On Saturday, March 30, 2013 8:22:15 PM UTC-4, Channel Jumper wrote:

That means I put out about $500 to go to the Dayton Hamfest and I have
about 16 hours to spend - realistically, and I give up 6 of those hours
to save $20.00

I guess it depends on how you look at things. I put a lot of hours into
completely unpaid Amateur radio activities, like VE testing, QSO Party
management, and public service functions that if I was paid my
typical salary would come out to around 40 thousand dollars a year,
calculated by the hour.

It doesn't bother me a bit, and I'm actually having fun doing those things.