Hamvention 2017 – Day 2

The RAC Booth on Saturday Morning

Good afternoon from a very warm and muggy Xenia, Ohio. It didn’t start out that way though. It was about 15C and overcast when I fell out of the trailer at 8:50AM ET this morning – quite comfortable in contrast to the heat of the day before. The crew from RAC found an alternate route into Xenia and managed to beat the traffic 🙂

Allan Boyd, VE3AJB – Director for Ontario North-East, Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA, President, and I happened to all be in the same place at once, and we too the opportunity to talk at length about our upcoming meeting with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation regarding our soon expiring exemption from Ontario’s Distracted Driving legislation, as well as next steps. More on this topic will be posted in either TCA or the RAC Report as details become available.

The Hamvention “Infield”

After that, it was all about looking for any toys I wanted to bring home. I’ve been looking for a very specific piece of equipment (Harris RF-5710a Modem), but was unable to find one – they are pretty rare. I did buy a front end RX protection circuit for my Flex 5000a, and an Array Solutions 6-Pack 2-Radio/6-Antenna switcher with controller. I’ll have to keep browsing eBay for that elusive NATO modem.

As per usual, there was some pretty odd-ball stuff for sale, as well as some very, VERY vintage equipment. It was fun to walk around and see everything, but due to the amount of rain they’ve gotten here over the past couple of weeks, added to by the really powerful thunderstorm that rolled through here around late morning, the infield was extremely muddy.

N2IEN, WW2DX and N0TG Editing the CY9C PPT File.

One of the great parts of this weekend was the reunion of most of the CY9C DXPedition crew for our presentation at the DX Forum. A few of us got together in my trailer with my laptop and WW2DX’s Internet connection and made some last minute changes to the PowerPoint file Randy was going to use to present at 3:30PM ET. It was a well attended forum, and Randy, N0TG, Pat, N2IEN, Lee, WW2DX, Ray, W2RE and Will, AA4NC all gave presentations on what we called the “Biggest Little DXPedition in North America.” It was well received, and brought back some great memories.

My Muddy Shoes

I had some pretty muddy shoes when I was all done the day, but the heat came back and I’m in my shorts and flip flops again. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. I think I’m only going to spend a couple of hours at the event tomorrow, then it’ll be time to pack up and start the long drive back home. However, from everything I’ve seen and experienced here this weekend, I think DARA can call the event a success, and I hope that this little town called Xenia remains the long-term home of Hamvention.

73 de VA3QR/W4