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Hamvention
amateur radio buff writes "The Hamvention is coming up on May 16 - 18, for all you amateur radio people out there. This is the worlds biggest Ham fest held in Dayton, Ohio. With over 2500+ space outdoor vendor, and 500 inside exhibit spaces, find any amateur radio and electronic items there. Also the The 11th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner is held this year too! Dont miss it!"
When I was in scouts in Oz I remembered looking forward to the Jamboree On The Air in October each year.
;-)
http://www.scout.org/wse/jota.shtml
Off topic? No - about 48 or more hours (due to time zones) of talking to other scouts across the world. Pre-internet
At this particular event, every available piece of spectrum in the 2m and 70cm bands will be in use. CTCSS, DCS, and DSQ are all very helpful for filtering out what you want to hear from what you don't want to hear. And if at first you get stepped on (while transmitting), try, try again.
IMHO, physical crowding of bodies is a bigger problem than frequency congestion.
http://radio.linux.org.au/
And there are many other sites, too. I disagree with what someone stated earlier about being both into computers and amateur radio taking it too far. Believe it or not, there's a lot of overlap between the two. Hams often spend a lot of time tweaking their stations, building stuff, and completely customizing their equipment. Sound familiar to anyone on Slashdot?
73, KG6JBF
IAAL
If you haven't heard about tubgirl, trust me, you don't want to find out. If you click the link you'll think, "Oh, I should have listened to that guy on slashdot who told me not to click the link".
You have been warned.
I realise that most if not all of the people who read and post to this site are computer geeks in one way or another. (I am)
If you are into computers for the pure technical geek aspects, try out amateur radio. I guarantee that you won't be disappointed. There are so many different things you can do in ham that you won't be bored. I've done shortwave, packet radio, satelite, earth-moon-earth bouce, and microwave radio etc. etc. Amateur radio gives you an oppourtunity to delve into physics...
Oftentimes amateur radio is seen as an "old man's" game, as many of the newer geeks jump into computers immediately, and choose programming and networking as their fix of choice. I'd like to see more young people on the air! (I'm 25)
Anyway, give it a try, it doesn't cost much to get started.
No longer required to be skilled in CW? Perhaps not in the UK. In the States, however, one still needs to be proficient to 5 WPM CW to go any higher than a Technician-class license.
The dividing point is HF privileges (1-30MHz). If you want to work HF (with the possible exception of the 10-meter band), and you live in the U.S., you still have to pass a minimal CW test.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
These days, you have to be into computers to operate using the newer digital modes available.
Before the Internet took off in the consumer sector, hams were using their computers to participate in TCP/IP networks via packet radio in the VHF bands.
It doesn't take a lot of money or effort to get started these days. There are plenty of used radios available cheap and anyone with half a brain can study and pass the license exam.
It's still cool to throw up a simple piece of wire in a tree and communicate with someone halfway around the world.
Check out http://www.arrl.org for more information.
I could not disagree more!
;-)
Every year, I make it a point to attend a minimum of four ham swap meets; the big Mike & Key event in Puyallup, the two in the Bay Area (Livermore and Foothill), and the Radio Club of Tacoma event. I try to do more if I can.
The quality and quantity of gear at each one fluctuates wildly, year-to-year, as do the prices. That's part of the fun! While Ebay has the greater variety, in many cases, it can never substitute for the fun and satisfaction of making a face-to-face deal. Besides getting the gear on-the-spot, you can get a far better "feel" for whether you want to deal with someone when you're staring them in the face.
You say "The new stuff is better and cheaper than the old stuff." While there is some truth to that, in terms of 'cheaper,' there is also a lot of "WRONG!" in terms of 'better.'
A perfect example is test equipment, especially oscilloscopes. Tektronix completely discontinued their analog 'scope line beginning in 2000. However, their 7000-series (yes, analog) hardware can still beat the crap out of most modern stuff in terms of durability, flexibility, and value for the $$. Earlier this year, I bought a 7904A mainframe, with a basic bandwidth of 500MHz, from a local surplus place for $400. Plug-ins for it would have run around another $200 if I didn't have them already.
Would you like to tell me where I could have gotten a new O-scope, good to at least 500MHz and at least as durable, versatile, and well-made as the Tek unit for $600?
No? I didn't think so.
My point is that ham swap meets and electronic surplus stores still have a firm place in this world. Don't you dare judge them all by what you're seeing in the Bay Area! I've visited some places in Florida (Orlando & Melbourne) that still have Good Stuff at Good Prices, and I had outstanding luck at the 2002 Mike & Key and RCT swap meets.
