Category: Pointless Digressions, Radio Geekery || By

The portable toilets are being sucked clean, the crews are sweeping up the leftover cheese cups and hot dog wrappers, and the great geek-out known as Dayton Hamvention, the world's largest gathering of bath-deprived, socially-inept electronics freaks, is finally over.

OK. I keed, I keed. Some of the people do bathe.

Anyway, I just got back from my ... (counts on fingers) ... eighth-annual trip to Hamvention. Sponsored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, Hamvention is billed as the biggest convention for radio and computer buffs in the world, and I don't doubt that.

Each year at Hamvention, just about every major electronics hobby company (along with a lot of minor ones) is there to show off samples of their latest equipment. Some of the stuff they have on sale frankly would require a second mortgage on my house. On the other hand, prices in the outdoor flea market --- which takes up three entire parking lots --- start at "free" and go up from there.

And you literally do meet electronics buffs of all ages, from all over the world; I talked to guys (yeah, mostly guys) from Germany, the UK, Japan and Australia. (Not too many people from sub-Saharan Africa attend. I guess dropping four bills on a trip to the U.S. to gawk at ham radio equipment isn't a good idea when you're trying to scrape up enough for food today.)

. . .

Almanac Readers are Everywhere: So I'm pursuing the books on sale at the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) booth when I literally do a double-take.

There, on the back of a new book called World War II Radio Heroes: Letters of Compassion is an endorsement from Tube City Almanac reader and contributor Donn Nemchick!

Written by Pittsburgh-area counselor and behavioral psychologist Lisa Spahr, it's the story of her grandfather, who was held captive in a German POW camp, and the ham radio buffs who monitored overseas propaganda broadcasts to send news of POWs back to U.S. families. Needless to say, I bought the book, and you should, too.

Hey, Nemchick! I gotta drive four hours to find out about this? Sheesh.

. . .

Things Are Tough All Over: Everyone seems to agree that attendance at Hamvention this year was way down, but apparently, no one yet is saying by how much. In the past, annual paid attendance at Hamvention was said to run 20,000 to 30,000 people; one educated guess I saw pegged attendance this year at more like 14,000.

What accounts for the dramatic decrease? I blame the generally aging population of ham radio buffs, combined with record-high gasoline prices ... and prices were actually about 10 to 15 cents higher in Ohio than they are around Pittsburgh.

It's not easy to solve the second problem. As for the first problem, the ARRL, the U.S.'s biggest lobbying group for ham radio, issued a press release on Saturday urging ham radio buffs to embrace new technology as a way to attract people to the hobby:

(ARRL President Joel Harrison) noted that many hams attribute their affinity to "Amateur" Radio as launching their professional careers in radio engineering, satellite communications, computer science and wireless communications.

"This is less about defining a new course for Amateur Radio, but simply recognizing a course that has always been a precept of radio amateurs and the ARRL," he said. Referring to the federal rules and regulations for Amateur Radio, Harrison explained that one of the defining principles of the Service's very creation by the government is the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

Embracing technology is fine. I just wish more of my fellow hobbyists would also embrace dieting and soap.

. . .

Dayton: Buckle on the Rust Belt: Dayton might be the only major metropolitan area in the Midwest that makes the Mon Valley look good by comparison. You can drive for blocks and blocks and find nothing but boarded-up buildings, check-cashing stores and pawnshops.

For instance: Hamvention is held at the Hara Arena, a privately owned convention center and sports complex celebrating its 50th anniversary. The nearest major intersection is state Route 49 and Shiloh Springs Road. There are shopping centers on every corner.

Almost every store in those shopping centers was closed.

When the administration says that the economy is "resilient" and "strong," I really have to wonder which economy they're talking about.

Of course, it doesn't help a visitor's impressions of Dayton that Hara Arena is a fetid dump that's seen no major improvements since the 1980s. The buildings are rundown, ugly and confusing to navigate. And those are the complex's good points.

. . .

On the Road Again: I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Dayton and Cincinnati are crisscrossed by major interstate highways and served by excellent limited-access beltways.

But the highways haven't stopped people and businesses from leaving southwestern Ohio, and I've seen precious little development (other than retail stores) along those beltways over the years.

The backers of the Mon-Fayette Expressway believe that it will spur the revitalization of the Mon Valley, and yet there's not much evidence that highway construction helped stave off economic collapse in Dayton.

(For that matter, there are few cities in America with more freeways than the Motor City, and Detroit is no one's idea of a boomtown.)

If you go to the MFX meeting tomorrow night at McKeesport Area High School, you might keep that in mind.

. . .

Two Cheers for PennDOT: On the other hand, Pennsylvania's interstate highways --- at least to my untrained eyes --- look a lot better than Ohio's. The grass is cut, the shoulders are free of debris, and things just generally seem to be maintained better here.

Yep, I never thought I'd say anything nice about PennDOT, but it has to be said.

PennDOT's highway budget was about $4.3 billion last year, which is similar to Ohio's highway budget of about $4.2 billion.

On the other hand, Pennsylvania maintains about 40,500 miles of highway, while Ohio maintains about 49,000, so maybe they're getting more for their money.

. . .

I Am a Fossil: I usually take a camera with me to Hamvention.

But I didn't take my new digital camera; instead, as usual, I grabbed my trusty Canon AE-1 and an ancient Konica III once owned by my friend Larry Slaugh.

Geez. From the comments I got, you would have thought I was wearing a suit of armor and riding a horse:

• "Do those things work?" (No, modern photons can't enter their old-fashioned lenses.)


• "Can you still get film for them?" (Yes, it's on loan from the Smithsonian.)


• "Are you actually taking pictures with those?" (No, I'm using them to store my sarcasm pills.)

I've never gotten those kinds of comments before. And although I can understand getting those reactions from people about the Konica (it's a 1958 camera), the Canon's not that old.

The fact is that no one ... but no one ... other than me was carrying a film camera, as far as I could tell. Hamvention always attracts a few camera dealers, and second-hand conventional (i.e., film) Canon and Nikon SLRs that would have sold for hundreds of dollars a few years ago were going for $25 or $50.

One guy manning the Radio Society of Great Britain's booth was really tickled to see my Canon AE-1, and we wound up gabbing about cameras for some time. He says plain old 35mm film is difficult to find in the UK now; at least eight stores in his hometown were carrying it a few years ago, but only one sells it today.

Well, I'm still buying mine at Walgreen's, and it's like $10 for four rolls. I gave my card and told him to email me; I'll send him a CARE package if he needs it. That's the ham way. Or maybe it's the cowboy way; I get those confused.