Dayton

[K5UJ]

Just got back from Dayton about an hour ago.   Random observations merely my opinions etc. feel free to disagree...Friday morning was the best.  Got in to flea mkt. at 8 am.   Some good things but you had to have $$$ and be fast i.e. not willing to wait around and see if prices come down.  Globe King 500, National rx 300, 303, HQ 170 and 180, Rangers, Pacemaker, Vikings, a Gonset HF tx and companion amp, big B&W tx, Lots of Collins mil surplus rx and ham band rx and tx from the black wrinkle box days, a really nice DX100 at the Harbaugh tent...prices seemed pretty high and sellers all seemed to be organized against bargaining--I bought a few minor things--bird wattmeter, small AF tube amp, AF sig. gen. and a Unique Wire Tuner and I'd make offers and get told the price is the price (but they'd eventually knock off 10%).  This happened so much I figured there was some sort of pact made on Thursday night but who knows.  Most of the boatanchor gear I saw looked pretty clean and cared for.  There were around 6 KW matchboxes for $300-$350 and a lot of 250 w. ones for around $100-$150.   Someone had a good looking "used for 3 months" AL1500 for $1700 which was one of the better deals out there if you want an 8877 amp assuming it works okay.  Lots of high power components--big roller inductors, vac. variables etc.  there were one or two nice looking five or six foot racks for around  $60.

By around mid-day Friday, most anything good was taken.  MFJ sold out on their balanced feedline RF amp meters surprisingly.  The Wireman is selling 600 ohm ladder line spacers, 50 for $20; Ten Tec has a new L network tuner with a better meter and a larger air variable cap but for yikes, $900.

Saturday stank.  The wx wasn't very good--cloudy and raining off and on in the morning, and the foot traffic was light.  So many flea market sellers took off that there were big holes out in the flea market which made Hamvention look more like an average hamfest at noon on Sunday.  Most of what was there was junk.  If I had worked on Friday and not shown up until Saturday morning, I would have been very disappointed.

73

Rob K5UJ


I'm sorry I can't be more specific; I wish I'd taken notes but maybe others can fill in details with more brain cells active.

[KB5MD]

Thanks for the report.  Makes me feel better about not being able to make this one.
 

[N3DRB The Derb]

I've never heard anything positive about dayton. Since about 1990 its always been sucky, so the reports say.

I'll be curious to get a report from K4KYV.

[K5UJ]

Don't read too much into what I wrote--it's still worth going to in my opinion as long as you are there for the first day.  I did get some good deals, but I didn't score anything major because I wasn't there for that.  While there were no atomic piles, i.e. no 3cx3000 amps, no old 1 Kw input AM rigs; anything like that, there was a lot for an AMer if he wanted a tx that would do a 100 to 200 w. carrier, plus nice to have stuff like high Z mics, AF signal generators (I picked up one of those) and a few moderately reasonable tube AF amps.  I bought an old tube 12 w. heathkit AF amp with a 6 microvolt input that I'm gg to try using to amp up the  product detector output of my yaesu rx to drive a speaker, or use with a turntable to play records.  We swept it Sat. night with the sig. generator and it sounded real clean. 

These are some of the things I bought that I probably would not purchase on eBay but when I can walk around, pick something up and look at it, talk to the seller, and make a deal, hand over the cash and carry, I'll do it.  Once I'm there, I'd much rather buy old gear that way than on-line.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I didn't go this year. I heard there was little or no rain, so that's a plus. For the AMer, I've found the NEAR Fest to be far superior to Dayton in quantity and quality. And there's far less crap to look through and far less ground to cover. Throw in the fact that it's less hassle to get in and out of the fest, and a much more friendly operation, and Dayton seems less and less worth attending. YMMV.

[Bill, KD0HG]

I didn't go this year. I heard there was little or no rain, so that's a plus. For the AMer, I've found the NEAR Fest to be far superior to Dayton in quantity and quality. And there's far less crap to look through and far less ground to cover. Throw in the fact that it's less hassle to get in and out of the fest, and a much more friendly operation, and Dayton seems less and less worth attending. YMMV.

For you Easties!

I haven't been to Dayton since the early 1980s.

[k4kyv]

The flea market was sparse but I thought the quality of stuff had improved over previous years.  I didn't see too much of the junked computer stuff, industrial surplus items like hydraulic pumps, etc, and not a lot of the typical non-radio "craft" rubbish.  There seemed to be more AM rigs of various sorts than SSB transceivers, but not many tubes, transformers or air variables.

I didn't pick up a lot of stuff this year, but my biggest haul was when I first entered the gate.  A guy had a couple of boxes full of books and I looked through one of them and found a couple of Jones Radio handbooks and a 1930 ARRL handbook.  I asked the guy what he wanted for them, and he said $1 apiece.  Then asked me if I wanted to buy both boxes for $5 each.  They were full of vintage books and magazines, such as 1930's era Radio Craft and Radio News.  Within 10 minutes after the flea market had opened at 8:00, I was walking out the gate with the load.

