Dayton HamVention, May 19, 2006

After the close of the MARCO membership meeting, we all headed by various means to Hara Arena, site of the ham fest, where we were joined by, oh, 25,000 others.

Although at the start of the day the weather promised to resemble me - grey and in the upper 50's, in fact the clouds broke and we were treated to very pleasant conditions. Thus emboldened, I explored the flea market first. There was the usual assortment of boat anchors, surplussed computer equipment, and the occasional military set. Mendelson's, the huge surplus store in Dayton, was back after being absent last year. Several attendees were heard to remark about the scattered empty spaces, something that was unthinkable a few years ago. Likely the high price of gasoline and the ease of selling gear on eBay have had a negative impact.

I escaped with light damage, picking up a few rechargable batteries and an optical mouse for $6.99.

I had time for only a cursory look around indoors, where the joint was jumpin'. One of the most widely-offered items was a color wireless TV camera. Yaesu, as always, distributed free baseball caps. This year's model is black with a logo proclaiming "50 Years" (presumably of Yaesu's existence, as HamVention is older than that). They also displayed their $13,000 flagship FT-9000 radio, although I would prefer to own Ten-Tec's $4000 Orion II.

Meanwhile, back at the MARCO booth, WB6OJB had prospective new members throwing money at him. He should have been a salesman. We had many interested stoppers-by, as usual.

In the evening, WF1R celebrated his grandson's passing the Technician exam, while W8CRK, WD8NMV, W1QDV, and WB8ES ventured to Anticoli's for more Italian cuisine. The merry band of KD4GUA, WB6OJB and wife Joan, WA1HGE, N3IM, N5RTF, KM2L, W4DAN, and N5QF shuttled to the Pine Club. Initially threatened with a 1-hour wait, we were seated in 30 minutes and dug into some great steaks. Pine Club is crowded, noisy, friendly, cash-only, and added to my "recommended" list.