The day has dawned sunny, dry and pleasantly cool. Attendance is light, but this is typical of Hamvention Sunday. The event doesn't officially end until 1PM, but I won't be surprised to see dealers tearing down by noon.

W1AW/8 is still on the air. They've worked more than 400 stations so far.

One of the hit attractions in the ARRL booth has been the Collins van (see the accompanying photos). This vehicle is a beauty, as are the rigs inside!

Lots to blog about today!

Started out around 8:30 again, but felt much more rested, which was good! There wasn't much time to wake up, because as soon as we got there the fun began. Richard Garriott (Dayton's superstar) signed autographed pictures at the youth lounge.

The Kit Building station was very busy and all day the aroma of melting metal could be found. A large group of kids came through at one time, building 24-hour clocks and a few code oscillators.

I made it to the Youth forum and there some pretty cool presentations! Some study tips for getting your Technician, two brothers talked about DXing, and a few other very interesting subjects. The highlight however, was when they presented the awards to the speakers. The awards included a big surprise, an Icom radio!

Our day at Hara ended up with the privelege of driving Peter G3RZP. Peter was president of the Radio Society of Great Britain in 1996 to Crowne Plaza.

Almost time for Contest dinner, followed by the Kansas City DX Club pile-up competition.

The crowds are still thick, but some are beginning to make their way to the exits. Hamvention is open until 5 PM and you can bet there will still be stragglers right up to 4:59:50.

Despite the troubled economy, the mood is still upbeat. Dealers tell us sales are strong. What's selling? Accessories and software appear to be extremely popular. So are antennas. I'm not seeing as many big-ticket transceivers heading out the doors, but some hams prefer to wait until Sunday in hope of saving some extra cash on a last-minute deal.

ARRL Youth Booth volunteer Kaitlyn Sue Cole, KS3P, visited the W1AW/8 special event station and worked a number of stations on 20 meter SSB.

Just finished my Digital Contesting forum and I was astonished at the attendance. Either there are more people interested in digital contesting than I thought, or many folks just needed somewhere to rest for an hour.