We write this on March 29^th, the day of Winterfest!2020.  The global pandemic stopped us in our tracks this year.  We hope this post finds you and your family in good health, and practicing the first kind of social distancing:  Ham Radio!  If you bump into the Special Event Station W4V on the air, that’s us and say hello.

Besides being advertised as the 44^th annual Winterfest event, for the first time VWS planned to host the ARRL Virginia Section Convention, and the Northern Virginia AUXCOMM Conference.  Maybe most importantly, we would have conducted Amateur Radio licensing exams for 20+ new, and upgrading hams.  What it could have been!

It's important for us to give a shout-out to our spectacular vendors   – they are the “final amplifier” that makes every hamfest what it is.  Thanks to you all who planned to dazzle us with new antenna designs, more coax adaptors than known to mankind, and restored radios of every make and model.  A special thanks to the 14 new vendors who would have joined our hamfest this year. 

Finally, let us also thank the more than 700 of our prospective attendees who would have been just about now been rushing through the doors at the Northern Virginia Community College to buy that must-have radio or what not.  It truly would have been the best hamfest ever!  Without you, what would be a hamfest in the first place?

End note:  It turns out that since our first hamfest on February 25, 1973 until last year, VWS has  never cancelled a Winterfest! event.  We're told, from the older members who we talked to that we came close due to snow storms, and once, a messed-up reservation.  That said, and thanks to one of our current members who did the math, it turns out that we should have been celebrating our 48^th annual event – not the 44th.  So hopefully you all will mark your calendars to join us on our 48^th Winterfest!2021 on March 14, 2021.  Save the date!

The Winterfest!2020 Team