John, KN4ME picked up a working BC-348 for $20 from the same guy.

The vendor said all this stuff was from an estate and all he wanted to do was get rid of it.  He obviously didn't know he had a gold mine of collectors' items that could have fetched many times what he was asking.

The reason I didn't buy much more at the flea market was that most of what I saw that I would have gone ape over a few years ago, I already have 1, 2 or 3 copies of now, and don't need another.

Due to the rain Saturday, I spent more time than usual indoors, and attended 3 forums.  Bob Heil's forum on audio quality was filled standing room only.  He made some interesting observations in his talk. It was oriented primarily towards SSB, but most of his observations about typical ham audio were spot on.  The FCC forum featured Laura Smith, Riley's replacement.  Although people were standing at the back, there were plenty of empty seats towards the front.  I won't go into details, since her whole speech will undoubtedly be dissected on numerous other amateur radio sites. I attended part of the Collins forum, but the speaker was going into minutia of restoring a 32S series transmitter, and I left before it was over. The room was about 60% filled for that one.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Come to NEAR Fest. You won't be disappointed!

I didn't go this year. I heard there was little or no rain, so that's a plus. For the AMer, I've found the NEAR Fest to be far superior to Dayton in quantity and quality. And there's far less crap to look through and far less ground to cover. Throw in the fact that it's less hassle to get in and out of the fest, and a much more friendly operation, and Dayton seems less and less worth attending. YMMV.

For you Easties!

I haven't been to Dayton since the early 1980s.

[K5UJ]

I've heard the the fest in Orlando (?) Hamcation or something like that is also good.  lots of sunbelt retirees hauling out their old rigs to sell.  I guess the biggest big AM rig I saw was the globe king.  There were some Drakes, later JA rigs and a few Ten Tecs; I just didn't mention them because I figured no one here would care that much. 

Don, I saw you in the back at the Collins thing & was gg to go introduce myself but when I looked around later you had already taken off.  Maybe next year.

[WB2YGF]

I've heard the the fest in Orlando (?) Hamcation or something like that is also good.  lots of sunbelt retirees hauling out their old rigs to sell.  I guess the biggest big AM rig I saw was the globe king.  There were some Drakes, later JA rigs and a few Ten Tecs; I just didn't mention them because I figured no one here would care that much. 

We did Hamcation about 5 years ago. Stayed with relatives, borrowed their car, went to Universal Studios, did the Mardi Gras, saw Joan Jet.  Had a total blast.  I think we did the Florida State Fair the same trip.  Only PITA was bringing stuff home on the plane.  I bought a huge suitcase at the hamfest for $10 to carry it all in.

[N3DRB The Derb]

well the md FM fester at Howard CO. fairgrounds ( maryland) will be on teh 25th. Thats my next stop.

[WB3JOK]

I had to work until noon on Friday and couldn't get out there until after closing on Friday. So I went Sat. and the intermittent showers were there as predicted 
Used an umbrella for the first one, went to lunch for the second, drove down to Mendelson's for the third (I used to spend a lot of rainy Saturdays on the 3rd floor when I lived in Dayton '92-'96), and the fourth and worst hit around 3:30 PM so I went to all the indoor exhibit halls then.

During the periods of non-rain I browsed the flea market and there were a few interesting things but many were wildly overpriced IMHO. But near the front, there was a trailerload of military surplus stuff being sold by the pound ($1/lb) so I took a chance on a dirty but complete Tek 453 scope for $25.

Down at Mendelson's warehouse there was an HP 124 display unit with an 8577A(?) 0.01-350 MHz spectrum analyzer plugin in the compartment. Had a trace with a zero-Hz "bump" so it's not completely dead, anyway. I asked the price and was told at the counter "it's an old scope, $75" so I paid and ran before someone figured out it was worth quite a bit more than that. Had to leave my stuff with friends in Xenia since I have to fly home from where I'm working in two weeks 

I also stopped by the "DX-60 AM tent" and left my autograph on their sign. I saw a number of familiar callsigns from AMfone there, but no "live" members 

Naturally by 6 PM Saturday it was perfectly clear and sunny. I met up with a couple of guys from the "72 Chew" (7.272) net and we hung out at Fricker's on the new "Restaurant Row" north of town. Lots of other hams in there. Sunday was 50 degrees and clear but I didn't go back for dumpster-diving with the 6.5 hour drive pending.

Not sure what the official attendance figures are but I would be surprised if it broke 20,000. I have only missed a few years since 1992 and it was closer to 40,000 then. As pointed out, lots of empty spaces in the flea market even at 8 AM Saturday. It has been far more exciting in past years...

just my .02 worth
-Charles
WB3JOK

[Opcom]

On the pricey stuff, and sellers not wanting to haggle, did they leave with the gear they brough as usual in that situation, or did people pay the higher prices?

