Dayton Hamvention® May 15, 16, 17 & ARRL National Convention

Thanks for all of your, and other volunteers hard work, only complaint I have is, ran out of toilet paper in the bathroom, no one to help, but I got creative.

 

Rofl, yes someone just kept stealing all the toilet paper in the arena bathrooms We never did catch them....

 

Either someone had a weird fetish, or they were in dire need of TP at home.

 

Bwhahaha...that is funny and not funny at the same time. Good thing I refuse to use public facilities. Not that it would matter beings I was not there.

 

Glad to hear that you enjoyed yourself!

 

I love going to Dayton, and have driven there from PA (with a stop to pick up friends and visit family in KY) for the past three years, since becoming active again. Next year, though, I am flying! The long drives are just too tiring.

As others have noted, we dodged the weather bullet again pretty good this year. Lots of treasures in the flea market. I saw a lot of audio consoles this time, but no cart machines - just the opposite from last year (I keep an eye out for old broadcast equipment). Our group found some good bargains to take home, however, and everyone was a happy camper for the most part.

I did come up on one flea market space that had several good-sized tables of stuff, and about 20 people standing in front of one of them in a semi-circle. 'Ooh, wonder what's goin' on over there!' I think. Some cool display, no doubt. I try to get closer to see what the interest is all about. It was a display alright: a well-developed girl in her early 20s, wearing a low-cut top, bent over and showing the goods. Yes, advertising at it's best! I just laughed.

Saw the usual "celebs" there: Gordon West, Bill Pasternak, Bob Heil, et.al. The two cute brunettes who normally cause a commotion at the US Towers booth were noticeably absent this year (wonder how that affected their sales?). Also didn't see Nancy Kott at the FISTS CW Club booth... was she even there? Speaking of Nancy, it was odd not seeing the World Radio booth.

We took in the Gordon West forum as usual, always lots of fun! Tried to attend the AR Newsline Town Meeting, but the forum room was just too muggy, so we had to duck out early.

Gripes:
The Hara restrooms need to have some sort of ventilation going!! The stench is unbearable and spills out into the corridors! I tell ya, it's a sad commentary when the lowly porta potties are cleaner -and smell better- than the indoor restrooms!

There was no air conditioning in many rooms where it was desperately needed - Forum Room 2 comes to mind. Also, a lot of the ceiling lights were not working.

Hara needs to place more benches or folding chairs around the premises -- it's hard on us oldsters to have to walk all the way back to the main arena or the cafeteria just to find a place to sit down! Fwiw, those arena seats are too small and close together for many people to fit in - so seating becomes especially critical. And, no, I'm not going to rent a scooter... I want to actually SEE the displays, not peer at them through a sea of legs. I AM thinking of backpacking a folding camping chair next year, though.

Finally, and I know Hara has nothing to do with this, but you'd think the Hamvention is still a major event for Dayton... why, then, did the DOT have Needmore road tied up with construction barrels?! Those could've easily been moved aside for the weekend.

 

My responses are in red