[CQ-Contest] Dayton Forums

[Doug Grant]

Keep those comments coming. Tim and I are reading, listening, and digesting them all to help with planning for next year.

Please consider that:

1. It is unlikely that a big enough room will become available at the Hara Arena. Not impossible, and we are working on it, but it's unlikely. You may have your own opinion about the buying power of contesters, but with typical attendance of 300-500 in the Contest and Antenna Forums and Contest Dinner, we are an extremely small percentage of the 25,000 hams who attend the Hamvention (1-2%), and consequently have little influence. The Hamvention organizers need to focus on the 98-99%, and it is hard to convince anyone not on this reflector that we each spend 50x more money than the average ham.

2. 99% of the population that returned a survey, self-selected as it was, visited the indoor exhibits and flea market at the Hara arena as well as the Crowne Plaza Forum venue. And a very large majority of people (>90%) preferred the Crowne Plaza venue over the small room at Hara, the High School, and even the "good old days" in the large curtained-off area at Hara.

3. Some vendors dealing with the contest community made their way to the Crowne Plaza Saturday afternoon. They were delighted to know that many of their important customers were in the same room at the same time. This is a sales/marketing guy's dream for efficient use of time, though we recognize that smaller vendors may have trouble staffing both a booth at Hara for "walk-ins" and a table at an offsite venue.

4. My own personal experience this year was that I had no problem seeing everything (and everyone) I wanted to see at the Hara Arena, including the somewhat-smaller-than-usual flea market, on Friday. I bought things inside and outside, including haggling over prices. I really had no reason to return on Saturday. It might have been different if it had been raining on Friday. But some years it rains both Friday and Saturday, regardless of where the Contest and Antenna Forums are held.

5. Think seriously about a whether you would support/attend a "Day Before Hamvention" event for Contesters, DXers, and serious Antenna people, including the PVRC Contest University (primarily aimed at beginners) and the traditional Forums (which are usually aimed at experienced contesters). This would be held on Thursday before the Hamvention. As a stand-alone event, it will involve a lot of planning effort and expense that can only be justified if there is sufficient attendance. 

Keep the discussion going...

The Contest Forum slides are now available at     http://www.kkn.net/dayton2005/  (thanks to K5TR) and also at www.k3lr.com (use the link for "Dayton Antenna Summary 2005").

73,

Doug K1DG

p.s. N6TJ...thanks for the kind words, but "Donkey Grabber"???