Banquet – Friday

A great way to meet and greet some of your local amateurs is to attend the traditional Friday evening banquet. This year the banquet was held 30 minutes after the Friday session ends, at 7:30 pm. Here you’ll meet over 100 local hams, get to eat some terrific Bar-B-Que from Catering by Findleys, and have a chance to win some special banquet door prizes.

This year our featured speaker Valerie Hotzfeld NV9L. Valerie Hotzfeld NV9L, was first licensed in 2006. After being very active in her local amateur radio clubs and ARES, she discovered HF. This is when she became obsessed with DXing and contesting. In the past few years, she has enjoyed inviting new hams to her station to DX or contest. She is a co-host on the show “Ham Nation”  and has created several “how to” videos on YouTube for the ham radio community. She also enjoys delivering various presentations via Skype to amateur radio clubs across the U.S. She’s been the pilot or lead pilot for 4 major Dxpeditions. She is currently the treasurer for her contest club and the prize chairman for W9DXCC and SMC-fest. In 2017, she became very active in public service; going to Texas after hurricane Harvey to help rescue small animals as well as being deployed to Puerto Rico with the American Red Cross for 3 weeks as part of the “Force of 50” providing critical amateur radio communications after hurricane Maria. Amateur radio has enriched her life, because of the challenges and great friends this hobby brings. She is the 2018 Hamvention Amateur of The Year.

Tickets were only $25 and usually go fast.