Well MrsMac and I left yesterday (Thursday May 18) at 1000 hrs to attend this years Dayton Ham Fest in Xenia, OH.
We arrived at our hotel a little after 1900 hrs. We never stopped once during the nine + hour drive.
The drive was uneventful and rag-chewed a lot with other folks going to the event. 146.520 Mhz was a-Humming. I had posted that frequency in my rear window but wasn't necessary as my antenna attracted calls. Some of the discussions were a true hoot and the XYL and I were rolling most of the time. One group were two older gentleman from Cape Cod, MA. When they haled us they had already been on the road for five hours. They started from the Cape at 0500 hrs. I ran into them today as they had a booth at the flea market and all in all it took them sixteen hours.
There was one group from Watertown, NY area we chatted with for over an hour as we passed through Akron and until we left the highway for our hotel room. All in all though we had 9-10 contacts with some just wishing us God speed.
The morning of the event (Friday May 19) we arrived in Xenia at 0900 Hrs. Our GPS took us a side way in and boy was I glad. I heard later that the line to get into the event was three miles long from the south and similar from the north to the fair grounds. I had remembered one of the hams mentioned on the way down the previous day that there was four remote locations with a shuttle service to the ham fest. One of those remote areas was the Xenia High School so I did a search and found it on my GPS and made a detour to that location. Once at the High School, about ten minutes later, we boarded a school bus and was driven through a series of back roads to the event. Boy O' boy, that was sweet.
Once there at about 1000 hrs., the event was lightly attended which was great for MrsMac as she gets around a bit slow.
She grabbed a pork-loin sandwich, some cheese fries and a Pepsi and planted herself in the shade and told me to go have fun.
Well if you haven't been to one of these BIG ham fests before it reminded me of a boat show. All of the big vendors were set up in existing fairground building's or tents. Then in the raced track of the fairgrounds was the flea market part of the event. I immediately went to the flea market as I was in the market for a Yaesu 817ND transceiver. After two hour of going from table to table I never found one so I hooked back up with MrsMac at her hidey hole. I bought her an ice tea and got myself a beer and told her what I was going to do next which was basically find out who had the cheapest price from the vendors for the aforementioned radio.
While doing that I got suckered into buying a Raspberry PI 3, Model B complete kit. Nothing like having a computer the size of a Altoids tin. LOL...Any way finally found the right price for a brand new spanken 817ND for $599-, mailed to my home at no shipping fee or state tax. Pretty good I guess as used ones are going for $500- on the interwiz.
We left the event around 1400 hrs as I could see MrsMac's eyes starting to glaze over.
Now would I do this event again - No. I will stick to smaller ham fests as they are more manageable and the crowds are MUCH smaller.
Am I glad that I went - Yupper. It was a once in a lifetime experience and we both are happy that we made the trip.
Tomorrow heading to my mom's in SE PA to pick up our dog. She graciously baby dog sat Dorothy for us. It will be a seven hour drive to her place so we will throw some steaks on the grill and go back to the cabin Sunday.
So there you go...Wishing you 73....
