Dayton Hamvention starts in 13 days!

If you don't know what the Dayton Hamvention is and you are a Ham radio operator... Shame on you! It has the claim of being the largest Ham radio gathering/flea market/event in the world. There is so much to do and see there that you can't do and see in a normal day. People gather here from all across the country, and the world, so it is a great place to meet in person people you have talked to on the radio or people you have talked to through the Internet. The flea market is an experience all itself - you can walk around there the entire three days of the event and still not see everything. The inside exhibitors are just about anything you can think of - from major radio manufacturers (Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, Ten-Tec, Elecraft, and on and on) to custom hat embroidery and T-shirt printing. Anything and everything you could possibly think of that would relate to Ham radio in one way or another is represented. This will be my 7th year in a row going - I wouldn't miss it for anything!

I am a member of the HFPack group. We talk about anything and everything related to portable Ham radio, and Ham radio in general, on our Yahoo mailing reflector. The group has one of their yearly gatherings at Hamvention each year. Last year I didn't make it to the meeting fast enough to get in to the group picture, but I still got to meet several well-known Hams in the HFPack world - W3FF, WB6MLC, and a few others. This year I am really going to try and make it to the gathering ON TIME - that is my main goal.

Last year I tried to rush my /PM setup and I didn't get everything working in time. The plan was to use my TS-2000 with a BlueLink/BlueSMiRF bluetooth interface hooked up to my PDA for rig control. I got everything built but I got some bad transistors with my interface board kit and I wasn't able to replace them in time. I have since fixed that so this year I should be in great shape. I need to re-load my control software on to myPDA , other than that I'll be good to go. Also, I used a tractor battery for power last year - WAY too heavy (as if the rig isn't heavy enough). This year I am going to try an SLA. I have a couple, but they are old and probably won't hold a charge very long. We have some 18ah's at school for robots that I might try and borrow for the weekend. I need to get one myself so maybe I can order one before or get one at Hamvention. The antenna will be my Crappie Pole Antenna. I seem to have good luck with that one.

I hope to see everyone there! Look for the guy with the 16' black pole and white coil with a yellow flag that says "HFPack 18.157.5USB" on it - that will be me!