You aren't looking hard enough. Over in the Mods and Repairs area, he's busy telling Clif Holland ('IPF) and 'ATS that they don't know what they're talking about when it comes to repairing Kenwood gear.Originally Posted by W3WN
You aren't looking hard enough. Over in the Mods and Repairs area, he's busy telling Clif Holland ('IPF) and 'ATS that they don't know what they're talking about when it comes to repairing Kenwood gear.
"Everyone wants to be an AM Gangsta until it's time to start doing AM Gangsta shit."
You're right, I wasn't looking.
You making it this year?
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. 90% of the people don’t care, the other 10% are glad it happened.” — Clint Hurdle, 2019
BAN THE DH!
Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall down.
Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in, it must go out.
Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, DC
Cutch 300!!!!!
“Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfed.” — Bernie Sanders
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
As near as I can tell the new Xenia location worked out at least "acceptably" for most hams who attended.
Far better than I had thought it would go. Sadly I missed it due to my wife's surgery.
Maybe next year.
--
So there I was, totally naked. With only a rubber hose and a stuffed animal...
It certainly worked better than some naysayers would have you believe it was going to be.
"Everyone wants to be an AM Gangsta until it's time to start doing AM Gangsta shit."
Let me repeat some of what I said on eHam Friday night, with some info about Saturday added...
Friday: Traffic was bad coming in; we came in from Dayton on US 35, and took the "recommended" turn. As did a lot of people, as it turned out. So... the eHam curmudgeon and naysayer, preacher of doom & glioom gets one point for that prediction. However, after talking with other members of my club and some of the other WPA clubs, I found out that there were several other routes, as one person put it, "coming in the back door" and most of those were pretty much smooth sailing, So we'll take a different route in tomorrow morning.
Saturday: Word was that after Friday, Hamvention staff met that night with the Sheriff's department, local law enforcement, fairground officials and county officials. They saw where the bottlenecks where and allegedly addressed them. They did; I did not hear from anyone about any delays on the "main" drag of more than 10 minutes. K3AIR & I parked at the Xenia High School lot about a mile and half from the fairgrounds, came in on a school bus and took a shuttle to the main gate. We made the HS from the U of Dayton dorms in about 20 minutes (excluding a breakfast break at Mickey Dees), if that, and once parked, were onsite in under 10 minutes. Very smooth!
Friday: Once we got on site, there was plenty of parking. We (K3AIR & I) chose to park across the street from Gate 4 for a $5 donation to one of the Scout troops. I could have parked for free if I'd pulled in to the fairgrounds, but that was my choice.
Plenty of parking. Plenty of areas to walk. NO mud. Oh, there were one or two spots were some water had gathered and would have been treacherous, all were 'roped off' with traffic cones and yellow warning tape. No disasters there.
The buildings and tents were all clean, dry, and packed with people. Almost every table was filled. Crowd was polite, and it wasn't too hard to get around.
Plenty of restrooms. Some port-a-potty's, but every building had a restroom. Most were also marked that they doubled as tornado shelters, which leads to some obvious jokes I'll make another time.
Food choices were fabulous. Around a dozen food trucks, with a lot of choices I'd never seen at Hamvention. Pricey, but you'd expect that with a captive audience regardless of the venue.
Flea market area... some areas around the... racetrack? Some by the main buildings. Granted, less spaces than what was available at HARA, BUT, almost every space was filled. Plenty of junque, er, unique treasures. (I snagged my long coveted 2 KW transmatch, a home brew version of The Ultimate Transmatch, for a song... the parts alone are worth more than I paid, I just have to give the steel case a coat of touch up paint)
Some of the flea market paths were on grass, but others were on pavement. No mud.
We did get some rain a little after 4. Sunny skies until shortly before then. Rain was intense but stopped after about 20 Minutes. Neither Mike nor I saw anyone trying to leave who was walking through mud or whose car was stuck in the mud.
