[SMCARA] Dayton 2013

[Clarke, Tom AIR4.0P NATOPS]

Well, another Dayton is "in the can" as they say in Hollywood
(California state, that is)!

I drove out Thursday morning and caught up with my friends from the
radio club in Lansing Michigan.  They have an Airstream trailer devoted
to Dayton and have had the same flea market spot for 25 years! That was
our home base and we kept cold drinks and sandwich fixings in the fridge
(powered by solar panels and a battery bank!). We stayed in the Drury
Inn, close to the Hamfest.  Free happy hour in the evening with heavy
Hor'doerves and a free breakfast in the morning. Not cheap at $116 a
night, but saves you on dinner and breakfast. Next year the rate will go
up to $169! Wow!

Got to the flea market at 7:30 to set up on Friday morning and the crowd
showed up around 8.  By 9 the crowd was massive.  I don't know what the
gate was this time, but everyone said it was bigger than last year and
folks were spending money. I sold a couple of old radios and covered the
cost of gas and the hotel, plus a few trinkets from the flea. I found a
nice matching speaker for my old Hallicrafters SX-71 receiver. You can't
go to a hamfest and not buy some coax, connectors and Powerpoles - so I
did!

One vendor was selling Chinese 2M HTs for $39.95, no tax! He had sold
500 on the first day!  Some folks bought 3 or 4. My high school pal, Joe
W8JRK, bought one and it works fine. He couldn't program it from the
radio keypad and had to resort to a laptop!  I still have trouble
figuring out my "Wouff Hong" (google that for the whole story!) Chinese
HT, so I didn't feel too bad as Joe is a PHD and was a department head
at Michigan State!

There must have been at least 6 different vendors selling rig control
programs, like Ham Radio Deluxe, N4PY, etc. They are pretty spiffy and
do all sorts of stuff. Like, listening to DX spotting lists and
automatically tuning your radio to the spot and swinging your beam!

There are literally hundreds of "mom and pop" entrepreneurs out there
catering to the ham world.  Small kits, connectors, antenna kits, parts
suppliers, tools, instruction manual reprints, "restuffed" can
capacitors for fixing old radios, tube vendors, used equipment vendors
(including the infamous Martyn of RadioMart fame), software vendors,
just about anything about ham radio!  Of course, all the big names Icom,
Yaesu, Kenwood, TenTec, Elecraft, etc had big displays. The ARRL had a
huge display with about 20 sub booths set up at one end of the hall.
Just about every department of the ARRL was displayed.  You could even
bring your QSL cards and qualify for DXCC, etc.  It is actually fun to
talk with the HQ gang and find that they are pretty much just like other
hams. Didn't see Wayne Green, W2NSD of 73 Magazine fame, but I suppose
he is getting up in age.  Gordo West was everywhere, wearing his bow
tie, of course!

Just to make it an official Dayton adventure, the skies opened up on
Saturday afternoon for an hour, but soon the sun and the flea market
buyers were out again!  No sewage backups this year! They even made an
effort to keep the bathrooms relatively clean and stocked with paper
towels.

Dayton Hamvention food is on a par with any other hamfest - that is,
horrible! Although there was a vendor selling Brats, that looked pretty
good!  The Good Humor man did a land office business after the sun came
out. Several flea market vendors had their "harmonics" selling ice cold
water and sodas from coolers - clever idea!

The trip home on Sunday was uneventful.  I had my Icom 7000 in the car
with a 10M mag mount on the roof.  Ten was dead as could be, so no QSOs.
Made a few Q's on 52 simplex, but mostly listened to Sirius.

If you have never been to Dayton, you must plan on it.  The Hara Arena,
the Hamvention venue, is old, dirty and decrepit, and will likely fall
down in the near future, as they don't seem to put much money into
repair and upkeep.  Wherever the Hamvention winds up, it won't have the
"atmosphere" of the original. 

It's like a Muslim going to Mecca- you must do it once in your life!

73 tom/W4OKW


Tom Clarke
P-3/C-130 Program Support, PEO(A)
USN/USMC National Airworthiness Office
Naval Air Systems Command, AIR-4.0P
(301) 995-3793/DSN 995-3793
Fax: (301) 342-3276
Cell (301) 904-2053
frederic.clarke at navy.mil
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only 
because rough men stand in violence on their behalf."
George Orwell