I’ve done a search and I couldn’t see a similar topic - admin, if there is one please delete and I’ll look harder!
Hope to see a few people at the rally?
I’m only going to be there for a couple of hours. I was aiming for about 12:00 and away for 14:00, but I’ll try to make it work around any planned formal “meet up time” at the SOTA Stand (assuming there is one!).
73 Gerald
MW0WML
Yes there is a SOTA stand. The SOTA gear that will be on sale arrived last week. I don’t know where in the halls we will be but we will be next door to my club’s stand Lothians Radio Society (that makes life easier for me!)
Myself, John G3WGV & Tom M1EYP will be on the stand and if anyone want to volunteer to help with the stand, drop me a PM.
Looking at the current layout, the sota stand is in the same place as last year (unless theyve not updated the floor plan). Its just by the middle entrance door tonthe main hall.
Ian
I plan to be there from abt. 1200.
David
G0EVV
The floor plan on the NARSA website is that of last year. It does say that the new one will be uploaded a month or so before the rally, but it would appear that it hasn’t been yet.
WAB for a good few years, (interrupted only by the pandemic and open heart surgery), has held a fish and chip supper for those arriving the previous day. It is open to all and a few well known SOTA faces have indicated attendence.
Just pop along to the Bispham Kitchen on Redbank Road at 6pm on Saturday 20th. A QSY to the Bishpham Hotel just down the road for a natter follows. This is a quiet pub with no loud background music, indeed no music at all.
Apologies from Paul G4MD and myself. Paul is unable to attend for personal reasons and I’m up north in Scotland at the weekend. Regards to all those we know that we will miss. 
1130 BST - meet at the SOTA stand for a group photo.
Great to see plenty of Activators and Chasers today. Always nice to meet up in person once in a while. Thanks to the MT for running the stand which provides a focal point.
73
Gerald
As always a well run stand.
Not so many bargains this time and i amazed my wife by actually bringing hone some cash. She hasnt seen the credit card bill though 
Thanks Tom for all the photos. Good job, well done.
Geoff vk3sq
Great to see everyone.
A couple of decades and more into the SOTA story, and the SOTA stand at Norbreck has become much more about a chance for SOTA enthusiasts - activators and chasers alike - to gather, catch up, and chat. The original and “official” purpose of promoting/advertising the scheme still exists, and we had plenty of visitors to the stand yesterday, who opened with “I’ve seen about this and thinking of getting involved”. As our President John G3WGV said, it seems surprising that there are still people around who don’t know much about SOTA, but I guess they will be new licensees, old licensees returning to the hobby after a few decades away, or people who have been interested in other facets of amateur radio!
Anyway, the stall served both purposes effectively, and I certainly enjoyed my day and all the conversations with SOTA friends old and new.
A special mention for our esteemed President and Founder, John @G3WGV who devised and provided a properly engineered solution for erecting the SOTA banner. This was especially needed since we replaced the original banner with a smart new - and heavier version! Also Barry @gm4toe who arranged to have proper table coverings produced, with the SOTA logo printed on. The whole thing looked really impressive, and no-one felt any sense of nostalgia for the days of wilting fishing poles and gaffer tape!
Those who felt that numbers were down on the previous year were absolutely correct. I can reveal that 8 fewer people came through the doors this year…
Thanks to John G3WGV and Andy MM0FMF for all their hard work running the stand.
Thank you all for running the stand, well done.
Great to meet so many Sota ops in one place.
Certainly not as much jostling to get to the bargains this year.
Thanks again.
David
G0EVV.
HI Tom
Just out of interest how many came through the doors? I didn’t go last year and this year I had an exhibitors pass, saving the admission price of £8, however the Norbreck Castle got their own back on me. £11.20 for three paper cups of slapdash teabag tea with a small pack of 3 digestive biscuits for me and colleagues on the stand I was manning!
I was saying to a couple of SOTA friends, after people watching all day - I couldn’t decide who won the “G4OBK wierdo of the show award” this time round. No SOTAists were in the running. It came down to either:
The man with a long pony tail and shaved hair sides walking through the crowds in bare feet and cropped trousers or
The man and his wife who looked very odd, he wearing a long black overcoat with a “Paranormal Investigator” badge on the mysterious looking long black coat!
73 Phil G4OBK
73 Phil
2023: 784
2024: 776
THANK YOU TOM.
Interesting to see that there was little difference in numbers this year. It felt as though there was a smaller attendance but obviously not.
I wonder what the threshold would be to add just one or two more of the larger ‘black box’ traders would be. With only really Lamco and Canny Components being what you would call those type of traders (both of which I have used and had excellent service from so have no problems giving them my business). Someone like a Moonraker for the general iron-mongery side of things.
The club stands as always were pretty good (SOTA ,GQRP and the one with the Analog synths my standouts). Maybe it wasn’t my year for finding the ‘bargain’ (well that’s what I would have told my wife ), or maybe I have so much junk, even I am struggling to justify it
In the days when SOTABEAMS went to rallies, only Norbreck and Newark were really profitable. However, even they wouldn’t have been worth attending if we had to pay staff and put them up in hotels etc. Rallies are also logistically complex for larger traders and disrupt their normal business. I can’t see the few larger companies left being interested again really.
