[SFDXA] Dayton 2012 recap

[The Romagni's]

Recap of the Dayton Hamvention in 2012

If you have any interesting stories or fun moments about Dayton in 2012,
any reviews of any forum, please send them to K8CX <k8cx at hamgallery.com> and
I will add them to this page.

This years attendance was 24,483.

The weather on May 18, 19, 20, 2012 was very pleasant with temperatures in
the 80's and sunny all 3 days.

(Dayton, OH - May 18, 2012) -- CQ magazine today announced its 2012 Hall of
Fame inductees, celebrating the 45th anniversary of the CQ DX Hall of Fame
with three new members, along with two new inductees into the CQ Contest
Hall of Fame and 16 new members of the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.
The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honors those individuals, whether
licensed hams or not, who have made significant contributions to amateur
radio; and those amateurs who have made significant contributions either to
amateur radio, to their professional careers or to some other aspect of
life on our planet. The 2012 inductees (listed alphabetically) are:

George Badger, W6TC (SK), expert in tubes and tube circuit designs;
executive of Eimac and later President of Svetlana.

Bill Brown, WB8ELK - "Father" of amateur radio high-altitude ballooning.

Robert Brown, NM7M (SK) - Expert on 160-meter propagation, author and
retired physics professor.

Evelyn Gauzens, W4WYR - Chair of the Miami "Tropical Hamboree" hamfest for
45 years; ARRL Southeastern Division Vice Director, Honorary Vice President.

Richard Garriott, W5WKQ – Younger half of first U.S. father-son team to
travel in space. (His father is Owen Garriott, W5LFL, the first astronaut
to operate amateur radio from space, and a 2001 Amateur Radio Hall of Fame
inductee.)

William W. Hansen (no call)(SK), "Father of Microwave Electronics".

Richard Kirby, ex-W0LCT/HB9BOA (SK) - Director of the ITU's International
Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) from 1974 to 1995.

Fred Maia, W5YI (SK) - One of the architects of VE program, first
FCC-designated VEC; editor/publisher W5YI Report; long-time CQ columnist.

Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML - Communications Director, New York City Marathon,
1976-present; former ARRL First Vice President, Director.

Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI - Photojournalist who has covered major news events
around the world for more than 50 years; CQ cover photographer for over 30
years.

Rowley Shears, G8KW (SK) - Founder of KW Electronics in UK; helped
re-establish amateur radio in Germany after World War II.

Mike Staal, K6MYC - Antenna expert, co-founder of KLM and M2 Antennas.

Frederick Terman (ex-6FT, W6AE, W6XH) (SK) - Microwave pioneer, partner
with William Hansen (see above).

Patrick Tice, WA0TDA - Manager, Courage HandiHam System; for more than 20
years.

Louis Varney, G5RV (SK) - Inventor of the G5RV antenna.

William A. Wilson, K6ARO (SK) - First U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican after
formal diplomatic relations were re-established in 1984 after more than a
century.

CQ DX and Contest and DX Halls of Fame:

The CQ DX and Contest Halls of Fame honor those amateurs who not only excel
in personal performance in these major areas of amateur radio but who also
"give back" to the hobby in outstanding ways. The CQ DX Hall of Fame,
founded in 1967, celebrates its 45th anniversary this year.

The 2012 inductees to the CQ DX Hall of Fame are:

Don Chesser, W4KVX (SK) - Pioneering DXer and DXpeditioner; founder of DX
magazine. Don passed away in 1985 and by all means should have been
inducted years ago. That being said he was a DXer 24/7 as he lived,
breathed and shared DX as a leader in the DX field. He was an excellent CW
op and accomplished contester winning the single op category in the CQ WW
CW in 1956 as well as two ARRL CW SS top finishes. Don organized
DXpeditions to VP5BH (Caymans), KC4AF (Navassa), KS4BB (Serrana Bank) and
was part of the all-time new one 4U1ITU. He was also the editor and
publisher of "DX Magazine", which was started on June 4, 1957 as a post
card and quickly grew to "the STANDARD for all DX bulletins". Also during
this period Don server as the DX editor for CQ Magazine.

Glenn Johnson, W0GJ - A leading DXpedtioner, leading many teams, often to
very rare countries; personally responsible for restoring amateur radio in
Bhutan in 2000. W0GJ, Glenn, has been a leader and participant in many
DXpeditions (including TO0R, VK0IR, FT5XM, A52A/A52GJ/A51B, VU4AN/VU3RYJ,
VU7RG, K5Descheo and HK0NA) giving many a new country and new band points.
He too has given back to the hobby as a member of the Northern California
DX Foundation (NCDXF) including his recent choice as Vice President.

Carl Smith, N4AA - Editor and publisher of DX magazine and the weekly "QRZ
DX" bulletin. Also CQ's DX Editor and leader of effort to create Southern
Appalachian Radio Museum. Carl has been delivering the DX news to DXers for
over 15 years and tallies up the DX Magazine's "Most Wanted Survey" for
DXpeditioners to know "Where do we go next". During the 1960's Carl was the
ARRL's Assistant Circulation Manager. He has also served as a BOD member of
INDEXA (International DX Association). Carl is the founder of the
Southeastern DX and Contesting Organization (SEDCO/W4DXCC).

