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 Previous: ARRL Senior News Editor Rick Lindquist, N1RL, to Retire |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
May 11, 2007
This week, get ready for next week and the real big ham radio show in Ohio.
Next weekend, the Dayton Hamvention will be the place for all hams to be live (or virtual).
Next weekend, the biggest Amateur Radio convention this side of the Milky Way takes place in Dayton, Ohio. About 20,000-30,000 hams descend on the hometown of the Wright Brothers for one big QSO at the Dayton Hamvention® to renew acquaintances with friends and colleagues, to hear the makers and shakers talk about what they make and shake, to check out the new equipment on display on the convention floor indoors and to check out the “antique” equipment on sale in the flea market outdoors.
If you cannot make it to Dayton in person, you can still attend virtually. As in past years, Tom Medlin, WA5KUB, will broadcast live 24 hours a day at the Hamvention from his set up at flea market spaces 3350-3351. Wearing his “helmet cam,” Tom plans to document his Hamvention experience — including driving the 550 miles to and from Dayton, going to restaurants, manning his flea market booth and more. The live show begins at approximately 1300 UTC on Wednesday. Visit Tom’s Web site to see what’s on now.
Past Hamventions are documented on the Internet, too. Go to your favorite photo-sharing Web site, like flickr, for example, search on hamvention and you will have a slew of photos to view (there were 489 on flickr the last time I looked). Similarly, you can find Hamvention videos on video hosting Web sites like YouTube.
Joe Eisenberg, K0NEB, has been creating excellent videos and slideshows of recent past Hamventions and he will be doing it again this year. You can view his slideshows at his home page and his videos at YouTube and Yahoo!.
By the way, I will be attending the Hamvention this year. You can follow my road trip live via APRS at findu.com and read about my Hamvention adventures on my blog.
I often have a laugh about how I drive 711 miles to the Hamvention to run into a ham friend who lives only a few miles from me. In fact, this year at Dayton, I plan to meet in person for the first time the editor of this column, Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA, who lives a mere 15 miles away from me in Connecticut. On the other hand, Hamvention also gives me the opportunity to meet hams that live thousands of miles away! And so it goes.
One more thing: If you are attending, I’d love to meet you at the Hamvention, too. I will be moderating the APRS Forum on Saturday at 11 AM-noon in Room 5, as well as hanging my hat at TAPR booths 606-608 most of the rest of the weekend. I hope to see you there!
Until next time, keep on surfin’.
Editor’s note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, says that a bad day at the Dayton Hamvention is better than a good day at work. If you disagree, send him an e-mail or add comments to his blog. By the way, every installment of Surfin’ is indexed here, so go look it up (whatever it may be).
| Previous: ARRL Senior News Editor Rick Lindquist, N1RL, to Retire | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
