Welp, I attended the Hamvention today! I haven't been in a few years,
and haven't been on a Saturday in many years. $10 parking directly
across from Hara is a bargain considering the time saved, and not
having to mess with the busses.

I did meet the GL Division Chief... good guy, communicates well. I
could vote for him again. I renewed my ARRL membership and accepted a
2007/8 repeater directory as a door prize.

Roy was there, and I purchased a copy of EZ-NEC. I mentioned Cecil,
and he got a chuckle. I enjoy eavesdropping on the antenna newsgroup,
but I'm tempted to say snotty stuff to Brian Kelly because he's such a
$hit, but that's on him... Last time I read one of his postings on
RRAA he was asking basically the same Q I asked on RRAP and got so
much crap from him over it... Apparently he cannot learn from his own
"advice..."

Bob Heil was looking good. He's come a long way from Marissa, IL. He
was busy, and I wasn't buying, so we just nodded.

There was a guy selling guitars at the back of the flea market... but
he didn't look like Dave liquidating his music collection to raise
money to enforce actions on Roger. He was just an average guy...

Speaking of the flea market, about 1/3 was empty, another 1/3 was just
expensive"inside" parking, and the last 1/3 was truly flea market
stuff. Maybe the empty 1/3 will fill up tomorrow.

Then there was a dapper guy in a white yacht suit... could have been
Jim... at least as I envision him wearing a yacht suit and repeating
flying circus cliches...

I saw no sawed-off dweeb in an AF flight suit, so that guy must be
travelling incognito, or incarcerated again...

Even though I've passed the 20-year mark in amateur radio and can no
longer be called a newcomer, I'm still to the left side of the bell
curve in age, in my estimation. We gotta do something about that
statistic...

One gentleman had a rather largish tower erected on top of his
hardhat, and another was actually wearing a pith helmet. Girth may
exceed height in a fair number of cases, as well. And the
backpacks... banging into you with their backpacks. Sheesh! That
was on a Friday - wait til Saturday. I did see one electric-cart
wreck. Both gentlemen seems to be at a loss for words...

The brats outside were burned, and the popcorn inside could better be
called "SALT with popcorn sprinkles." NO ONE was selling apples or
anything else that might be considered healthy. The ladies selling
nuts only had "large" remaining on day one, so at $10+, I passed.
Someone on the inside was selling beer @ $4. That would be considered
a bargain if the Hamvention were a sports venue...

I saw none of my friends from Illinois or from Nebraska, but given the
distance, they'll probably be there on Saturday.

Was it worth the $25 admission? Sure... lots of foreign amateurs
were there, lots of YL's. The ARRL area had decent numbers of youth,
and a youth forum. Bravo!

wrote:
...
Was it worth the $25 admission? Sure... lots of foreign amateurs
were there, lots of YL's. The ARRL area had decent numbers of youth,
and a youth forum. Bravo!



The arrl reminds me of the communist party--always there to indoctrinate
the youth ...

JS