[PVRCNC] Dayton - This guy's got it right...

[Roberts, Will]

I could have saved a lot of money and time - This guy's got it right on.
He did forget to mention the SMC Bash at Hooters though. 

 

Will AA4NC 

 

 

>From K2DBK's Blog:

 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

My first annual pre-post-Dayton writeup

 

About a week from now, you'll be seeing all the Dayton Hamvention?
post-event writeups. Due to work and life schedules, I've never had the
opportunity to go there myself, but I've read the reports for each of
the nine years that I've been a ham to see what I missed. With tongue
firmly planted in cheek, I thought I'd get the jump on the writeups and
do my own post-event posting before the event even started.

 

The trip out to Dayton was uneventful/unbelievably exciting as usual. We
headed out early so that we we could visit the Air Force Museum, and on
the way we passed a giant antenna farm. We got to the hotel and went to
our usual restaurant, where we ran into a bunch of other hams.

 

The next day, we started walking the flea market. We couldn't believe
how crowded/empty it was compared to previous years! Of course, it
rained continuously/intermittently all afternoon. It was amazing to see
the number of out-of-shape hams driving around in carts while eating
bags of pork rinds. Using the outdoor "facilities" was an experience
that I wouldn't wish on the worst lid.

 

We headed into the Hara Arena, which was as run-down as ever. We all
agreed that they should just tear down the place and move the
Hamvention? somewhere else, though of course after hours of arguments
nobody could figure out exactly where that might be. Using the indoor
"facilities" was an experience that I wouldn't wish on the worst lid.

 

The vendor exhibits inside the arena were really crowded/empty compared
to last year, and a bunch of major vendors {didn't bother to even show
up/surprised everyone with the new goodies on display}. We were
disappointed that our favorite manufacturer wasn't willing to sell us
their brand-new state-of-the-art rig for 90% off list price. We'll never
deal with them again!

 

We ran into a bunch of DXing/contesting buddies and wound up heading out
to dinner with them. After that, we went back to the hotel and visited a
few of the suites, where we ran into more DXing/contesting buddies. We
ate too much pizza, drank too much beer then headed back to the room.

 

The next morning, we headed back to the flea market where it rained some
more and was really hot/cold. We saw a bunch of guys dressed oddly, and
were annoyed at the non-ham stuff that was being sold, although we did
pick up some nice potholders. We also saw a bunch of vehicles with
enough antennas to make NASA jealous.

 

We attended a bunch of seminars which were all great, except the rooms
were always too small and we had to stand next to a bunch of people who
smelled bad. We attended the big dinner and it was great seeing all the
famous hams in attendance.

 

The next day, we made one more pass through the flea market where it was
still raining. We picked up 1000' of some kind of feedline really cheap,
but wished we'd had one of those electric carts because we had to walk 2
miles, uphill, back to the car.

 

The trip back home took much longer than expected due to the horrible
traffic. If only there was some form of communications that we could
have used to communicate with all the other hams on the road!