Well, it’s that time of year again.. time for HAM-EX 2005, held in Brampton, Ontairo Canada (northwest of Toronto). As always, it’s a hamsexy affair, and this year was no different. I saddled up, charged the camera and headed on down to see what’s going on. I met up with some old friends there, VA3WXM was guarding the parking lot and earned himself a Hamsexy cap for his efforts. Inside the flea market I met up with friends of Hamsexy VE3ESC, VA3AGF and VE3ECM, the latter of which was manning a table selling some goodies.
In all, the flea market wasn’t bad. It had the usual junk and oddly wafting hamfest smell, but it had some interesting items of note. I was a little disapointed at the lack of hamsexynes, though.. there wasn’t a mobility cart or body-mounted mobile radio to be seen, and the famous van with the huge Yagi on the roof was minus huge Yagi. The Volkswagen with the terrible antenna install was there in full effect, as was a new Porcupine VW I’ve never seen before.
The Durham Region ARES ambulance made an appearance, looking as whackerish as ever, complete with red and white emergency lighting. As well, the outdoor pathways were marked with yellow police tape…. whoof… As well, I got my first glimpse at the Peel Radio Club ARES trailer…. a rather sad looking affair, looking more like a shabby camping trailer than a communications outpost….. but at least it doesn’t reek of “whacker” like the Durham ambulance does.
I think it’s the Dufferin County ambulance. For the record, they seem to be “doing it right”. They work closely with the county. For example, they have a station in the local police station as far as I know. I’ve heard them on their local repeater in the evenings doing community safety patrols. They drive around and simply report back any suspicious activity directly to the police via the station radio.
To me, this makes a lot of sense in a small town. When I was growing up, we’d drive by the copshop and if THE car was there…whooohooo, we could do whatever we wanted, speed, run stop signs, etc. I think my hometown now has 2 cars but the principal still applies.
Up there they also have fairly regular Tornado’s so they help out with this as well.
Now in a place like Toronto, it would take a REAL disaster for ARES to be of any value.
In my quiet moments I have often strived to understand why hams think they are law enforcement or emergency responders. I search the deepest depths of my soul trying to make the connection. I guess all I have come up with is that they are living a childhood fantasy of being in the public eye because they are in a vehicle with flashing lights. They pretend so hard that they are a public hero that it becomes reality to them. Kind of like when you were six years old and climbed a tree and pretended it was a space ship. Your imagination took over, and so it is with the wackers.