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Author Topic: Dayton Hamvention  (Read 4222 times)
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KA3EKH
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« on: February 14, 2019, 10:39:30 AM »

We are a little over ninety days until the Dayton, or is it now Xenia Hamvention. Just went ahead and paid for my two spaces 7839 and 7939 and that was a quick $140 for that, $22.00 for an admission ticket and will also be shelling out for a hotel up in Springfield that will be over $140 a night that any other time of the year rents for $70 and have to say that I am a little concerned looking at the list of reserved flee market spaces on

https://info.pcboard.ca/hamvention/

I see a little over one hundred of the just over six hundred spaces not taken. Think this means that roughly one out of every six flee market spaces are open and not rented. That not including any people who were there last year and may not show up this year, the Hamvention automatically renew your listing from last year in the same space and it’s up to you to pay and attend. Don’t know at what point they declare it an open space.

The venue, concessions and everything about the location is far better than the hole that was Harra Arena with its pot holed excuse of a parking lot, septic system eruptions and dark dilapidated buildings and they did do a better job controlling the mud last year in the infield but have to wonder about the future of the Hamvention.

One thing I have to say is that I do a lot of selling at Ham fest, many items that are too big and just don’t want to be dealing with EBay and all the issues with shipping, fees and a lot of the flakes that buy stuff on EBay and as fest go I always make the most money at Dayton and tend to be able to sell things like truckloads of R-390 receivers or KWM-2A sets that just don’t sell at the smaller fest but if things keep going in the same direction just can’t see much of a future in selling there with what it cost to attend.

Don’t know, maybe it’s just me but the thing that gets me the most is that all the Hotels in Dayton / Springfield at least double if not more there rate for the Hamvention. When you book online you can see their current rates and when you put the dates in for the Hamvention they at least double. The quality of the service is the same but you get to pay twice as much. Think the hotel the Collins collectors stay in now is over $200 per night in Fairborn. I use to stay in Fairborn but now find Springfield just as good, ten years ago the Springfield hotels did not do the double rate thing but today it looks like they all do.
Use to stay at the Quality Inn just off I-70 and they are currently $65 a night and they only jump up to $95 but that place was somewhat of an experience.


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Patrick J. / KD5OEI
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« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2019, 01:06:55 PM »

Last time I stayed in an inexpensive motel (Knights Inn) the people upstairs had two large dogs that galloped back and forth all night and ladies of the evening kept knocking on my door.

By far the strangest lodging experience was just outside a tiny little town in Texas at 3AM with nowhere else to stop, where the proprietors had an elaborate curtained shrine behind the counter, in which was ensconced a large, old, and evil-looking home-made painted wooden idol in it with a green face, red-tipped white fangs, and bulging eyes, all the more unusual because it had what appeared to be real hair on its head and as a moustache. The idol had fresh sliced fruit and incense put before it on a long narrow tray. Maybe it was silly but I barred the door with the desk and chair before retiring and put my revolver under my pillow. The continental breakfast, for humans anyway, was on a card table in the lobby: sliced bread, a toaster (no butter), and a coffee pot with styrofoam cups, but the abomination had new fresh fruit and what looked like little undercooked meatballs on its tray. It had been $35 'cash only' and there were plenty of vacanies. I love our freedoms -and- cheap motels, but I couldn't help wondering the next day while driving, if everyone who checked in there actually checked out.
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Detroit47
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« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2019, 03:38:17 PM »

After the fiasco of  the first year, I can't see my self going back. It was bad enough that it was a mud hole, but some jerk with a 4 wheel drive pickup was flying down the isle. He flew past my spaces and coated myself and my tables with mud. I approached the fellow about it and he got loud. I walked away I didn't want to go to jail that day. They jack up the hotel cost to double the usual rate. I can't see my self loosing 4 days pay. Paying for a crappy hotel to stay in some Podunk town. They should have just let it die. The swap has been going down hill for twenty years. All they seem to be concerned with is filling their coffers. When I asked if they where going to give any type of reimbursement for the dismal conditions. They said no everyone else liked it. What do I look like a Christmas ham. I don't need any smoke blown up ...........

