Anyone going to the Dayton Hamfest?

I didn't notice this guy doing anything unethical. He said he was running a kilowatt driven by a TS-570S and sounded great. He was also warm and friendly, ready to ragchew but with so many callers I was polite and bowed out.

There are plenty of Americans running excess power and being jerks; it's not endemic to any particular country.
 
There are plenty of Americans running excess power......."No code" people, no doubt.

I have recently met two people with power far in excess of legal. Both are long time hams from way before the no code era. Both are quite civilized on the air.

Back in the 70's I met a person who had a ham ticket, he also had a 3KW Gates transmitter. He did not use it on the ham bands though, he used it on CB! Melted the RG-8. He was not so civilized on the air, on either band.

I guess I could be called a "no code people" since I memorized the QSO used for the novice test (30 years ago) and passed it with minimal code knowledge. I have never operated CW, and I only have 5 watts on HF, so I guess I am going to need a bigger amplifier:)
 
I didn't notice this guy doing anything unethical. He said he was running a kilowatt driven by a TS-570S and sounded great. He was also warm and friendly, ready to ragchew but with so many callers I was polite and bowed out.

There are plenty of Americans running excess power and being jerks; it's not endemic to any particular country.

NOTICE : i didn't write ALL of them ! But SOME do ! 2kW from USA do not sound the same PWR from Russia : especially on the 80m band ... 73 QRO :D
Pierre
 
In the old Soviet era, there were "hams" that were running 35000-50000 watts of state sponsored power. Or so some Military radio men have told me. The biggest problem I see on HF is the proliferation of European commercial shortwave in the 40 meter band propagating into the upper end of the US 40 meter phone area. It makes the band pretty much unusable most evenings; or so it did when last I was a regular operator.
 
Last edited:
Well the woodpecker has been gone for years. The EAs (Spain) I believe have a higher power limit. I was working one guy in Barcelona who said he ran 30 kW via hardline and where the line went around the corner of the house it had arced over and caused some damage. I yelled at him that he was at risk to burn his house down.

So my latest hijinks on 20 were the two CW contacts and one on SSB. I like all modes but for the little time I operate I mostly use those two modes.

As for the sarcasm regarding no code, well some people harbor resentment that the code requirement was removed, which in turn causes resentment from those who took advantage of the rule change. I see people for how they act, not for what license they have. I harbor resentment toward certain specific people because of their lack of courtesy or excessive ego trips, or those who just plain sound like jerks.

I am so old I remember operating on 11 meters when it was a ham band. And on 40 meters when it was CW only. Life is too short to be angry or resentful; smile and enjoy the hobby. There is always another frequency you can use.
 
So much for staying on topic.

Since this is a forum related to tubes and audio, I think that we did a consistent job of staying on that topic.

To make up for it, I promise to post pictures of tubes and anything audio that I find at the hamfest if the rain allows me to use my POS camera. Note, not point and shoot camera, POS camera, and it is a Nikon! And I don't care if it gets wet. Also assuming that the hotel wireless works, it didn't last year.
 
To make up for it, I promise to post pictures of tubes and anything audio that I find at the hamfest if the rain allows me to use my POS camera. Note, not point and shoot camera, POS camera, and it is a Nikon! And I don't care if it gets wet. Also assuming that the hotel wireless works, it didn't last year.

Thanks George. I always enjoy hearing Hamvention storys.


So much for staying on topic.

Not that I ment it in a bad way, I actually enjoyed hearing about the "good Ole days". I grew up a little later then some of you gents on here, but we also had vocational electronics class, graphics, auto shop, metals ect..., and now most high schools have done away with the vocational programs. It was a nice way to get away from the everyday grind of all the boring basic classes. I remember blowing up all kinds of stuff in electronics class, but thats how we learned. Anyway good luck to all at hamfest and stay dry. Cheers
 
I just drove the 200 miles to Dayton. Saw a lot of cars with antennas, ham plates, or both. The hotel parking lot is full of antennas and there is a minivan outside with some type of telescoping HF antenna with a bunch of people around playing with radio equipment. I thought the hamfest didn't start until tomorrow.

When you see the fat guys with the call-sign baseball caps, complete with antenna mounts, you'll know it's in full swing. :)
 
When you see the fat guys with the call-sign baseball caps, complete with antenna mounts, you'll know it's in full swing.

There used to be a guy at the Miami hamfest every year that had a hard hat with a carefully constructed miniature tower on top with a tiny beam antenna. It even had a rotor. He thought it was cool, but he got more than a few laughs.

Every year at Dayton (and other shows) there will be a bunch of guys dressed in Army green carying Korean war vintage radio equipment. They are on 6M (54.1MHz if I remember right). The guys I was with nicknamed them the "greenies". Last year a surplus vendor was selling police riot gear. A bunch of youngsters bought sets, put it on, and ran around all day Saturday looking for attention. These guys were dubbed the "men in black". To us, its all just free entertainment.

I had my good camera, but didn't take it out due to the rain. This year I have a pocket Nikon that I got with credit card points. I have figured out why they were giving them away. Even on a tripod many pictures are blurred, and it shuts itself off whenever it wants to, even with fresh alkaline batteries. If this happens during a write to the SD card, the card gets trashed.
 
After saying bad things about the little pocket Nikon it worked perfect today, even after I dropped it. Despite the promises of rain from the Weather Channel and local TV, it didn't happen. So what was there to be found at Dayton? This year there seemed to be more tubes, especially cheap tubes than I remember in the past, and FAR MORE audio equipment across the whole spectrum from cheap to $$$$ and from very old to shiny new.

I took about a hundred pictures but I can't post them all here, they will make it to the web site someday.

I saw a McIntosh MC275 sell for $2300. Yes it was shiny and looked grest, but $2300!

While you're there, stop at my friend's (WJDI) setup directly opposite the entrance to Mendelson's tent. He's got some of the best equipment & parts in the entire flea market. Tell him Victor sent you.

I didn't need to tell him anything, he recognized me from the discription you gave him. Yes, he made me a good deal of a bunch of RF parts. I will probably get more tomorrow if I have any money left. It turns out that I bought stuff from him last year. He had a pair of the same Stromberg Carlson amps that I blew up by the dozen in high school electronics class, His were shiny looking, ours were donated by the Air Force.

Would that be the DZ Kit Sienna? I saw the first prototype at Dayton maybe five years ago, and am real close to ordering one. One of the things motivating me toward going this year is a note on the DZ website that he will have a working rig at Dayton.

He is here, no radios in stock at Dayton, but they are shipping. Here are pictures from under the hood. It looks to be well thought out with a few features that I wouldn't have thought of.
 

Attachments

  • DZ1_a.jpg
    DZ1_a.jpg
    340.2 KB · Views: 177
  • DZ2_a.jpg
    DZ2_a.jpg
    694.9 KB · Views: 171
But Isn't this forum about audio? OK, there was plenty of audio, both SS and tube. You can't talk about used tube audio stuff without mentioning Dynaco. I saw 4 ST70's today. This pair was offered at the show open for $500 each. One sold for $400, and the other $450. Both were gone by lunch time. I saw a ST70 with preamp sell for $500 in less pristine condition. There were several tables of nothing but audio equipment. And there were shiny silver SS thingys too.
 

Attachments

  • Dynacos_$450_a.jpg
    Dynacos_$450_a.jpg
    127.5 KB · Views: 176
  • Audio_2_a.jpg
    Audio_2_a.jpg
    165.6 KB · Views: 167
  • Mac_a.jpg
    Mac_a.jpg
    198.4 KB · Views: 170