[QRP] Four Days In May 2005 Announcement

[Jim Stafford]

Here it is - the "official" announcement of FDIM 2005.  If you've been 
by the www.QRPARCI.org web site lately, you will have already found the 
page and registered or maybe you're waiting to be sure you want to hear:

Thursday - All Star Speaker list - May 19 - 8 AM

Roy Lewellan W7EL
Peter Zenker DL2FI
Rev Geo Dobbs G3RJV
LB Cebik W4RNL (paper submitted & in proceedings)
Rick Campbell KK7B
Simon Brown HB9DRV
and Paul Harden NA5N

as this year's international line up of speakers.  Not only do you get to hear these fine speakers, you get the full proceedings, plus prizes, plus some surprises!  All for $20!  There will be a sign directing you to a place to pick up your credentials on Wednesday evening at the hotel - after 8 PM.  Avoid the Thursday crush at 7:30 AM.

Then on Thursday evening - Meet the speakers night - May 19 - FREE!

Vendor Night - Friday - 7PM or so - May 20 - FREE!  Vendors:  Let me (W4QO) know if you wish to exhibit but come on anyway!  Also, if vendors/clubs/or anyone else for that matter wishes to donate door prizes, please let W4QO know ASAP.

Banquet - Saturday Night - May 21 - 7 PM - Awards Night - Dozens of prizes - FUN!  $30

To register for the Seminar or banquet, you may go directly to: http://www.qrparci.org/FDIMregform.html

Radio Show - Exhibit of all competition winners and all non-competition winners after the banquet - 9 PM  Saturday night - FREE!  
	Competition -
	Best Non-Kit (scratch) built project!  Can be anything associated with QRP - Antenna/Accessory/Transceiver/ETC!  Come on, you can bring something!
	Best Kit Built Project!  Construction/packaging/neatness/innovation/mods - All contribute to winning this competition.
	Non-competitive - 
	Altoids (the Cockroach of QRP Packaging) = Non-competitive (unless judges feel otherwise!) We want to get literally a 1000 Altoid tins of QRP projects on display.  Every person coming to FDIM 2005 should bring one, five or 10 Altoid projects (any size Altoid tin acceptable, other similar tins from another use in life also acceptable - no BUD boxes please!)
	Entries for the two competitions must be brought to judging arena (to be announced) on Friday evening by 8 PM!  All entries (and Altoids projects on Saturday) should have label/tag/written ID of owner clearly available.

Buildathon 2005 - Mike Knox, KC8WR, and his band of buddies will be conducting the Buildathon this year with lots of help from many others.  It begins at 5PM on Thursday and lasts for 2 hours.  You register directly with Mike via instructions at: http://www.qrparci.org/fdimbuild2005.html  What is it?  Well, it's a multi-functional wiz bang, Semiconductor Analyzer.  Say you have some semis in your junk box but you either can't read what they are or they have no labeling understandable this side of Istanbull. You hook the leads of this analyzer to the semi, and it tells you what it is, how robust it is, etc, etc.  These things cost from $90 to $200 commercially and more.  At the Buildathon, you build one for less than $50 AND there are some surprises for the participants too!  Deal direclty with Mike on this one.  See the web page and follow along.  Mike's guarantees you leave with a working unit!  One note - deadline to register for the Buildathon- April 30! So get in early.  Seating is limited.

Dayton Hamvention - FREE! (well, you have to have a hamfest ticket of course) - Don't forget the annual seminar over at the Hamvention on Friday morning in Room 2 at 11:30.  A good place to bring a friend who may just be getting into QRP!  http://www.hamvention.org/forums.html  And come by the club booth (and those of other QRP clubs) in the arena.

Hotel - A new hotel this year - no more Days Inn or Ramada to kick around, it's being torn down!  Already over 100 rooms have been reserved.  Now we're at the Holiday Inn, Fairborn, Ohio.  It's more Southeast of the Hamvention and caters to groups like ours (well, at least in size!)  Go to: http://www.usol.com/~k8dd/rooms/rooms.htm to register in the club block of rooms.  It's $99 per room per night.  A bit more than the Ramada but hey, it's a hobby!  And don't forget to bring your QSL to tape to your door, so you can find your room when you come back all giddy!

Well, that's about all their is - whew!  I'll probably think of more later so stay tuned (so to speak!)

-- 
Jim Stafford W4QO Roswell, GA USA - FDIM Chairman
Past President-QRP ARCI & #6515  www.qrparci.org   QRP-F Moderator
NoGaQRP(Early adopter!)  www.nogaqrp.org  ECI-QRP #29(Indiana)
G-QRP#7388    MI QRP#697    FP#21     FISTS#7499

The internet never ceases to amaze me, and neither
does QRP for that matter!  de W4QO/QRP