[NLRS] CSVHFS Toronto Conference report...

[Bruce Richardson]

Whew and Wow!

Whew from all the driving.  Wow from the conference.

I really enjoyed my drive. I drove 1300 miles to get there--but that
included the detour up to WaWa and back down.  Plus, going around the
north side of Lake Huron is quite a drive.  The exposed (Laurentian?)
shield rock on the north and east sides of Lake Huron is beautiful.
Understandably, it was a difficult land across which to build a highway.

Arrived in Toronto about noon on Thursday.  Met a few early arrivals in
the hotel lobby and then saddled up to proceed to Guelph, Ontario where
Hammond manufacturing was and is.  They are the folks with transformers,
chokes, and enclosures.  Well, they're still around and they house the
"Hammond Radio Museum".  Wow!  Not just Hammond stuff--lots of
EVERYTHING from the beginning of radio.  Huge Collins collection, same
can be said for Heath, Hallicrafters, and many others.  Lots of fun.
Every radio you used in your youth is there.

Thursday night was registration and round one of the Party Suite.  I
know, it's called "party suite", and yes, there is beer there.  But lots
of everything else too.  Most notably--fine conversation.  The party
suite was in action Friday and Saturday nights too.  It was the most
packed I've seen in three years yet.  You'd be surprised how many folks
were still having great conversations at 1am each night.  Sure, the
diehards went to 3,4, and 5am--but I guess they are catching up for the
entire year.

Friday morning was the antenna range.  Our Toronto hosts set up a
complete range up through 10GHz.  On both the VHF and Microwave ranges
combined, they tested about 90 antennas.  At an average stateside
conference, that number would be about 110--so the Canadian locals made
good use of the antenna range.

Friday afternoon, the presentations started.  This year, there were
several beginner level presentations which were good for variety, good
for some of the attendees, and good for the old heads who are looking
for ideas on how to present basics to new folks in their home areas.
Paul Shuch, N6TX, gave an excellent and entertaining look at
Electromagnetic Spectrum Basics. There was no song and it really WAS
good stuff.  I missed two talks while reviewing finances with the
conference host.  One of those was the one on contesting where Mike,
KM0T was co-presenter.  I would like to have seen that.  Andy Flowers,
K0SM/2, gave a great and motivating talk on making the move to lasers.
He makes it look easy and REAL grid and states gathering performance is
possible.  My other favorite talk was by Steve Kostro from DEM about the
new family of modules from Mitsubishi.  But all of it was good.

Flea market on Friday night was understandably down somewhat because of
the border issues.  But that didn't stop me from buying a few doo-dads
and then picking up armfulls from the "Free" table.

Saturday was more great presentations and Saturday night was the
banquet.  Banquet speaker was famous contester, Dennis Motzenbacher
K7BV, who now works on ARRL HQ staff.  He gave an entertaining look at
activating East Timor as a rare DX entity while the threat level was
high.

Prize table was VERY good--which has become the average.  Eimac came
through with two 3CX800
's.  Some fine DEM gift certificates (250's, 100's, and many 50's and
25's).  The new Software Defined Radio by AC5OG was also on the table.

Sunday, Conference President Peter Shilton, VE3AX, hosted a barbeque at
his QTH about 50 miles away. About 25 folks took advantage of the visit.
He lives in the country and has three towers full of VHF+ antennas.  One
tower has a quad of 2m, another tower has a quad of 222, and the third
tower has a quad of 432.  The 2 and 222 quads can be elevated for moon
action.  All the other bands are sprinkled in around.  Peter has an
AWESOME Drake collection and a VERY NICE Collins collection.  And his
VHF station is REALLY NEAT as consoles in 19" equipment racks.

NLRS'ers in attendance who come to mind right away were KM0T, VE4MA,
VE3KRP, W0LCP, K0KFC, WA2VOI, W9FZ, W0VB, AA5F, and KB9TLV.  Other
Badger Contesters coming to mind are W9JN, W9GA, and N8KWX.  I may have
missed someone.

More statistics:  147+ registrants and 167 at banquet.  That's slightly
above Tulsa for registrations and slightly below Tulsa for banquets.
For the third year in a row, I said "that's the best banquet food I've
ever had".  Some complained about the beef meal--but my "chicken" was
very good.  (At least it tasted like chicken?)  Finances worked out just
fine again and the society was able to send support funds to ARRL-BPL,
ARRL Defense of Freqs, SETI, and AMSAT.

The next three conference locations have been determined:
Colorado Springs 2005
Minneapolis-St Paul 2006
San Antonio 2007

You'll hear LOTS more about the 2006 conference since we'll be the
hosts.  I'll end up establishing a separate reflector for that.

Glad I went!  See you at one of the next three!


Bruce Richardson - W9FZ