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Once, during the original Pentium counterfeiting spree (where they'd grind down the ceramic top and re-screen the labels), I was at the Dayton Hamvention.

There was a vendor there that I knew, and trusted, and had bought RAM and CPUs and other commodity silicon from in the past, all of which worked fine.

He was selling counterfeit Pentiums. But they were marked as such. They were cheaper than the genuine product, and he was happy to explain to people what had happened to them. Stuff like "These were all probably Pentium 100's, but they've all checked out at 133, and now they're just marked as such."

And: "We've got real P133's here for you to buy, too."

And he'd explain the difference, and how to tell (the ceramic wasn't as smooth as the real article, for instance).

I stood and watched people at that booth for some time: Some folks, knowingly, bought the counterfeits. Some folks bought the genuine ones. Nobody really seemed to be scared away by the concept or the vendor, though, probably because of his openness, honesty, and willingness to teach.

In retrospect, it looked a whole lot more like the retail overclocking scene does today, than it did of someone trying to cheat someone else.

If you want to try just one hamfest, the Dayton Hamvention, in Dayton, Ohio, is (somewhat improbably, I always thought) by far the world's largest, and is coming up in a couple of months (it's May 18-20 this year). If you don't find what you need there, it's likely you'll meet people or organizations that can help you look.

To be legal doing that, you have to purchase a "transient vendor's license" and file a tax return (with the tax collected) EVERY QUARTER as long as you have the license or be subject to fines or penalties for not doing so. So, to sell a couple hundred bucks worth of crap on one weekend, I had to go through all of that nonsense all year long.

As for what this has to do with the story, the Ohio Dept. of Taxation (the name of that dept. gets right to the point, doesn't it?) sent me updated tax tables for every county in the state every quarter. Yes, every QUARTER some county is changing its tax rate. Ridiculous. So you could only imagine being an online vendor having to keep up with that crap times however many other states that do the same thing.

Ohio even has revenue enforcement officers at Hamvention going from booth to booth (and from tailgate to tailgate) checking for licenses. And, of course, after jumping through all of the legal hoops I get popped by the Ohio Stormtroopers of Death for not wearing a seat belt on my way to Dayton.

I finally called the ODT and told them that they could stick their transient vendor's license up their asses so that they would stop bothering me.

Makes me wonder why in the hell anyone would want to live there with that level of governmental nonsense. I make it a point to stay and eat in Richmond Indiana when I attend Hamvention just because I hate Ohio so much. I'll happily take my tax dollars to another state.

It is no wonder why the population of Ohio is stagnant or even shrinking.

Been going the last 10 years or so. It's in Dayton and I make the trip from the east central border near WV. Hotels are usually pre-booked months in advance, and all the good close ones are always full. I already have reservations in fact :)

Check it out here: Clicky

• Notacon http://notacon.org/ - annual hacker/art/technology convention in Cleveland
• Hamvention http://hamvention.org/ - Annual HAM radio festival in Dayton
• Ohio Linux Fest http://ohiolinux.org/- well, you already know about this one :)
• FOURTEEN LUGS!!! I couldn't believe it myself, but i found this out when doing research to help promote Linuxfest
• 2600 groups, Perl Mongers groups, Snort Users groups...all kinds of other assorted user groups.
• Countless amounts of businesses based around OSS. Pantek http://pantek.com/, Hurricane Labs http://hurricanelabs.com/, N2Net http://n2net.net/, several of our sponsors rely on OSS for their core business, and give quite a bit back to the community.

Dayton is also home to the largest http://www.hamvention.org/Amateur Radio convention (hamfest) in the world. I would imagine that this fact has at least a little bit to do with the new WiFi setup. Dayton is certainly a technology haven at least once a year.

How many users can a free public WiFi network handle before it's saturated and becomes unusable?


I guess we will find out May 20,21, & 22

Yes, but is Hara Arena included? If not, will it be included by May 20th?

