AmateurRadio.com

I recently re-posted a link to my satirical “My first annual pre-post-Dayton writeup” that I wrote a few years ago. The intent of that was the poke fun at all the write-ups that showed up after the annual Dayton Hamvention, which, to me, seemed to all say the same thing. However, I noticed a couple of interesting things this year. First, unsurprisingly, technology has advanced enough so that there are many folks blogging and even tweeting from on-site while attending. Second, I noticed that several of the on-site bloggers have been posting really good writeups, not just the usual “big, smelly crowds” and “Hara Arena stinks” comments. (Well, apparently Hara Arena is still badly in need of repair).

I suspect that many of my readers already follow these blogs, but David, K2DSL has been posting on-site updates from his first time to Dayton  on his blog, and Steve, K9ZW has been posting a series of “Random Notes” on his blog, With Varying Frequency – Amateur Radio Ponderings. I’ve found those postings to be informative and can recommend them. There are also a number of other bloggers posting about Hamvention that are syndicated at amateurradio.com (as is this blog).

Most of the tweets on twitter, while occasionally amusing, haven’t been particularly informative, but Jeff, KE9V has been doing a great job of tweeting about some of the new gear that’s showing up, particularly the new portable Elecraft KX3.

Today was the first really big Sporadic-E opening of the year. Six metres was wide open across the whole of Europe and Scandinavia. There was even a good 2 metre Sporadic-E opening in central Europe though no propagation appeared to reach the UK.

Yesterday I worked a string of Spanish stations on Six but that opening was not as good as today’s. This morning’s fun began with a contact with OK2IEN, then it was mostly Germans with a few other countries until round about lunch time.

I prefer the relaxing pace of Search and Pounce but when most of the stations you pounce on either have a pile-up and don’t hear you or are S&Ping themselves and move away it’s time to call CQ. It’s not something I often do and it’s almost more than my brain can cope with to talk to people while simultaneously typing into the computer their report, locator and call, but I quickly worked a string of stations and often had two or three at once replying to my CQ calls. This isn’t something that happens often when you run a stealth dipole so you have to enjoy it when you can!

In the afternoon, for a break, I tried JT65A. A lot of the interest in monitoring 50.076 seems to have evaporated when conditions were flat but a few stations were on and I made three contacts using the mode, though none were DX I could not have worked on SSB.

Later the propagation seemed to have shifted North to favour Denmark and Sweden and I worked a number of stations from there, many at massive signal strength. In all I made 45 contacts today – probably more than I have ever made during a single day except when playing in a contest.

I love six metres – it really is the magic band!

A chance to see the new Elecraft KX3 demonstrated by N6KR at the QRP ARCI “Four Days In May” convention in Dayton 2011.

A chance to see the new Elecraft KX3 demonstrated by N6KR at the QRP ARCI “Four Days In May” convention in Dayton 2011.

Well.. you knew this was coming.

Here is the detail.. the smells were not all that bad this year, I ignored the so-called food, the crowd was thinner than I remember — there were less outdoor vendors than I remember — but more indoor ones. Chinese HT’s were dirt cheap, and I did have a lot of fun. I was sad that Max-Gain doesn’t come with fiberglass anymore.

The weather was as beautiful as possible, Yaesu seriously cheaped out on hats… And except for one old bag who ran over me, from behind where I couldn’t have possible seen her or heard her, with her “hover round” right when I got into the inside exhibits and then yelled at me for stopping to take a picture..(don’t worry.. I responded even more rudely) everyone.. well seemed nicer than in previous years. (Maybe losing 160 lbs helped with that?!?)

But what can I say. Except for a SERIOUS lust for a Kenwood TS-590 and an impulse buy of a Peet Bros weather station (which I’ve been considering doing for years).. I didn’t do that much or buy that much. Probably the neatest thing is the Argent USB Data APRS Tracker and the cable for my TYT .. I’ll be geeking on the way back.. track me on:

aprs.fi…

My 1st gen TYT is now going for $89+tax now instead of the $99+tax I paid for it at Des Moines.. thanks Radio City.. no.. I still love you guys but you owe me a small deal in the future! Wouxuns dual banders from wouxun.us were selling for $90 with tax…. If I didn’t live in Cedar Rapids with only one 222 MHz repeater I would have bought the 144/220 version just to have 220.. (I almost did anyway) but it’s pointless at my QTH…

But here it is.. commentary aside:

Beautiful day for a Hamvention...Yup that

What an eclectic bunch of stuff.. Yaesu=Cheap no hats-- Kenwood much better freebies!!

Obligitory Mendelsohn's shot.. also DEMI and other goodies

ARRL and international radio societies inside

AMSAT, WB4APR's "Mean Green Machine" and other oddities...

More Fun and probably lame coverage tomorrow night.. same Bat Channel

Jeff Davis KE9V was among the first to post pictures from Dayton of Elecraft’s latest announcement, a portable all mode HF to 50MHz transceiver – almost literally “a K3 in your pocket.”

   Weight: 1.5 lbs
   Size: 1.7×3.5×7.4″
   KX1 form-factor
   internal battery pack & charger
   internal wide-range ATU
   new adjustable, attached keyer paddle

…and a K3-like front panel, including the same LCD.

I want one!

The issue of interference to short wave from power line networking devices was debated in Parliament yesterday. You can view the televised debate here. It’s quite long, but worth watching if you can spare the time.

If you don’t, here’s a summary: The only complaints are from a few hobby radio amateurs and the number of complaints has been too few to justify banning a technology that brings potential benefits to millions of homes.

Other points: “Hobby radio amateurs are not legally entitled to a completely clean radio spectrum”, and “no specific limits on interference levels have been set so that radio users can adapt as the use of PLT technology evolves.” It is also projected that the number of installed PLT devices will quadruple by the year 2020. So this spectrum-destroying interference will be coming soon to an antenna near you!

I’m afraid that the writing is on the wall for amateur radio. In today’s world, the only things that count are money and big business vested interests. There are too few radio hobbyists to count at the ballot box and they don’t contribute anything to the country that can be measured in financial terms. So we are just going to have to “adapt” to increasing interference levels by giving up hope of receiving weak signals, confining our activities to quiet portable locations, or using modes like D-Star which are interference-free once the signal level rises above the noise threshold.

I think we just saw a death sentence passed on our hobby!