ARISS coins to be Hamvention® Prize Some lucky ham will win two ARISS Challenge Coins from Amateur Radio on the International Space Station as a door prize at Dayton Hamvention, according to Tom Holmes, prize committee chairman. The two keepsake coins are positioned side by side in a beautiful display box so each side of the coin is seen. A commemorative ARISS Challenge Coin is the premium received by donors who give $100 or more to ARISS. The Dayton Hamvention has agreed to feature the ARISS keepsake coin by holding a special prize drawing directly following the introduction of the 2016 Dayton Hamvention national award winners at 1 pm on Sunday. The ARISS Team kicks off its 2016 fund-raising campaign at Hamvention to raise money for the very high cost of replacing its aging ISS radio system and to help defray the cost of continuing ARISS operations. Donors can donate to ARISS online via the AMSAT Website, www.amsat.org (select the “ARISS Donate” button) or through the ARISS web page, www.ariss.org (select the “Donate” tab). The ARISS team will be at the AMSAT booth with coins for $100 donors, as well. Other prizes to be awarded at the 2016 Dayton Hamvention have exceeded $51,000 and additional donations are still coming in, according to Holmes. He said the total for major prizes thus far is $30,602. A number of vendors indicated that they would make donations on arrival at Hamvention and Holmes expects those to add about $10,000 to the total. Several radios highlight the major prizes including an IC-7100, IC-7300, IC-718 and an ID-5100A Deluxe from ICOM America; three TS-590G’s from Kenwood USA; a FTDX 1200 with FFT-1 and a FT 450D from Yaesu USA; Xiegu X108G Transceiver and AT-3208UV dual band handheld; and an ELAD USA FDM-S2 SDR receiver and SFE development board. Once again the biggest prize in size is a US Tower HDX-455 55 ft. crank up tower. Holmes said that some of the hourly prizes may also be substantial and represent a broad spectrum of items of interest to hams. Drawings are held hourly during Hamvention and winning numbers are posted at the Prize Booth in the Main Arena and on monitors throughout the complex. Attendees can deposit their prize stubs each day at the Prize Booth in the Main Arena. On Friday and Saturday only, attendees may also drop off prize stubs at the DARA Boy Scout Venturing Crew booth just inside the East Hall entrance. Tickets deposited by 15 minutes before the hour at the East Hall booth will be transferred to the main prize drum in time for the next hourly drawing. That service will not be available on Sunday. For a list of major prizes and donors go to http://hamvention.org/event-details/prizes/.