John N8QPC
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KA3EKH
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« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2019, 10:02:09 AM »

If you look at the amount of promotion that’s been going on  in QST and how packed the dealer and sales pavilions are I have to wonder if maybe the flea market aspect of the Hamvention is being pushed off to the side and being left to wither and die? Or is it that the entire concept of used equipment, homebuilt and playing around with old radios is itself died out?
Pure speculation on my part but is there a effort to make the Hamvention into a convention where they just talk and show the newest and latest technology and the hell with all that old junk and the people who want to mess with it? Looking at the ARRL it appears that’s their main interest is in pushing you to go out and buy the newest whatever and that if you’re not on the cutting edge or using the newest digital mode you not a complete Ham.
I work in a technical field and have to deal with installing the latest software, operating systems and hardware every day and the last thing I want to do when I am not at work is have to download stuff and resolve set up issues, so I prefer to work with the technology of the past where you can get in, make changes and work with things at a slower pace. After all it is a hobby and not a business. So that’s the question is Hamvention evolving into something more along the lines of a boat show, where everything is about the newest and most expensive or will it still reflect whatever the general state of the hobby is?
And what is the general state of the hobby? Maybe this is the future and people like me that are getting older and prefer to waste time on technology from our past just need to get out of the way for the Hams of the future? Although most of the people I know, see at the fest and have talked with are just as old if not older then I am so where are all these Hams of the future? Maybe by getting rid of us old buzzard Hams that will entice theses young Hams out to the events? Yet another reason to kill off the flea market.

Have to remember your Bell “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us” Somehow always thought that was a bible quote but apparently not. Maybe if Hamvention is failing in my expatiations or costing too much it is time to make this the last trip, but other regional sales like Frostfest are doing great and maybe look to a future of more online and local stuff.

 


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WA2SQQ
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« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2019, 10:44:28 AM »

All of the above, and more, is why I prefer Orlando. And having nice weather in Feb is a plus. Start shopping Jet Blue early and I've gotten a round trip for $138. Plenty of lodging and no price gouging. Orlando is a large hamfest, getting bigger every year. Oh ya, and the weekend admission is ~$14
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W1ITT
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« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2019, 01:37:17 PM »

In response to KA3EKH's comments, I don't see the hamfest trend as a conspiracy to marginalize boat anchor or AM enthusiasts.  It's reflective of the demographics of ham radio.  Those of us who grew up dreaming of the then unattainable Collins rigs in the Catalog Section of the Handbook are now getting too old to comfortably lift those rigs.  And many of us who wanted to recreate the dreams of our youth have already acquired what we want.   In the last two decades, the price of S-Lines, Gold Dust Twins, and the various Johnsons and other big name boat anchor radios has generally decreased.  Twenty years ago a 75A4 was gold.  Now it's just a cool relic of the past.  And the war surplus goodies have a separate dwindling market of their own.  Add to all this the fact that Anan and Flex SDR rigs, run into linear amplifiers, make lovely AM without the hernia factor.   It's not everyone's favorite way to make AM, but it works.  Yup, I have a pair of Gold Dust Twins and I admire the quality and remember that era, but I have no visions of ever getting rich selling them.
With K1RQG (sk) and W1GWU, I ran Hosstraders for 34 years, during the heyday of ham flea markets.  Aside from just having a great time, we looked at the flea market acreage as a good way to generate revenue utilizing otherwise low-value space.  And it's going to be the same at Xenia or anywhere else where folks are able to set up an awning and table, or drive a pickup truck into a space and drop the tailgate.  If  the DARC had wanted to kill off the flea market in favor of the high price indoor exhibitors, they would have rented a dance hall  downtown and called it good enough.  And QST's viability depends on lots of ad  pages  (What would they ever do if MFJ went out of business?), so there's not much incentive for them to promote boat anchors.  There's just no money to be made for them.  Heck, their coverage of WA1HLR's work to bring the Gates transmitter into the ham bands was a rare surprise .
For me, a ham flea market used to be a great place to acquire "stuff" and visit with friends.  Now, it's a whole let less about stuff, and more about the friends who are still left and able to be there.   Things evolve, and not always in the way we want them to.  Remember the grand old days and try to find some enjoyment in the ones we have left with the friends we still have.
Norm W1ITT
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K1JJ
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« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2019, 05:07:23 PM »

Interesting comments about ham flea markets.

I really enjoy hearing and talking about ham trends - just as much as technology.

