep tables further away so it's easier to move around.
I walked from 9:45 to 17:00, had lunch and an extra rest-drink, and I saw every stand.
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| What I bought at the Ham Messe 2022. |
What I bought this year:
- 3 boards with red-coated Nixies (12 pieces OK)
- another board with 9 Nixies
- a "Tune-a-Lite" gas filled tuning indicator
- a probably 2AP1 CRT (got it for free actually)
- a board with eight HP 5082-7300 displays
- a 40m band RTX "Frog Sounds", kit, assembled
- 2 aero DME units because of their Minitrons (13 pieces OK of out 14)
- machined-pin IC sockets (if they're the wrong length, I will cut them)
What I haven't bought:
- "kostenlos" (free) Telefunken E 104 Kw receiver torn apart, more than 70 kg of stuff!
- a large device with CRT, looking heavy too!
- some cheap '80s oscilloscopes, in the range of 20€ each, for clock conversion
- more aero DME units, now I regret
I found out that being even slightly social helps getting discounts, as I helped the Italian seller from whom I bought the red Nixies to interact with a German person that bought a (overpriced IMHO) calculator. I also realised I considered German sellers as unavailable to haggle the asking price, while it isn't true.
Our travel schedule did not leave me time to listen to the talks and because of the queue I couldn't greet Hans G0UPL as his booth.
As usual the organiser advertised next year dates: 23-24-25 June 2023. Of course nothing will be certain until next Spring, I dare to say.
