Last year, at the last minute, Mike, N4GU, and I decided to go to Dayton, despite the odds of having a good time in just 24 hours. As we drove back home, we agreed to give Dayton a full attendance this year and that's exactly what we did.
We departed Blacksburg around
12:35 (I know this because the first log entry was 1640Z). As I put
the headphones on and started tuning the band, Mike said, "hold on -- we're
gonna get off to a good start first" and mumbled to himself something about
whether "it was queued up" and punched the button on the in-dash cassette,
cranked the volume and we departed Blacksburg with "Born to be Wild" by
Steppenwolf thundering in
our ears! I tell you,
Mike thinks of *everything*!!!
At 1640Z, I hooked up with
Mel, K0PFX, who was riding shotgun in a Mustang with Curt, W0SN.
They were driving from St. Louis and were near Indiana on their way to
Dayton. They were running an IC-706 and the only complaint that Mel
had was the bumpy ride in the passenger seat! Mel said he'd be in
the TAPR booth and asked me to stop by if I
had a chance (I visited the
TAPR booth, but Mel was QRL with a geekie asking LOTS of questions about
packet so I didn't get a chance for an eyeball QSO).
Next in the log, at 1715Z,
was Bob, N1RW, in New London, CT. He was closely followed, at 1732Z,
by Jerry, KJ4EU, in Mayfield, KY. That QSO was historical for the
Scout since it was the first SSB QSO the Scout had ever made (no longer
a virgin). At 1800Z, we hooked up with Dave, NB4J, and chatted for
a few minutes, agreeing to sked again at 1900Z.
On the hour, we reached Dave
and I handed the mic to Mike and they started chatting about college degrees
and such, but when Dave mentioned Dennis, WA4LPR, in the conversation,
Mike handed the mic to Dennis, who chatted with Dave for about 10 minutes.
When it was all over, Dennis looked back and said that it was a historical
QSO, since
it was his first-ever HF SSB
QSO!
At 2020Z, I hooked up with
Lora, KC8GMT, in Clinton Township, MI, an HBSN/HBN regular and she and
I chatted for about 15 minutes. These days, she is becoming quite
active in CW traffic nets and has recently taken an NCS slot for a local
2-meter net. Ordinarily, this wouldn't seem much of a feat, but Lora,
unlike most traffic handlers, is blind. Listen for her on 40 meter
CW between 7,026 and 7,065 -- she may only be a General, but she sounds
like an Extra at 28 wpm! On her heels, I worked John, VA3LKH, in
Guelph (that's right -- Guelph -- when I wrote it down, I was real glad
that John sent it a second time because I was sure I had copied it wrong
the first time), Ontario. We connected with
NB4J at 2100Z for the last
QSO of the day to try to relay between us and our companions on the road
behind us. Dave managed to hear both mobiles and we were able to
discern that we were about 70 miles ahead of the second van. We could
barely distinguish Philip, K4EP, and Ken, KU4AG, talking to Dave, but not
well enough to make sense of what they
were saying -- nothing like
a relay to complete the connection!!!
The next, and final, log entry for the N4GU/WA4LPR/WA4DOX mobile effort was Tom, AA8YI, in Traverse City, MI, at 2115Z on May 15, so that was made while we were returning to the hotel after our first full day at Dayton. Tired as we were, there was still enough fuel for a QSO. Tom told us to listen for K8XX during Field Day 1998, that's where he'll be operating from.
I don't have much to add to
what Mike has already said about Dayton, except this year, having *much*
more time to spend in the flea market and inside the vendor's arenas was
a lot more enjoyable than our "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am" visit last year.
The flea market was full of the usual junk (junque, to the elitist), with
computers sharing about 30%
of the business. Most
folks were not excited about the good deals on used '286 machines and the
like, so maybe these vendors will someday become discouraged at sitting
in the sun for three days and selling mostly nothing. That would
make the flea market a more enjoyable place to peruse.
Inside the vendor's arena,
the climate was *much* different, with new computer vendors sharing 25%
or so of the available space. Unlike their cousins in the flea market,
these vendors were pretty busy, so I can imagine that they were offering
some rock-bottom specials. Lots of folks were seen walking to the
parking areas with *big* boxes of new
computers and monitors.
Kenwood and Icom shared the "stadium" arena, with MFJ, Hustler, Cushcraft,
AEA and a few other big names, with Yaesu positioned a mile or so away
(well, it feels like a mile or so when you have to "hoof" it back and forth
a few times) in one of the other six inside locations. The Ten-Tec
booth looked real busy and I only had
the gumption to visit the
right-hand half of their spread, lest I be tempted, against my will, to
drop a bundle on an OMNI-VI+ or one of their monster amplifiers.
