May was an exciting and thrill packed month of amateur radio for me! The highlight was certainly attending Hamvention in Xenia, Ohio, better known as “Dayton” amongst hams.
I shared the experience with my Elmer Scott, K8JNO. I can tell you this: I wouldn’t as far into this hobby as I am without Scott. Truly a mentor in ham radio and life. I’m very thankful for my pal, Scott!
To say Hamvention was overwhelming would be an understatement. As hams do, I heard many talking about “how it used to be”, but oddly, no one I overheard said the old place was preferred. In fact, everyone I spoke with or happened to hear said the fairgrounds in Xenia were way better than the former location in Dayton.
Apparently the food choices at the old location were hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips. In Xenia, I saw Asian, Cajun, PORK CHOP SANDWICHES, and homemade ice cream…as in, they were making ice cream on-site! Scott and I packed lunches for the first two days (I love PBJ), but opted to eat on-site on Sunday. My chili cheese fries were fabulous!
Back home, we’ve been working on our new repeater. Well, the repeater itself is new, but we’ve had on the air for a long time. We replaced it with a Yaesu DR-2X and set about to implementing Wires-X on it. So far so good. But let me tell you, that experience is not for the faint of heart! HUGE thanks to Dennis KR8U for his heroic efforts setting up the PC (which he donated) and the research he’s done. I’ve done a good bit of reading and asking around as well, but not nearly as much as Dennis.
What else happened in May? Well, I tried my first Parks On The Air (POTA) activation. It takes 10 contacts to qualify as an activation. Unfortunately, I only made 4. Between really bad band conditions and running only 10 watts, I think the odds were stacked against me. On the positive side though, I uploaded my log and the volunteer that processes them said it was good. Definitely lessons learned on that outing. Many thanks to Scott and Dennis for coming along for that as well!
In June, I’m looking forward to more outdoor activity with the IC-705. I have a little bit of travel planned and will be working my 10 watt, solar powered station along the way. Until next time, 73!