Nancy Torborg KB2TNR — RARSfest Chair, Dealer & Booth Information, Facilities & Pre-Hamfest
Nancy is a retired elementary school librarian and director of stage-musicals with a hundred 8-to-11-year-olds. Nancy stepped up in 2022 to bring RARSfest back after a two-year, COVID 19-induced hiatus. This will be her fourth year as RARSfest Chair. Her experience with middle-schoolers has proved invaluable.
Billy Janke KE4VNC — Admissions
Billy is a captain in the Raleigh Fire Department and a self-described “radio dork.” He was “voluntold” to join the reconstituted RARSfest team for 2023 and has been putting out fires at the Admissions desks every since.
Chuck Till K4RGN — Command Center, Talk-In
Chuck is a former part-time announcer on WCPE, the classical music FM radio station in Wake Forest. During RARSfest, he brings his melifluous voice to the Command Center in the middle of the show floor and to our talk-in station, ensuring that attendees know what's going on and travelers make it safely to the hamfest. He is also just completed his two-year term as the Vice President of RARS.
Chuck Littlewood K4HF — ARRL Liaison
A former Chair himself, Chuck has been involved with RARSfest since before anyone can remember. Chuck's experience and institutional knowledge are invaluable. He tries to prevent us from repeating past mistakes. We don't always follow his advice, but that doesn't mean we don't value it. Some mistakes we just have to make for ourselves.
Jeremy Lindsley K2HJX — Flea Market, Pre-Registration, Promotions, Volunteer Coordinator
Jeremy's passion is public service. He is the RARS Public Service Director and head of the Ham Public Service North Carolina group. Consistent with that, Jeremy joined the RARSfest team to help bring it back in 2022. As you can see, he wears many hats. We like this one the best.
Tadd Torborg KA2DEW — Operations
Some people think the only reason Tadd is on this list is that he is the Chair's husband, but that's not completely true. Tadd has been instrumental in the evolution of RARSfest, including driving changes in door prizes, volunteer incentives, and the attendee experience. He also performs IT and Documentation/Publication support for the Chair, including hosting Zoom meetings.
Fin is the newly-elected president of the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society. He has lots of great ideas for transforming RARS and RARSfest. Come visit him at the RARS Booth, he'll tell you all about them. Fin ran Security for RARSfest for a few years pre-COVID, so this isn't his first rodeo.
Tony O'Connor K1OC — Security, Webmaster
In 2022, Tony let Nancy put his name down for Security as a “placeholder,” with a promise that she would find someone else to do it for real. Nancy has yet to find one, so this will be his fourth year running Security for RARSfest. As the webmaster, he is at least partially responsible for some of the stuff on this page. His colleagues still aren't talking to him.
Daniel de Court W3WDD — Signage
In 2023, Daniel stepped up to solve a problem that had been plaguing RARSfest for years — the lack of clear direction on how to get there. Daniel is in charge of putting up outdoor signage to direct traffic in the vicinity of the Fairgrounds to RARSfest, and signage inside the building to keep people where they are supposed to be. He comes all the way from Dillsboro to help us out. In real life, he is a Volunteer Examiner and rescue squad volunteer.
Dave Thomas K4SAN — Teardown
Believe it or not, people sometimes just leave behind stuff they haven't been able to sell at the hamfest. Another longtime RARSfest staff member, Dave leads the team affectionately known as the “Dumpster Divers.” They scoop all that stuff up and make sure it goes to a good home.
Greg is another long-standing member of the RARSfest team who brings valuable institutional knowledge. But more importantly, Greg keeps track of the money. He makes sure we don't spend more than we have. Greg has been the RARS Treasurer since 2001.
Tom Lewis N4TL — Volunteer Consignment Table
Another long-standing member of the RARSfest team,
Tom helps out other RARSfest Volunteers by selling their ham radio junk treasures at the consignment table.
Tom was the RARS Vice President from 2014 through 2022 and has been the editor of
the EXciter, the RARS newsletter, since 2015.
He's also a serious DXer!
Richard Hall K7RLH — Volunteer Examiner Team
Richard is a retired USAF pilot and consulting professional engineer. Accredited as a Volunteer Examiner through the Laurel VEC and a member of the Five County Ham Radio Enthusiasts Group, Richard is the newly-elected RARS Volunteer Examiner Chair and joins the RARSfest team for 2024.
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