In fact (shameless plug alert!), I have part of my web site dedicated to listings of Washington state and California (at least the Bay Area) surplus places and ham swap meets. I happen to agree with you on HSC, but there are other spots you should check out.
I guess the best way to say it is that both Ebay and ham swaps still have a firm place in this world. One will never take the place of the other, so you should use them both. Between the two of them, you will likely never lack in whatever you search for.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
At [Dayton] Hamvention, you bet there is a bandwidth crowding problem...especially on the more popular 2M and 440 bands. Almost every available frequency is in use. Most of my crew has now got 6M or 1.2GHz capability in their HTs, so we're hoping to move off to somewhere a little less crowded at Dayton this year.
--Chuck, KF9FR
but those things are still around here in Ohio. :)
;)
:) I just don't get to go every year. :( And there are plenty of other electronics besides radios at Hamvention each year.
We have Hamvention, of course, every year. We also have a large surplus store called Mendelsons in Dayton (cool place to get any and everything electronic -- well almost). There are some other places to get stuff, too. (In Fairborn, we have a little store called Midwest Electronics Surplus.)
However, you are correct... I love eBay for grabbing cheap stuff. I aquired my beige G3 desktop from eBay
Anyhow, I love Hamvention.
Peace!
~Steve
You are so right. With one exception. That's the Hamvention. Not to sound grandiose, but, what if you get almost the entire audience you are selling to on e-bay into the same place at one time all together to look at (and hopefully buy) your stuff?
The Hamvention is the grand-daddy of all Hamfests, which means people come from all around the US (World?) to attend. You then have the wide audience advantage you get with e-bay.
Also, there's nothing like being able to get your hands around what you are trying to buy, being able to test, prod, and sniff it, being able to ask questions before you buy a potential boat anchor. Also besides paying an admission, there's no "per auction" charges to display or sell items.
And finally, the other major function of Hamfests is to physically get together with your freinds and radio contacts, and go have a beer or dinner afterward. E-mail doesn't cut it for the social requirements.
What you have said is true for local small hamfests, unfortunately. You have a limited audience from a limited locale, and you keep seeing the same landfill each time you go there.
(Look for me at Dayton - I'll be there - Wearing my "Mad Scientist's Local 42 Union shirt").
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
I think a friend of mine said it best; "You can be into ham radios and you can be into computers, but being into both is taking it just a little too far".
Problem is, it's getting harder and harder to be into ham radio without being into computers. Digital modes are used more and more, and computers are used for a lot of related things, like satellite tracking, timekeeping, logging, transceiver control, beam headings, etc. True, a lot of these things can be done without computers, but they are ideally suited for computers to manage.
It's kind of a shame ham radio has for being such a nerdy pursuit. It can be a lot of fun, and it has a lot of depth as a hobby.
The next fest in line for me is Manassas VA - I usually score something neat/cheap there. June 1.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Yep, guilty on that count myself; been a licensed HAM since undergraduate.
For people who have never gone to the Dayton Hamvention, you are really missing quite an event. I live close to dayton, and try to go every year. They sell all kinds of radios and such, but they also sell tons of computer equipment, and virtually anything electronic... Need an actual working Cellular base station? There's a guy in the parking lot who will sell you one; put it in your truck and haul it home. You'll find that booth right next to one selling old copies of 2600 magazine. Come to think of it, the Hamvention was the first place I saw the famous Winamp plugin Holiday Dancer... playing on 15 monitors at once. That what I call eye catching...
It's a great place to get extra (insert ANY kind of battery here), diagnostic/test equipment, components, antennas... electronic doodads galore. If you're any kind of hardware hacker (particularly Wifi), I'll bet anything you need can be found there.
I'll be there... oh yes.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
interested in getting started? there are some great Linux-compatible scanners, wideband receivers and transceivers (many supported by tk/tcl apps from bob parnass at http://parnass.com):
- Radio Shack Pro-92 scanner, supported by tk92; big, clunky, but works great
- Yaesu vr-120d, vr-500 wideband receivers, supported by tk120 and tk500; truly amazing long-life on 2 AAs!
- ICOM ic-r2 wideband receiver, supported tk2; a tiny wideband receiver!
- ICOM ic-q7a, a tiny dual-band transceiver the same size at the ic-r2, suppported by tk7...
- Yaesu vx-5r, multi-band handheld transceiver, supported by a simple image-cloning C program for Linux...
- Ten-Tec RX-320, serial-controlled high-frequency receiver, supported by the rx320 command-line program and rx320 xclass-enabled X client...
wish i could make it to the hamvention; maybe next year...