Traffic back wasn't too bad. I made the mistake of getting on US 35 E instead of W, so we had to double back and ran into a little traffic we otherwise wouldn't have, but that is MY fault.
Misc: Crowd seemed up, though it's hard to do an accurate comparison. Many vendors I talked to mentioned that they were QUITE pleased at how easy it was to get in and get setup. (W4PA & I had a nice discussion on how he didn't have to schlep things half way across the world this year, to mention one).
And this is very important: There was NO odor or any other evidence of past occupation by sheep, goats, cows, chickens, pigs, or other barnyard animals. The exhibit buildings all had concrete floors, and they were CLEAN.
Saturday: The overnight rain squall did make things in a few spots muddier. The biggest issues were in some parts of the flea market, where the powered scooters and some heavy trucks tore up the grass and left mud behind. Well, that's typical of any hamfest that uses a grassier area that's just had some rain. It wasn't bad in the morning. And the issues were mainly in the center of the 'roads' or paths, right up along the spaces themselves, for the most part, they weren't bad. (Of course, there were exceptions)
I did see one, and I do mean ONE, hover round get stuck in the mud. Guy driving it was stubborn and insisted on going right smack through the mud when he didn't have to, and then would not or could not get off and help push it out. His poor wife, screaming at him the whole time, tried to push it out; a few people came and helped, and he got it out. And then continued on like nothing had happened, didn't even thank the people who'd pushed him out of the mud. Not pleasant, but this one goes squarely on the schmuck driving for being stubborn jackass.
About 11;15 a very heavy rain squall came through. Most people "took cover" in one of the buildings, and there were plenty of places to take cover. Once it blew over, the main Hamvention exhibit area was dried out in not more than 10 minutes.
The flea market area, well, that was another story. Yes, it was muddier, mainly again down the centers. Some flea market exhibitors simply packed up and left, and again, they are the ones who contributed to more mud. Can't say much more than that, as I stayed away from the area afterwards.
Overall impresssion: 9.5 out of 10. They got the traffic issues straightened out after one day, which was the way to do it. They have to get a better handle on the layout of the flea market and how to deal with the inevitable mud, if they keep it in the grass; an issue which can be solved.
In short: They done good, especially considering this was the first year in a new venue. It wasn't perfect. But they will do better next year.
Last edited by W3WN; 05-22-2017 at 07:16 AM.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. 90% of the people don’t care, the other 10% are glad it happened.” — Clint Hurdle, 2019
BAN THE DH!
Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall down.
Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in, it must go out.
Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, DC
Cutch 300!!!!!
“Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfed.” — Bernie Sanders
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Amazingly enough, no one seems to have heard word one from W8JX since all the positive reports started coming in. Go figure.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. 90% of the people don’t care, the other 10% are glad it happened.” — Clint Hurdle, 2019
BAN THE DH!
Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall down.
Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in, it must go out.
Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, DC
Cutch 300!!!!!
“Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfed.” — Bernie Sanders
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
not at all bad for a version one event+location combination ...
"... and another thing about you democrats ... you all believe in science!" -- denny crane
I'm picturing Jim Lahey (Trailer Park Boys) standing on scene with a fifth in one hand and an HT in the other...
I've enjoyed island life for 17 years. That's 13 years more than the Confederacy was around.
RIP Albi
When do you tell a woman you're a ham?
It's a jungle out there. Many EQ stupidly with poor articulation.
~TKX
YIAH
"And, of course, the Gym Teacher being his usual self."
W3WN
"The enablers ride on the top of the pile."
WZ7U
Well, it took a full 2 days. W8JX is at it again.
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/in...html#msg999363
He really does have a hard-on for DARA, doesn't he?
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. 90% of the people don’t care, the other 10% are glad it happened.” — Clint Hurdle, 2019
BAN THE DH!
Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall down.
Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in, it must go out.
Just remember: Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vain. He died in Washington, DC
Cutch 300!!!!!
“Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfed.” — Bernie Sanders
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
It takes a pile to recognize a pile, just saying!
"Don't put it on the plate if you can't eat it!"
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