[RTTY] Dayton RTTY Contest Dinner

[Fred Dennin]

By all accounts, the Dayton RTTY Contest Dinner was successful, due in most part to the 69 people that attended.  In addition to those having dinner with us, we also had some that showed up to hear Larry, K8UT’s outstanding presentation that was both humorous and informative.  I have attended many other dinners at Dayton that were neither.  Thank you very much Larry, for keeping us smiling throughout the presentation.  

We handed out 42 door prizes throughout the evening so about 60% of those attending received a prize.  Ed, W0YK, Mark, K6UFO and Sue, AI6YL took charge of door prize distribution and I thank each of you for that.  Door prize donors were:

1.  Array Solutions – Rig Expert Model TI-5 Interface valued at $364

2.  DX Engineering – (2) $100 Gift Cards

3. ARRL – 2 NCJ Subcriptions, and One $50 Gift Certificate

4.  NCJ –  3 subscriptions Total $60 value

5.  Donner – Shirt

6.  Force 12 – (1) $100 Gift Certificate

7.  Louisiana Contest Club – 2 Baskets with products made in Louisiana

8.  Eleckraft – Donated XG3 Signal Generator (has RTTY beacon feature), $180, AF1 Audio Filter (for audio tone filtering), $60 and N-Gen Noise Generator (for receive testing), $60 W0YK bringing to Dayton – Total value of $300

9.  LZ1JZ (Tony) QSL Cards – 2  Certificates for (2) 1000 QSL Card orders

10.  MFJ Enterprises – Donated 3 books, one rubber duck antenna, one telescopic dual band HT antenna, one digital clock

11.  Gigaparts – One $50 Gift Card and Two $25 Gift Cards

12.  CQ Magazine –  4 Books

13.  N3FJP Software – 1 Gift Certificate For Logging Software

14.  Hamcall/Buckmaster –  May 2014 CD

15.  Heart of Dixie ARS (W4HOD) Contesting Group - Cheryl (AA4YL), Darrell (K9MUG), Dick (K4IQJ), Bob (KA4PKB) – DXE Cable Stripping Tool Set (2 pcs) $75 value 

16.  Ten Tec – Antenna Analyzer

17.  Qtenna Quads (W9SN)  Quad Hub 

18.  Icom  -  6 discount certificates ( 2 at $25, 2 at $50 and 2 at $100)

If you didn’t get time to thank the sponsors during your rounds at Dayton and even if you didn’t attend, please take the time to thank them for supporting RTTY Contesting and specifically, our dinner.

We’re already working on the RTTY dinner for next year so I hope that those that attended will return, bringing someone with them.  It would be great to have attendance at 100 or more next year.  The food and the service were both good.

One of our own, Ed, W0YK was inducted into the Contest Hall of Fame at the Saturday Night Contest Dinner.  Ed is very deserving of this award, for not only his operating prowess, but his giving back to amateur radio.  Congratulations Ed!

Speaking of giving back, I want to thank those attending the dinner that freely gave money in support of our goal in raising $1000.00 for WRTC 2014.  Saturday, Ralph, K1ZZI and  I presented Doug, K1DG and Randy, K5ZD  with $1020  raised and we, the RTTY Contest Dinner, will have a tent at WRTC 2014 bearing our name, to recognize this donation.  We exceeded our goal, and RTTY Contesters were recognized at the Saturday Night Contest Dinner for supporting WRTC 2014 that does not include RTTY in this competition.  

Again, a special thanks to Larry, K8UT and Ed, W0YK who assisted me during the last 6 or 7 months in putting this dinner together.  Also, a big thanks to Tim, K3LR for his help in arranging the dinner with the Crowne Plaza and Scott, KA9FOX for hosting and designing our website.

I’d also like to thank Jay, WS7I  and Ron, K5DJ, who graciously responded to my request for historic information on RTTY dinners previously held at Dayton.  Thanks to them, I was able to give a historic perspective of the previous RTTY Contest Dinners held.  

Thanks also to Charlie, N5WE who manned the video camera during not only our dinner, but also the Contest Hall of Fame induction ceremony held Saturday night, that will be edited and put up on YouTube for everyone to see who couldn’t make it.    Either Charlie or I will let you know when that is ready for viewing.

I hope you’ll put the 2015 RTTY Contest Dinner on your calendar now.

73’….Fred, WW4LL