I was more interested in their QRP kits and such, so I didn't get the full
blast of standing in front of their fine equipment.
I promised the family that
I would bring back something for them to remember my absence and I recalled
that there was a booth that did embroidery work on a variety of ball caps
which they also sold. I knew it was on an outside wall in one of
the distant arenas inside, but couldn't remember exactly where. I
turned left, and started looking at
all of the wall-side booths
and went from one arena to another until I ended up in the "stadium" arena
where I found a map of the layout. I looked up a vendor, "Custom-4-U"
and thought that was the right one and took off on my venture, following
the map, walking on the outside of the arenas since passage could be made
much faster than inside. When I
arrived at "Custom-4-U", I
recalled that they made license plates and not hats. Back to the
map, I found "Englehaus Embroidery" - duh - so off I went again on my trek
for Dayton souvenirs. When I arrived at their booth, I realized that,
had I turned right, instead of left, I would have taken about twenty steps
and been there - d'oh! I placed my order, returned an hour and a
half later (they were an excellent attraction at the Hamvention) and claimed
my four nicely embroidered hats to give to each of the family members who
couldn't make the trip. I didn't need one for myself since I picked
up a free ball cap at the Yaesu booth and a second one at the QCWA booth
where I paid for my lifetime membership. That was my biggest expenditure
at Dayton, and it was 25 years in the waiting, so it was certainly worth
the expense.
After three days of Dayton,
we were "chomping at the bit" to hit the road and return home, but since
I decided to attend the CW traffic handler's forum on Sunday morning, and
Mike and Dennis wanted to leave early, I rode home with Philip, K4EP at
the steering wheel and Ken, KU4AG, riding shotgun, with Philip's Yaesu
sitting on the floor between
their seats, facing forward.
We tuned 20 meter SSB and heard a special event station IG9ITU calling
CQ and handling a sizeable pileup. Try as we might, none of us were
able to bust the pileup, so Philip tuned the VFO until we heard W6P, another
special event station calling CQ for National Police Week. Philip
grabbed the mic and worked him on the first try, and asked us if we wanted
a certificate, and so I was next, followed by Ken.
That done, I asked Ken to tune
to 14,050 so I could work some CW. I called CQ (rare for me) and
made a quickie with Luis, VE2GNW, in Quebec, Canada. Next in the
log was Boris, S58A, in Murska Sobota, Slovenia, followed by Joe, K2BG/QRP,
in Fort Walton Beach, FL. The next QSO was with John, K0YQX/M, in
west Kansas, returning home to Mankato, MN from the Dayton Hamvention.
Next, I asked Ken to QSY to 14,020 so I could work some DX and started
calling CQ. Some pinhead came back, complaining that I was calling
CQ in the "DX window", so I said, quite loudly, "FINE!", causing Ken and
Philip to look at me with
wonderment and went back to
the paddle, this time calling "CQ DX", in OBIE-mode at 28+ wpm.
While I resent folks complaining about *where* I call CQ since I have full-band privileges, I agree that the "DX window" is sacred ground, so I honored his request with very fruitful results. I can only thank the pinhead for the next flurry of QSOs, most of them DX. The next one in the log was Eugen, DL1DEJ, in Nordhell Westfalia, Germany, followed by Bill, G3DOJ, in London, England. Fausto, PY5HJ, in Panan, Brazil, was next with Irek, SP3SUX, in Gorzor, Poland close on his heels. Pat, K4OAR, in Clinton, NC, chatted for a few minutes and then LZ1YY/P, from somewhere in Bulgaria, ended up in the log. The next QSO was a bit more surprising because Moura, in Ponta Delgada, Azores, CU2AR/QRP was only running FOUR watts to make it into the mobile log. I thought it was all over when Albert, VE7YF, in Kamloops, British Columbia QSOd while we approached Blacksburg, but there was still one QSO left in the Yaesu so it was with extreme delight that the return trip also netted Ian, VK5XE, in Clare, South Australia as our final QSO! Not bad, 14 QSOs in around four hours: four U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and eight other countries for one tenth of a DXCC/M, not bad for one day's ride. QRP from the Azores and Australia with 100 watts and an antenna moving at 65 mph say a lot about the potential for HF mobile.
As we unloaded our Dayton paraphernalia from Philip's van, I told him to keep an eye on the mailbox for the incoming QSLs from our return trip. What he said next is not printable here, so I'll leave that to the reader's imagination. Then he said he wouldn't count the QSLs for his DXCC and he further said, "besides, I've already worked these countries," to which I laconically replied, "on CW?" His look, in response to my question, was more revealing than a thousand words could ever describe (heheh).
OBIE, WA4DOX...