MARCO at Hamvention

Here are a few random thoughts and observations after a day in Dayton.

The weather  is so good that many of us thought we had come to the wrong place. We have been treated to sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 70's.

The Membership Meeting was successful, with a good deal of constructive conversation (See previous post, which contains the minutes).

There are some interesting new toys to view at Hara Arena. The show-stopper in my view is Flex Radio's new Flex 6000. All of the required computing power has been moved within the case of this rig, so one needs to run only a simple interface program on the external computer. This allows simple remote operation of the radio. Slick!

The new Kenwood flagship radio is on display under glass. It is hefty, looks beautiful all lit up, and has more controls than the space shuttle.

Ten Tec is coming out soon with a nice QRP update of the Argonaut.

The BIG BUY of the weekend was by KD5QHV/KE5BQK, who will soon own a new SteppIR beam. . K6JW, KD5QHV and AA4FL made heavy purchases - they each will lug home a Vibroplex Cube, the new paddle affixed to a 6 pound base. N5RTF picked up a new Wouxun handheld. He is now learning to speak Chinese so he can use it.

Dinner  on Friday night was an odyssey. KE5QQK and KD5QHV peeled off and returned to Bob Evans, as this franchise has no restaurants in El Paso and Linda is sampling their fare every chance she gets. The rest of us piled into the hotel's van, and after a long drive over back roads arrived at a familiar strip of chain restaurants just off I-75. All of which had a 1 hour wait for seating. So... we piled back onto the van and returned to the area of the hotel. Eventually we dined at Tumble Weed Grill. The food was generic, the service was excellent, and we all had a good time.