Getting ready for the Dayton!

I did not attend Day­ton last year, and I regret it. My XYL even says so. So this year, I’m in.

One of the high­lights of my Day­ton expe­ri­ence is Con­test Uni­ver­si­ty, which is held the Thurs­day before the offi­cial Har­rah Are­na Hamven­tion event at the Crowne Plaza down­town. This is where I am also staying…expensive but this is the cen­ter of the action. Each night there is a no-host bar at Con­test Super Suites where con­testers young and old meet up, many for the first time in per­son. Piz­za and wings show up around 10PM each evening. I am typ­i­cal­ly the first one there and the last ones to leave the place.

I have tick­ets this year to both the Con­test and the Top Band din­ner, also at the Crowne Plaza. The food is OK, but the pro­grams are inspir­ing. Not to men­tion you might win a radio or acces­so­ry (I did! Both!)

I will drag my butt to the Hamven­tion for the Anten­na and Con­test­ing forums, hop­ing this year to actu­al­ly get there with enough time to crawl through the booths. I am typ­i­cal­ly a late-ris­er on vaca­tion, but I guess this real­ly isn’t vaca­tion. I will run through the dis­plays as well, most­ly stop­ping the chat with some of the ven­dors I might know, or if some­thing catch­es my eye.

This year, I am inter­est­ed in V/​UHF oper­a­tions. In par­tic­u­lar, I would like to put up a weath­er sta­tion. I have been look­ing at the Argent Data Sys­tems offer­ing, and hope to dis­cuss more and maybe even pick one up if the price is right. I am also inter­est­ed in satel­lite oper­a­tions, and frankly there is no rea­son for me NOT to have an receive sta­tion up and run­ning already: I have a Fun­Cube Don­gle Pro+ sit­ting for me to make up some time to get a suit­able anten­na out there point­ing into the sky. Of course, I will be look­ing around at var­i­ous things relat­ed to LEO satel­lite operation.