What amazes me the most about the flea mkts… is the motivation, drive and enthusiasm that I (and most of us) once had to spend days traveling to and from flea markets, sleeping on the ground, buying and hauling stuff home, partying all night, meeting for dinners, stopping by friend's shacks, getting on the air the next day....  has slowed down for most of us. Where did we ever get the MOJO?

Climbing towers putting up big arrays, big towers going up, computer designing arrays for days on end, endlessly building rigs and then tearing them down to build something else. And of course the endless hours on the air raising hell.

Not as active as before. No new 20-40 year old gang to take the reins.   As Norm said... enjoy our friends - the ones still left and able.  The Derbs, Willies, Daves, Irbs, Georges and many others are gone forever.  

Back in the 60's there was a whole bunch of 50-90+ year old hams who saw a new generation of baby boomer hams take over. That must have been both fun and frustrating to adapt to. Most old timers simply stop getting on the air when their buddies die off. Now that we are the old timers, where is the Generation X? They're on the web, I guess.

I have often thought.... WHO will be the last one to send out a CQ on AM unanswered? Will there come a time when we tune the bands and hear dead quiet static on HF? Given enough time it will happen, eventually.

We have truly lived through a unique time in Ham Radio and it's not over yet.  Keep the ham spirit young in our hearts, just like our own "good old days."  

T
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Patrick J. / KD5OEI
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« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2019, 03:21:24 AM »

All of the comments remind me of how much I like the ham fests which are more about individual sellers than large commercial concerns, although I'm happy to see those as well and peruse the new developments. The fests oriented to non-commercial sellers also seem to be lower cost to attend and much less hassle and cattle-packing/faraway-parking then large mass-events such as Dayton. These are fewer in number and much smaller than before but I'll still go to them anyway because of the atmosphere and because that is where I find the occasional very unusual item, and the best sources that haven't been picked over for the last 6 months to a year.
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« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2019, 10:44:09 AM »

It is a shame that lodging rates go insane during the hamfest dates, but it's typical. We had been staying at the Baymont Inn @ WPAFB for the last two years and had anticipated staying there this year until their rates jumped slightly over $60 a night over last years rates, so hopefully we found a nicer (and less expensive) place for this year's trip. I'm not going to sell, just trying to have a nice, relaxing mini vacation with some radio related activities.
Really need to start getting serious about making my parts "needs" list, because unless I find a deal on an HRO-50 or 60, I probably won't be bringing back much equipment-wise. 

...Phil
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K1JJ
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« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2019, 12:03:24 PM »

It is a shame that lodging rates go insane during the hamfest dates, but it's typical. We had been staying at the Baymont Inn @ WPAFB for the last two years and had anticipated staying there this year until their rates jumped slightly over $60 a night over last years rates, so hopefully we found a nicer (and less expensive) place for this year's trip. ...Phil


The cheapest rate I ever got was at Deerfield/ Hopkinton in 1995.  In was in a prime location on the fairgrounds.  I slept under my Blazer in a sleeping bag and woke up in a mud puddle in the rain.  The price was right, however....  Grin

T
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Use an "AM Courtesy Filter" to limit transmit audio bandwidth  +-4.5 KHz, +-6.0 KHz or +-8.0 KHz when needed.  Easily done in DSP.

Wise Words : "I'm as old as I've ever been... and I'm as young as I'll ever be."

There's nothing like an old dog.
KA3EKH
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« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2019, 03:37:00 PM »

A lot of people including me at one time use to stay right at the Hamvention and sleep overnight in the flea market. Although not allowed at Harra it was never discouraged so many did just that. Have cookouts, generators and lots of drinking. There was a bar attached to the hockey rink that was only accessible from the outside but that was somewhat popular.
Xenia however has a strict policy about no one being allowed to stay or go in to the flea market spaces once closed. Know of at least one person who attempted to stay the first year and with all that happened he now refuses to go back.
There is camping at the Hamvention site but looks like that’s all booked way in advance, Central State University has a deal for getting a dorm room that looks like it’s a good deal, think they are like $65 per day including meals and unlike the rip off at U of Dayton they have a notice on their web site that says:
Please Note: Bed Linens (fitted sheet, cover sheet, blanket, pillow and pillow case), toilet paper and a bar of soap WILL BE provided.
Unlike the lack of all that stuff at U of Dayton, a real surprise when you don’t know in advance.
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