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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!"
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".
His dad "took it too far" by the way.
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
Also the The 11th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner is held this year too!
Isn't it held every year?
D'Oh! I clicked "Read More..." before I realized that the article was not about sweet, sweet pork. A Hamvention like that I could really get into. Stupid radios.
--All your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson
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
My dad took me to the good ol' hamvention every year for about 8 years. I went since I was 7 or so. Good times. I remember when it was held in the middle of April and you froze your butt off at your table space trying to sell your old nintendo games. Not that gradually nudging it into May helped that much with the weather.
In any case, this is hardly new so if you're just learning about this for the first time, where have you been?
But seriously, my experience is that this event as with most ham radio things has been dwindling over the years. Anyone else feel that way?
It's a shame too because the community spirit of the ham radio operators rivals that of the early days of the Internet. But the Internet has lost its spark (or at least it's friendliness) far faster than amatuer radio.
But at least we have the memories.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
The VHF and UHF amateur bands can get a little crowded with all of those HTs walking around, plus the communications by the event organizers. There is more room on UHF (420-450 Mhz) than on VHF (144-148 Mhz). Also add in all the traffic for cell phones and demonstrations of different modes and it is sometimes hard to find a quiet frequency, based on my observations at the Timmonium, Maryland hamfest. Patience is sometimes needed, but there is usually enough bandwidth that a frequency opens up. Usually groups of hams will work on a pre-agreed frequency, and there are only so many simplex channels and repeaters within HT range to go around, so patience and courtesy goes a long way. Perhaps a few experiments with trunking on the amateur bands could extend the limited bandwidth, but since large hamfests are local and infrequent events, there seems fairly little incentive to push the technology, and get the rules changed to allow it.
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
(Homer): Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon? ... ooh ... yeah right, Lisa. A wonderful ... magical animal.
(Lisa): No.
(Homer): Ham?
(Lisa): No!
(Homer): Pork chops?
(Lisa): Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
(Homer): Heh heh heh
"Smoking helps you lose weight - one lung at a time" -- A. E. Neumann
Back when I used to live in Chicago (instead of Seattle), I used to go to these things. This was a great place to talk with other tech nerds - why, my first Linux CDRom came from a hamfest (Slackware, long time ago). Then one year I went to a talk, and had my 2M handie stolen. That kind of put an end to me wanting to go back, ever again. :(
Yes, these things can be fun, but they're also well-known, and well-loved, by all the thieves around. If you must go, lock the car, don't carry anything, use a fanny pack instead of a wallet or purse, and in general treat it like you were vacationing in a hostile country. Not my idea of a fun vacation, but a chaqu'un son gout.
Lemon curry?
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