[k4kyv]

If you missed Friday, Saturday would not even have been worth driving 100 miles if you were mainly interested in the flea market.  Most of the good stuff went in a hurry.  That's why I missed 4 years in a row; a work conflict prevented me from arriving until Saturday, so I stayed home.

If attendance stays down, I wish they would go back to just having it on Saturday and Sunday, and opening it at 6 AM like they used to.  And they could reduce the size of the flea market area so there wouldn't be so many empty spaces, and convert the rest back to general parking for those wanting to get close to the flea market.  As it is, many people rent a vendor space just so they can park inside and not have to haul heavy stuff 1/2 mile back to the vehicle.

I don't go for "bargains" any more.  Just for hard-to-find items I haven't been able to locate, and usually prepared to pay a premium price.

The unexpected bargain of books & mags included an assortment of 1930's Radio News and Radio Craft.  Some interesting reading, but the mags are mostly oriented towards broadcast listening, not amateur radio.

I added a new ARRL handbook (1934), a new Radio handbook (7th edition), and some dupes of ones already in my collection, but in much better condition than my originals.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I'm still here at my hotel. Will be leaving Monday morning for the drive back to NJ. As a vendor, I got to tour the vendor setups on Thursday. Saw lots and lots of boatanchors and lots changing hands on that day. Friday was definitely the busier of the 3 three days with great weather throughout the day. Several times around my spaces, it was so busy, I kept losing tract who I was talking to. With the several rain downpours on Saturday, and the periodic spitting of rain throughout the day, table action was way down. Plus, I lost several early hours on Saturday morning, since I'm supporting several inside vendors with products. Of course, around 6PM Saturday, the weather turned beautiful. Sunday's weather was also great and a number of vendors hung around that normally would have been gone, but good customer traffic was light except to the typical bottom feeder types. I bought nothing, but several people came by with free bags of manuals for my collection.

[WD8BIL]

For you Easties!
I haven't been to Dayton since the early 1980s.

Smae story here, Bill.

I LIVE in Ohio and haven't been there since '87.
I got my fill of it when I worked in the "industry". Was there every year, from start to finish, 1975 to 1986.

 

[K5UJ]

On the pricey stuff, and sellers not wanting to haggle, did they leave with the gear they brough as usual in that situation, or did people pay the higher prices?

I'd say it might have been a little of both.  I was really tempted to buy one of the Kw Matchboxes, not because I need one but because I always wanted one, but I ran out of cash first.  Don is right on about the changes if attendance stays low.  I was really hoping this would be a better year with gas less than last year, and what I had heard about hams leaving eBay for hamfests.  The guys I was with all decided to only come for one day next year and either leave on Saturday or go do something else like go to the air force museum.  My next hamfest (not really a hamfest though) will probably be the Midwest Classic Radio Hamboree in Elburn IL.  One of the Dishtronix guys, the ones who make the $10K s.s. amp told me they've sold 9 of them so far.  Takes them a month to build one.  This is probably the only commercial s.s. amp that can handle 375 w. AM for any length of time.   Found out Ameritron sells their 50 v. amp p.s. separately for anyone who wants to hb a s.s. amp but is having difficulty building the p.s.  Palstar was there with their new version of Pat Stein's Command amps.  Redesigned front panel to make it look like all the other Palstar stuff but the inside looked the same (fortunately).   They told me they still make the export amp, which to me is probably the only commercially made amp now, that is good for high power buzzard AM, but they don't list it on their website because they won't ship it to U.S. addresses.  Still has the 80 lb. B+ transformer etc. but costs somewhere between $6K and $7K.  I didn't pay close attention because I know I'll have to make one rather than buy theirs, or get a high level modulated tx.

[NE4AM]

I thought it was a pretty fair event, left Saturday afternoon with only $1 in my pocket.

The highlight for me was seeing the 10KW Omnitronix solid-state AM transmitter.  I was at the 1990 NAB show when they introduced their 1 KW transmitter.  Fairly low-cost, unsophisticated rig.  The one at the show was incomplete.  Sitting on top of the cabinet was a pile of Kahn AM Stereo stuff.  Some decent QRO coulda been yours for $3500.

I had a good talk with Greg K9QI.  He's designed some boards for running Compatible SSB, which folds all the sideband energy of your AM signal onto one side of the carrier, but is still detectable with an envelope detector with no distortion.  If you guys hear him on the air, ask him about it.

