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Another year, another Dayton in the history books.  This was my third Hamvention trek, but this year was a bit different for me as I attended with my girlfriend.  She somehow coaxed me into it, despite my concerns she would be bored out of her mind.  However, we both had a great time.

Happy Hamventioners

I didn’t take as many pictures this year.  At times I felt I could have recycled photos from the last two years and no one would notice.  But there were some new sights to see….

Mannequintenna? 

 

Yaesu was handing out truckloads of free “Yaesu 60th Anniversary” hats and other logo-adorned swag as usual.  I was tempted to alter a hat to say “Yaesu FT-817 60th Anniversary” as the long-in-the-tooth rig continues to be offered with no modern update in sight.  Ride that pony, Yaesu.  As Jeff KE9V reported, no, the FT-891 is not an 817 replacement.  It’s not an FT-897 replacement, either, so don’t ask.  The FT-817 continues to be the Keith Richards of amateur radio rigs.

 

Required Equipment in Hara Arena Bathrooms

The Kenwood booth actually had visitors in contrast with last year when there were more tumbleweeds than attendees.  Their newly announced super duper digital VHF/UHF rig undoubtedly attracted inquiries, though shame on their product line management people for not having it ready to sell at Dayton.  In Kenwood’s defense, Yaesu’s new FT-891 wasn’t available for purchase, either.

When All Else Fails, Make a Daiquiri 

 

The crazy rig-selling train known as Elecraft continues barreling down the track.  As everyone is undoubtedly well aware now, they released the KX2 at the Hamvention.  No, this isn’t an X-rated version of the K2, or two K1s merged together, it’s a smaller KX3 without 6 meters or 2 meter add-on capability.  This rig could have been a Yaesu FT-817 killer if it had VHF and UHF capability and reasonable pricing.  2 meter capability especially would have made sense to include considering this rig has the size and essentially the form factor of an HT.  No doubt Elecraft will sell a ton of these rigs, but then again if they released a new version of the K1 packaged in a 55 gallon drum, they would sell them by the dump truck load.

I question how much longer Elecraft can keep up this sales momentum which I often feel is fueled by unreasonable customer loyalty.  (Full disclosure: I own three Elecraft rigs.)  Last year’s big announcement was the K3S, an improved K3, which teed off new K3 owners. This year’s release was a repackaged KX3.  Elecraft seems to be innovating less and recycling products more.

 

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

 

I’m pleased to report there was a robot competition area and a local Makerspace representative booth.  It’s good to see more Maker-oriented vendors and displays, which is really going to be the key to growing amateur radio after our older amateurs go silent key in the next decade.  Hamvention folks, please, keep increasing this type of content.

 

Mendelson’s Flea Market Tent Family Planning Center

The flea market appeared to be the same size, with many long standing attendees selling the same junk, I mean, classic wares.  I think there were less amplifiers for sale this year.  That’s just a gut feeling, but I seem to recall many more amps last year.  The same goes for rigs.

No Hamvention report would be complete without mentioning the condition of Hara Arena.  Yes, good old Hara Arena.  This is the final year for Hara.  Seriously.  I’m going on record and predicting it now.  Really.  This is it.  Seriously.  Last year’s announced multi-million dollar renovation plan fell through.  I can’t imagine the facility can continue operating in its ever-worsening condition as it’s become a human safety nightmare that would cause any sane insurance company underwriter to run away screaming like their hair was on fire.  Expect something to happen prior to the next Hamvention, either the occupancy permit being revoked, or the building turning into a pile a rubble on its own or by wrecking ball.  Last year.  Trust me.  That being said, I left late afternoon Saturday sadly waving bye to Hara Arena thinking this may be the last year, like I was losing a dying friend.  But the Hamvention is not Hara Arena, and Hara is not the Hamvention.

Anthony, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com.

Tim W3ATB and I went up to Livermore Falls in Plymouth today. I worked North Carolina, Austria, Scotland, Lithuania, and Germany.

I setup the KX3 and a 29 foot vertical wire with a 9:1 unun above the railroad track overlooking the falls. As soon as I turned on the rig, I heard Joe W2KJ working another station on 14.060. When he was done I called him. He was running 4 watts with a KX3. We had a really nice chat. There were a few dips with QSB, but solid copy both ways. Joe was a strong 599 at the beginning and faded a bit toward the end.

I moved down the band and heard GS3PYE/P in Scotland working stations. We exchanged 599s and when I was finished, I heard Tim work him. Tim was about 100 yards to my north sitting on the hillside right near the track.

