[Towertalk] First day at Dayton - Attendance continues to slide
Jim White
k4oj@tampabay.rr.com
Sat, 18 May 2002 15:04:01 -0400
This is the first Hamvention I have missed in a long time...
So far nobody has mentioned why I like to go....comradery.
I usually do not see all the new exhibits but make an effort to see the flea
market....guess I am showing my age - reminiscing when I see older rigs,
etc...I like to attend the Antenna forum and the contest forum -
BUT I SPEND WAY WAY WAY MORE TIME SOCIALIZING THAN ANYTHING ELSE. To me
this is what I am missing by not being there this year....not the vendors or
the deals but the people.
In my opinion the downturn of the attendance is sirectly attributable to the
change of the hobby from operator to communicator status...I could not
communicate wqith any of the peopl I want to see at Dayton on the VHF bands
if I wanted to but that IS what Ham Radio has become - our circle is
smaller.
...HF has been licensed/zoned/discounted into the back seat - this is the
spectrum my buddies hang out on! I enjoy seeing the NE guys, the Texans,
the Black Holers...and occasionally a DX attendee....why would I travel to
Dayton if my radio buddies were from a circle of friends that is reachable
on VHF?
I t sure feels wierd not telling fish stories at 3:00 in the morning with
KL7RA and W3GH or not having that late night pizza, etc....this is what I am
missing this year...my friends.
If you go just to see the gear you have missed out on the true value of the
hobby - it brings us all together! I share a common love of radio
communication, and that is reassuring! I know there are hotels other than
the one I frequent in Dayton that have their own "cliques" be they
VHF/Moonbounce, whatever...
Last year I saw about half of the exhibitors on Sunday afternoon just before
I left...between the forums and the fleas and chewing the fat there just
wasn't time!
Hope those at Dayton are having a blast....I gather the weather finally has
turned in your favor!
73,
Jim, K4OJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris BONDE" <ve7hcb@rac.ca>
To: <Jim@shawresources.com>
Cc: <K7LXC@aol.com>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2002 1:48 PM
Subject: RE: [Towertalk] First day at Dayton - Attendance continues to slide
> Is there not a natural waxing and waning of these things?
> The next upswing may not be exactly the same, as technology, people etc
> change. However, there will be something that will move in to take Daton
> Hamventions place. I always wanted to go. BUT $$$. To me it seemed
that
> the $s went up every year it was successful, the more successful, the more
> dollars next year. Then the cycle dies as the spenders are without
dollars.
>
> Maybe the next swing will be in small hamventions in various areas. The
> government goes through cycles of centralization and decentralazation for
> political reasons, I think the sales and promotions do likewise for dollar
> reasons.
>
> Just a thought, by, Chris opr VE7HCB
>
>
> At 06:18 AM 2002-05-18 -0700, Jim Shaw wrote:
> >Steve
> >Thanks for the update. A thought re your comment that
> >
> >"The bad news is that the Hamvention continues its attendance slide."
> >
> >This is a trend, particularly since 9/11, seen in conventions/conferences
in
> >the business world as well. Many articles in the business press have
> >addressed the substantial downturn in the travel and
convention/conference
> >industries which actually started several years ago. Speculation is that
> >part of the downturn is due to the growing effectiveness of the INTERNET
at
> >facilitating information exchange (TowerTalk is an example). Even more
> >powerful, real time approaches exist via WebEx and competitors to it.
You
> >could give your 'tower mistakes' talk for free on PlaceWare
> >(http://www.placeware.com/ a WebEx competitor) and perhaps attract a
larger
> >audience. Webinars (a contraction of the words 'Web' and 'Seminars') are
> >offered free by PlaceWare.com to the business world by as a way to
introduce
> >their service to prospective customers.
> >
> >While I suspect there are many other reasons contributing to the Dayton
> >attendance slide that are related the overall drop in active hams, I just
> >wanted to observe that the emergence of Internet forums may better meet
some
> >of our needs because they are lower in cost, consume less time, and are
more
> >readily accessible (e.g. I can get year round access to expert
> >advice/information via TowerTalk) vs. the once per year "drink from a
fire
> >hose" approach of Dayton.
> >
> >Of course, the Internet is not yet a substitute for physically seeing new
> >product offerings up close at discounted prices or for attending the flea
> >market.
> >
> >73 de Jim WA6PXU@ARRL.net
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: towertalk-admin@contesting.com
> >[mailto:towertalk-admin@contesting.com]On Behalf Of K7LXC@aol.com
> >Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 7:00 PM
> >To: towertalk@contesting.com
> >Subject: [Towertalk] First day at Dayton
> >
> >
> >Howdy, TowerTalkians --
> >
> > It was nice running into some of you today at the Hamvention. First
the
> >good news.
> >
> > Interesting new stuff including seeing the new AN tower at the Array
> >Solutions booth. It's a commercial grade self-supporter. Pretty brute
stuff
> >and should take any kind of load like a 10' microwave dish which it looks
> >like it was designed for.
> >
> > The owner of Pro-Sistel was also at the A/S booth. Very nice and
sincere
> >guy so his relationship with Array Solutions may be successful for
everyone.
> >
> > Also in the A/S booth was the designer and a version of the
OptiBeam. It
> >sounded interesting. It'd be nice if someone were to test one of them and
> >publish the results.
> >
> > Rich, K0XG, was there with his rotating tower products and he
pointed
> >out
> >that he has a beam boom mount that'll fit on a 45G or 55G tower leg. It
also
> >has a strut that prevents any beam movement so the torque on the leg is
> >minimized but the strut allows fine tuning so you can get the antenna
> >pointed
> >in the desired direction accurately and easily.
> >
> > The K3LR Antenna Forum had REALLY interesting programs by K1ZM on
his
> >new
> >VY2/Prince Edward Island station that has his dream 160M vertical set-up.
> >Mike, W9RE, had the story of his 2L 80M beam. It's big, it's heavy, and
they
> >designed/homebrewed the whole thing. They even assembled it on the tower
> >since the soil was too wet for a crane. VERY impressive.
> >
> > The bad news is that the Hamvention continues its attendance slide.
You
> >can get a room anywhere in town right now including the Crown Plaza which
is
> >a first. The Hertz rental place at the airport said rentals were down 40%
> >and
> >you could walk right into the Spaghetti Warehouse across the street from
the
> >CP on Friday night and get seated immediately - that's NEVER happened
> >before.
> >
> > The wx is also crappy - rain and 50 degrees.
> >
> > More news tomorrow. I'll hit the flea market (2-1/2 acres!) then but
> >will
> >have to buy an umbrella first.
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Steve K7LXC
> >TOWER TECH
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