73 Dave

[KA8WTK]

  I was there for all three days. Like others have said, Friday beautiful, Saturday a little rainy and Sunday cold but clear.
  There were more boatanchors there than I remember seeing in other years. Missed seeing some of my friends who decided not to attend this year. (Pete, you were busy every time I was over by your space!) Prices did seem a bit high, probably the e-pay effect. Less computer junk and craft stuff. For a good shopping time, Friday was the day to be there. A lot of vendors pulled out before the Saturday rain, Sunday was like a ghost town in the flea market. I did meet a number of the vendors who were staying at the KOA.
  On Friday and Saturday I was wearing a hat that says " I transmit... therefore AM". I had a lot of folks who commented on how much they liked the hat. NO negative comments from anyone. I spent my time walking slow and discovered a lot of folks with modern rigs who have just recently discovered the AM function on their radio and have started using AM and like it!
  Is Dayton what it used to be? No, but with most of the "old guard" hamfests dying, what is?. (The exception to this is NEAR Fest) Is it still fun to go? Yes. Will I go again? Already made my reservation for the KOA.

Bill
  

[W9GT]

Well, after reading some of the negative comments...I wondered if we went to the same place!  We had a great time.  Of course, Friday was the best day...WX was beautiful...it was actually a little hot.  A real highlight for me was having the opportunity to meet Robert, W0VMC in person for the first time.  Also saw several other AM pals gathered at the DX-60 Net tables and generally really enjoyed ourselves.  We had a really wonderful dinner with several AMers Friday night at Troy, OH. ...really nice little town with a very nice Italian restaurant.

Sat. was another story for the WX, but we managed to see quite a bit between the rain showers.  The flea market was definitely down in size, but there seemed to be a lot of good boatanchor stuff...prices were all over the map.

Another fun experience at Dayton...there for my 41st year.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[W2DU]

Sons Rick, W8KHK, and Bill, W2WM, and I were at Dayton Friday and Saturday. A lot of good stuff followed them home, but the only thing that followed me was an iMicro Webcam that I just now discovered needs an amcap.exe to make it play. Where o where can one find this file? Duh!

For me there were two highlights at Dayton:

1) Meeting Don at Marion's Piazza Saturday night. We arrived there about 5pm for beers and a little rest. Several other hams showed up around 6:45, including Butch, K0BS. Then later a bunch from the Collins Classic showed up. Good time! However, I wanted to kill myself when after we departed Marion's on discovering that we forgot to get a picture of us with Don--Damn!

2) Meeting with Dick Ross, K2MGA, owner of CQ Communications, and his Managing Editor, Gail Sheehan, K2RED. CQ is presently preparing my book Reflections 3 for publication, which wil be released around the end of Summer.

'til next year then, and Don, hope you're there again so I can correct the error in not getting a picture with you this time.

Walt, W2DU

[k4kyv]

We had a really wonderful dinner with several AMers Friday night at Troy, OH. ...really nice little town with a very nice Italian restaurant.

John KN4ME, Gary K4XK and I went to what we thought was that restaurant Friday night, but saw no other AM'ers there.  Not sure of the name of the restaurant, but it was on the corner near the main drag.  The food was  exceptional, and I have decided that if I am ever in the vicinity again, I'll make a special trip over to Troy just to find that restaurant again.  Next year's Dayton, for sure.

Maybe we got there too early (about 6 PM).  We stayed overnight at Gary's house in Shinbone OH, which is about 50 mi. north of the hamfest site, so we finished the meal and headed north.

I usually prefer to eat at 7-8 PM, but we didn't want to kill that much time around Dayton after the hamfest.

None of our crew particularly likes the food at Marion's, so we had dinner at another restaurant before arriving there Saturday night.  That took care of the time-killing chore between the flea market and 7 PM. I just sipped on white wine at Marion's (they chill their red wine, which sucks).

[k4kyv]

One thing I did notice this year was that the crowd at Dayton seemed to be in better physical condition than in the past.

My wife came with me one year, back in the 80's, and remarked that she had never before seen so many big arses, big guts and neurotic faces crammed together in one place in her entire life.  It has long been an ongoing joke about the body size and lack of hygiene amongst the attendees.

This year I saw less of that.  Not so many morbidly obese people; only one or two had food stains all over the front of their shirt, and I don't remember encountering anyone who smelt particularly bad, even while everyone was huddled inside during rainy periods on Saturday.

And fewer of those notorious Daytonmobiles - you know, the electric scooters with aggressive drivers who plough their way through the crowd, running over other peoples' feet and colliding with their ankles, with scornful expressions on their face because you didn't get out of their way fast enough.

[KB2WIG]

 " My wife came with me one year, back in the 80's, and remarked that she had never before seen so many big arses, big guts and neurotic faces crammed together in one place in her entire life.  It has long been an ongoing joke about the body size and lack of hygiene amongst the attendees. "

Its just natrul selection... 

Fat+booze+tobacco+inactivity

klc

[WB2YGF]

Not so many morbidly obese people;

That's because they all died.