Even better: If you want the best possible response (in terms of number of hams there, etc.) to something like this, you might want to try the Dayton Hamvention, the biggest amateur radio gathering (I think) in the world. It's from May 20-22 this year, and Flea Market spaces are available for reservation until April 1. One Flea Market space (9' by 17') costs $70. If you really want to sell your stuff (and not do it on Ebay) this might be your best bet.

Even better: If you want the best possible response (in terms of number of hams there, etc.) to something like this, you might want to try the Dayton Hamvention, the biggest amateur radio gathering (I think) in the world. It's from May 20-22 this year, and Flea Market spaces are available for reservation until April 1. One Flea Market space (9' by 17') costs $70. If you really want to sell your stuff (and not do it on Ebay) this might be your best bet.

...to get my license ;)

On that note, hams and electronics geeks in the midwest should note that it's time for Dayton Hamvention this weekend!

Holy shit, this is cool even if it's very suborbital. I wonder how many years it'll be until the amsat launches are truly amateur-done :)

http://www.hamvention.org

This is a geek event if ever there was one.

Dean G.

Hamvention® is the world's largest amateur radio gathering and trade show. I'm not a ham, so I just go to shop for computer junk... but the folks at this show are *so* geeky that its fun to just watch them.

It's interesting to me that this would come up this week. The Dayton Hamvention which is this weekend where I'll be spending a large amount of time. According to the promoters, it's the largest show of it's kind in the world.

Check out the 2002 Award Winners "...Amateur of the Year - Larry "Tree" Tyree, N6TR, of Boring, Oregon..."

The best place for surplus stuff is hamfests. Big hamfests, like Dayton. There's some friggin surplus there for ya. Here in northern New England we like to go to Hosstraders. May 2nd & 3rd!!!

Yeah, for those who want info on attending, the
next Hamvention in Dayton is May of 2002.
Their website is at:
http://www.hamvention.org/

Dayton Hamvention It is a huge show that goes from Thursday through Sunday. It is primarily for ham radio equipment, but has tons of vintage/used/new/whatever computer equipment.

I have been waiting for "Phase III" to be operational for years. My heart sank when I heard that it "died" when it reached orbit. Maybe they will have this thing up and going by Dayton 2001 :)

(I'll bet this gets called flamebait, perhaps rightly so... I'm just feeling contrary 'cuz I'm working instead of partying and blowing stuff up tonight)

I had the pleasure of attending the Dayton Hamvention this year; any technically inclined person should probably go at least once. I was amazed at the efforts some of the old timers were making to reach out to people like me... not licensed, but with enough interest in the field to be there. Linux advocates need to learn from those folks, they're polite, helpful, informative, and effective. Unfortunately, their attitude is not representative of most of the hams I've known.

Hams have always struck me, as a group, as being far too willing to not only unquestioningly follow whatever arrbitrary rules are laid upon them by appointed officials, but to expend considerable efforts to make others toe those lines too. I don't mean reasonable stuff like frequency allocation or interference regulations, I mean stuff like language regulations and the morse code requirements. Others have mentioned the morse requirments being relaxed, but that's just one example. Ever speak to somebody over 155 miles (possibly I've got the number wrong) away on a CB? That's illegal, you know... Even with legal equipment.

It's not even so much that there are so many ill considered or marginally useful regulations, it's the pervasive feeling I get from hams that if they have to observe all this crap, anybody who wants into their clique had better do so too. Moreover, many seem to revel in the regimentation, seemingly feeling that the fewer hams there are, the more special that makes them.

Finally, what has ham radio to offer? There's a lot of talking, but very little communication, from what I've heard. UseNet or even Slashdot provides far more interesting discussion in an average hour than I've ever heard on any ham band in days. Building a transciever might be fun, but theat effort, or the money to buy equipment, plus the effort to get licensed etc, and what do you have when you've succeded? The opportunity to discuss your latest foot troubles for hours on end? The chance to have some 45 year old who still lives with his parents make it his life's work to get your equipment confiscated, if not your body imprisoned, 'cuz he doesn't beleive you've got a better than average antenna, not an illegal amplifier?

-- h2odragon, unlicensed; not transmitting on a freqency near you, unless you happen to have FCC markings...