Plaques were presented to Carl Smith N4AA and Glenn Johnson W0CG at the DX
Dinner at the Dayton Marriot Hotel. A plaque was also presented at the DX
Dinner to K8MFO, KB8NW, and K8CX for their nomination of Don Chesser W4KVX.

The 2012 inductees to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame are:

Jim Reisert, AD1C - Maintains and constantly updates the country and prefix
files that are depended upon by virtually all of the major contest and
general logging programs, as well as software for the major DX clusters.
Jim is another 24/7 Contester and DXer and the son of W1JR, Joe. "No one in
recent memory has contributed more to the overall value to DX and
Contesting logging programs than has Jim" says W4GKF, Chaz Cone, on behalf
of the Southeastern DX Club. For years AD1C has been severing both the DX
and Contest communities updating and maintaining multiple databases for the
logging programs we use daily!

Lothar Wilke, DL3TD (SK) - Leading contester and promoter of contesting in
Germany; under his leadership, DA0HQ won the IARU World Championship 11
times. DL3TD, Lothar, died tragically in a house fire last year. His former
calls include DL5ATD, Y24UK, DM2DUK, DM4RFM and Y34K. He was a major player
in the Y34K/DF0HQ/DA0HQ contest station for over 40 years and the driving
force behind the 11 wins as DA0HQ in the IARU World Championship. He also
had multiple first place single op finishes in the WAE and WAG. Lothar also
headed DARC's DX and Contest departments.

N1DG, Don Greenbaum gave a presentation on DXpedition funding, an important
topic in the financially difficult times. Many DXers who attend Don's talk
last Saturday in the DX forum said their eyes were opened at the
astronomical costs associated with DXpeditions to those remote locations to
those rare DXCC Entities, especially south of 60 degrees south. For those
who did not attended, and those who did, can see Don's excellent
presentation, which is now posted on the Northern California DX
Foundation's Website. Go to http://www.ncdxf.org/pages/dxresources.html .

The DX Forum on Saturday, also had excellent presentations on T32C, ST0R
and HK0NA.

Also, announced was the SWODXA's "DXpedition of the Year" given to the
HK0NA Malpelo Island operation, and the "DXpeditioner of the Year" was
given Rudy Klos, DK7PE.

The TopBand Dinner was hosted by Tim, K3LR. 135 TopBand enthusiasts and
many wives attended this event. There were presentations by W3LPL and W2GD.
W3LPL’s presentation "1921 Transatlantic Tests, Progenitors to Modern Top
Band Contests and DXing" is available on-line at:
http://topbanddinner.com/page_presentations.html .

Contest activities at Dayton by K3LR webinar at
http://www.pvrc.org/webinar/dayton_2012.wmv .

Contest University <http://www.contestuniversity.com/> by K3LR was held on
Thursday May 17, 2012, from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Dayton, Ohio. This is the day before the Dayton Hamvention officially
opens. Attendance was around 230. Participants gained much contest
knowledge.

2012 CTU Professors were:
Doug Grant, K1DG, Frank Donovan, W3LPL, Ed Muns, W0YK, Rob Sherwood, NC0B,
Greg Ordy, W8WWV, Joel Harrison, W5ZN, Tim Duffy, K3LR, Tree Tyree, N6TR,
Kurt Andress, K7NV, Scott Dickson, W5WZ, Ramon Santoyo, XE1KK, Bob Wilson,
N6TV, Ira Stoler, K2RD, Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA. 2012 CTU

Topics were: 2012 Contest Radio Performance, RTTY Contesting - 3
progressive sessions, How to Improve your Contest Station, Contest
Preparations, Updated Contest Propagation, Ideas for operating which will
improve your score, Contest Antennas - 3 progressive sessions, New VHF
Contesting, The Spirit of Contest Rules, CW Skimmer, Reverse Beacon
Network, Tower Safety for Contest Stations, Feedline - cable loss and
maintenance, Multi Operator Contest Strategies, Short Vertical Receive
Antennas, 2012 K1DG Eye Ball Sprint, Logging Software Review, Feedline
Chokes and Baluns, Optimizing your Station, Contesting Clubs - organization
and motivation, Small Station Optimization, Contest Operating from Outside
of the USA, Selecting Rotors and Antennas.

"Anyone who is the least bit interested in contesting would be nuts not to
attend if they have the chance." -- W6SZN

We also had a special presentation from the TI5N Youth DX team. Contest
University could not happen without the hard work and dedication by Scott,
W3TX and Jerry, K1SO.

Many Contest friendly vendors provide support to the CTU program. Thanks to
the CTU Board of Directors K1DG, N9JA and K1AR for their guidance.

Eight hours of CTU were live streamed by Tom, KB4HQA

Thanks to Tom, KB4HQA for providing the custom hardware setup and chat
software for the Dayton contest webcam. Over 20 hours were live streamed
from the Crowne Plaza. We received many nice comments from all over the
world. Everyone was very happy for Tom's hard work to provide this exciting
technology. We hope to webcam even more events in 2013.

