Dayton Hamvention 2010 is over…
Someone asked me when I first came to Dayton, & i told him it was 1965. Archie Carpenter drove me over, & I was ecstatic over operating his TR-3 mobile from his 1964 Chevy Impala convertible. What a trip & treat that was for a pimply-faced 15 year old kid! Archie never could get his son (who WAS licensed) totally pumped up about ham radio, but I was an eager & willing substitute, all right. He did a lot to encourage me.
But I digress…the questioning ham wanted to know what was different, & I had to admit that HARA ARENA seemed much the same to me today as it did 45 years ag0–when it first came to the arean, moving from a hotel site downtown! That’s neither a condemnation, nor an endorsement, merely a simple declarative statement.
Did not see much of real interest there, either from a vendor or manufacturer, or even in the flea market, from the brief few minutes I spent walking through it. My real reason for going is the contest hospitality suites, & they were, as usual, packed with friends, new acquaintances, a few foreign hams (EU attendees were way down this year), old pals & contest buddies. Truly worth one’s time & attention. While no new tower jobs seem to have been born in the wind there, one never knows. The presentation in the Contest Forum on the NR5M station rebuild generated considerable buzz, so perhaps a note or phone call will be forthcoming. Did meet & chat w/K9CT, who, if he gets his permits, will be building a station, with 18 towers!
Drove over to visit my Mother on Sunday. Drove home through an amazing series of thunderstorms last night, getting home around 1AM. Wayyyyy too old for such silliness, but so it goes…
Off to AL for tower work on Wednesday AM.
stay tuned
