The Huntsville Kidfest

The first day of this year’s Huntsville Hamfest was winding down … the Young Ham of the Year presentation was over, and as 4:00 p.m. closing time approached, it was time for the big end-of-day prize drawing. Managing Editor Jason Feldman, KD2IWM, and I were chatting with our last customers of the day and starting to shut down the CQ booth as the prize winners were being announced. Our booth was around the corner from the main stage, so we couldn’t see what was happening there, although we could hear the happy shouts from individual prize winners as they headed up to claim their booty.

Then it came time to award the grand prize — an ICOM IC-7610 transceiver. A name and callsign were announced and, after a brief silence, a huge roar went up from the crowd. win the big prize cheer so loudly for the person who did. The answer comes with a pretty incredible story, which we’re going to share here, of course, but not just yet! For now, we’ll just say that it was the last act in a day that might have earned the Huntsville Hamfest the name in this article’s title, the Huntsville Kidfest!