KB4HQA, Tom Samacicio, the fellow who set up and hosted the live Internet
video cam for Contest University, Contest Dinner and the Hospitality Suite
at Dayton was in the terrible car accident on his way to the Dayton
Airport. He broke his back and neck but didn't have nerve damage. He is now
back home in Georgia. “He has a long road to go to recover, but he is doing
much better”, says K3LR, Tim Duffy. Tom is planning to be at next year’s
Dayton event.

The Contest Super Suite <http://contestsupersuite.com/> on the 1st floor of
Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Dayton was open 4 nights with free pizza all
4 nights. The Mad River Radio Club, Frankford Radio Club and North Coast
Contesters hosted the Contest Super Suite for the 23rd straight year. K8CC
from the Mad River Radio Club, K3WW from the Frankford Radio Club and K3LR
from North Coast Contesters hosted the pizza and QSL (Quaker Stake & Lube)
wing party Thursday night. The Potomac Valley Radio Club and Yankee Clipper
Contest Club hosted two pizza parties in the Super Suite. 93 Pizzas and 300
QSL wings were consumed over all 4 nights - lots of smiles! There were also
hospitality suites on other floors of the Crowne Plaza. There was Society
of Midwest Contesters on the 4th floor, Kansas City DX Club on the 5th
floor, and Northern Ohio DX Assn. on the 10th floor. Crowne Plaza is
definately the place to be in the evening when visiting Hamvention. Please
make it a point to join us there next year.

The 2012 Antenna forum awesome presentations from K4IQJ, K3TUF, K1KP, W2GD,
K4ZA and K9LA will be posted later this week thanks to hosting from N5KO
and help from K5TR. Watch http://www.k3lr.com for links.

Special Guest T6MO:
Eric Hall K9GY was a special guest of K3LR. Eric stayed at the Crowne Plaza
and attended CTU, the Top Band Dinner and the Contest Dinner. Eric is
currently serving in the US Army - deployed in Afghanistan. We were excited
for Eric to spend his leave in Dayton.

Special Guest NN6JA:
John Amodeo, NN6JA visited the Contest Super Suite Friday evening. John is
the producer of “Last Man Standing” a TC show that features Amateur Radio
with Tim Allen.

Special Guest K3LP:
David Collingham, K3LP arrived directly from the 7O6T operation in Yemen,
having operated there only days before.

Special Guest K5GN:
After spending many years living and working in Qatar (A7) – we were
thrilled to see David McCarty, K5GN attend many contesting events in
Dayton. David also won the 2012 Kansas City DX Code Copying Contest on
Saturday night at the KC Hospitality Suite. Congrats David!

Last year in 2011 the Crowne Plaza was under a new manager. The rates for
the Hamvention were close to $200.00 per night. Tim Duffy K3LR came up with
a plan and took responsibility for reserving every room in 2012. This
brought the rates back to a normal around $135.00 per night. Tim also
coordinates the Contest University, Contest Dinner, Contest Super Suite,
Antenna Forums, and more. Thank you Tim K3LR for your endless work to make
things pleasant for all to enjoy...

The Dayton 2012 Photo Gallery <http://hamgallery.com/dayton2012/> is now up
and contains 308 photos by Tom Roscoe K8CX. Others are encouraged to
submit<k8cx at hamgallery.com> their
2012 photos to be included on the Gallery. There must be at least one ham
in the photo that isn't already listed on this page. There is a search
engine on this page to make checking easy. All hams in the photos must be
identified by callsign.

Here is a story about the Society of Midwest Contesters suite on the 4th
floor of Crowne Plaza. It was Friday night, I (K8CX) had just walked to the
SMC door and was addressed by a security cop in uniform. He asked me if I
knew who Paul (K9PG) was. I said yes, I will get him for you. Paul went to
the door and the security guy told Paul he had to go QRT with his SMC
suite. The hotel placed an airline pilot in the room across the hall and he
complained about all the noise (SMC is the noisiest and rowdiest suite at
Crowne). Paul told him the suite has been there in room 425 for decades
during the Hamvention, he paid extra for the larger room, and they weren't
about to go QRT. After some discussion the security cop left and the party
went on (now with the door closed). Im not sure, but I think they may have
moved the pilot to another floor. Whoever put the pilot across the hall
from SMC must have been new at the hotel...hi

Here is a list of this years Silent Keys that were paid tribute at the
Contest Dinner. A moment of silence with much respect was given to: AA5DX,
AA6GZ, HC8FR, IS0OMH, K0BIT, K6EL, K8RR, K8UP, KC2NB, KC6NAX, KI6WF, N6EM,
N6WR, N8AC, N9AG, NF1J, P43JB, PY2DBU, VE2XXA, VE3SY, VE6NM, W1BIH, W2AX,
W2YV, W4ZW, W5AE, W5YI, W5ZL, W6BNB, W6DDB, WV1K, YV5ANT, ZL1AMO, ZL2JR.

Additional information for this page on Dayton 2012 can be submitted
to K8CX<k8cx at hamgallery.com>
.