[CQ-Contest] 2005 Dayton Forum Wrap Up

[Joe Subich, K4IK]

N5NJ writes: 

> I have been going to Dayton since 1980 nearly every year - 
> and it *has* gotten worse.  Much worse.  All of the blame for 
> that falls at the feet of the DARA management.

The attendance numbers released by DARA (ARRL Letter) point out 
the real issue.  Attendance of 22K is less than 40% of what it 
was in the late 70's and early 80's ... back when the event 
was two days (Saturday/Sunday only) or two and one half days 
(floor opened at noon on Friday).  

In some of the earlier years RTTY and AMSAT groups were larger 
than the contesters and the DX contingent was larger than both 
of those combined.  Now, the contest contingent (broadly defined) 
challenges the DX contingent in size (with a lot of overlap). 
Those two groups represent an important portion of the active 
attendees.  

> What happened to running buses to all the major hotels?  What 
> genius thought it would be good to stop that service?  
> Another major mistake.

I agree with you ... I also disagree with the elimination of the 
free on-site parking and the free shuttle from the malls.  

> I do understand, but what I understand doesn't matter.  The 
> question is, do the powers that be at DARA understand.
> 
> Rather than criticizing the efforts being made to improve 
> things for attendees, the vendors who see these changes as 
> harmful, ought to be beating up the DARA folks and get them 
> to change what they're doing so these off-site activities 
> would not be necessary.

I'm sure that vendors have/will make their feelings known.  
I don't know if DARA believes their own 'spin' strongly 
enough that they will ignore the vendors' warnings until it
is too late.  Still, for many reasons, I hate to see the 
forums moving out of HARA and believe strongly that it will 
hurt both Hamvention and the forums if the trend continues. 

That said, there is absolutely no reason that there should 
not be a "Contest/DX Conference" along the lines of the 
ARRL Digital Conference or the Central States VHF Conference. 
A quick scan of the calendar looks like the third weekend in 
July would be reasonably open ...  and if rotated among places 
with other activities for the family could become a part of a 
family vacation. 

73, 

   ... Joe, K4IK