David Jones – WD4LVN
Three clubs, Greenville, New Bern and Jacksonville collaborated on a hamfest in Greenville and it was a bit of a fiasco. One year was enough. The following year the New Bern club attempted one on their own. It was held at the New Bern fair grounds. The club decided it was way too much work for what they made on it. The Maysville Hamfest never had anything at all to do with the Greenville deal.
Maysville, from the onset was designed to be more of a family get together than a Hamfest. While vendors were welcomed they were not sought out or encouraged.
After Greenville and New Bern had failed a fellow named Grover Cooke and I were standing under an Oak Tree at the Cary Hamfest in July of 1979 discussing the fact that we really needed a good swap meet, down home type of atmosphere hamfest somewhere near the coast. Doug Burt came up about that time and Grover actually came up with the Maysville idea. I thought he was nuts. Who the heck would drive to Maysville? When Doug came up as we were talking, he jumped all over the Maysville idea. Together, the three of us found a total of 20 people to invest $10 each to buy a prize. It was a $200 Icom 2m handheld. We held the first hamfest in October of 1980 and as far as I know we’ve had one ever since.