A little further down the band LY/ES5ZF was working stations. We exchanged 599s, then I went briefly to 17 meters to see if the band was open. To my surprise there was GS3PYE/P operating again. We had a second QSO on 17 meters. Then I packed up and walked down to Tim’s operating position. He was running a setup just like mine… KX3 and 29 foot vertical wire with a 9:1 unun.

We had a picnic lunch and then tuned around the band a final time. There was DP65HSC calling CQ and working stations. Both Tim and I had trouble sorting out his call sign, partly because he was going so fast, but also because the call is a bit of a CW tongue twister in itself. Turns out it was a special event station celebrating the 65th anniversary of the High Speed Club in Germany. Tim worked him after I did.

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning and the bands were in pretty good shape. After a fantastic time operating, Tim and I packed up and headed back to the car.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

'LU' - 214 kHz Abbotsford, BC

This coming weekend will see another CLE challenge, this time in the LF band from 275 - 425 kHz. with a bit of a twist. 



'CLE's' are 'Co-ordinated Listening Events', and NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum but this time around, the challenge has been expanded.



From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA), comes the following reminder:


Hello all,

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve made some progress on the EFHW antenna since my last post here on AmateurRadio.com. I wound a new transformer, but now on a thinner plastic tube. Initially it had a 10:1 ratio, but after some initial tests at home I removed some turns and now it is 8:1.

Today, out on the parking lot, I managed to get a good match on 20 meters with 10 meter wire and a 1 meter counterpoise. A short video to prove this.

It was quiet on 20 meters in mid-afternoon. Only HS0ZJF came in with a reasonably strong signal and it was easy to work him. He gave me a 549 for my 5 Watt QRP signal and I was more than happy with that. And as fate would have it HS0ZJF is originally from Belgium, so we exchanged some Dutch greetings as well.

On 40 meters I wasn’t so successful. This time I tried various lengths of wire, ranging from 19 to 23 meters, but the lowest I could get my SWR was 2.4:1. Funny thing was that the KX3 wouldn’t put out the 3 Watts used when tuning at an SWR of 2.4:1, but it had no problem putting out more at a higher SWR of 3:1 or more. Now the SWR is measured behind 3 meters of coax at the KX3, which is not ideal, so the next step is to make a LED-based resistive SWR bridge to be put right behind the antenna and before the coax.
I could make it tonight, but unfortunately I only had two 51 ohm 5W resistors in my junk box. Back to the shops it is.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Judy and I went to Hawaii for 10 days for our daughter’s wedding. The wedding was fantastic… and there was even a little ham radio. I brought the HB-1B and worked PA, Mexico, AR and AZ. Conditions were pretty awful… but the view was the best!

The HB-1B was powered by 8 AA cells. I used the little QRP Par End Fed trail model antenna. 40 meters was just noise every time I tried. 20 meters was only barely better. I set up a few times at our daughter’s house in the hills. I only made one QSO… with N3RS, Ron in Pennsylvania. He was booming in, but he could just copy my callsign and RST. He gave me a 349. I was discouraged.

For the wedding we moved down to a cottage on Kepuhi Beach on the west end of the island. I only operated once because of the busy schedule. I made more QSOs from the beach, but still didn’t get any good signal reports. I strung the End Fed to a near by sea grape tree (I think) and ran it as a sloper from the porch of the cottage. Myna birds called out from the branches and the waves and wind provided plenty of background noise.

From here I worked Mexico, Arkansas and Arizona. Here’s my log:

16 May-16 0234 14.005 XE2MVY CW 559 599 Mexico
16 May-16 0243 14.060 K5EDM CW 229 579 AR Greg
16 May-16 0303 14.024 K7HP CW 449 599 AZ Hank

After the QSO with Greg K5EDM, I sent him an email to let him know I was in Hawaii. He sent back that he’d never worked Hawaii before. “Your signal was right in my noise. I copied your call sign but only because you sent it several times. ” He was running 25 watts with a dipole at 35 feet.

Operating from Hawaii with QRP is really challenging. It’s thousands of miles to the nearest land mass, and the propagation is often fickle. The timing and conditions have to be just right. I had the best luck late in the afternoon Hawaii time.

While I was there I worked the EARCHI net (on Oahu) on VHF with a handie talkie. From the west end, I could see Oahu rising above the water in the distance. So it was fun to work them on 2 meters. I told them I use the 9:1 unun all the time from home and thanked them for that successful project.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].