Well, it's Sunday evening and I'm home from Dayton. Although quite tired and even more incoherent than usual, I'm not above offering a few impressions...
* Those of us driving in on Thursday endured torrential rains and lightning. That's how we knew we had the correct weekend! To be fair, Friday was rain-free, if cool and overcast, and the rest of the weekend was just beautiful.
* Attendance was good, but the number of vendors was down. There were a few empty spaces indoors, and lots of room in the flea market area.
* The main new produuct was Icom's IC-7000, evidently intended as a successor to the IC-706 franchise. Their promotion was bizarre, featuring the slogan "Are you still out there?" and bathrobe-clad young ladies passing out toiletry articles(??)
* For someone without a shopping list, I spent a lot of money.
* ARRL had a huge and very well-done display, occupying nearly half of a hall. I shudder to think what the place would have looked like without them. Any attendee must now have an excellent understanding of all that the League does for amateur radio.
* MARCO was well-represented. I may have missed a few, but can verify attendance by Chip N5RTF, Keith N3IM, Chuck N8CL, Danny W4DAN and wife Caroline, and Carl WA3ZZU. Robin WF1R was there, although somewhat under the weather and I didn't see him. That was a major disappointment. I saw evidence of Roger W8CRK, but not him personally.
* The MARCO booth was relocated to an excellent location, in the "Silver Arena" just at the top of the ramp. This brought us lots of traffic and seven new members. Welcome to them all!
* As always, I met a some exceptionally interesting people, some alas too briefly. Personal highlights (in addition to MARCO's cream of the crop) included former astronaut Tony England W0ORE, Gerd HK0GU, Baldur DJ6SI, and new MARCO member German HK3JFF.
Our 2006 annual meeting will be held in conjunction with Hamvention.
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