If you wanted ham radio items, there was
plenty to be had. And I'd rather have fewer vendors selling more ham
radio equipment than more vendors selling IBM XT's and Old Handi-talkies
that some Fire department got rid of in 1990.


Don't forget the old beat up VCRs and such....

Leland C. Scott wrote:
When I turned in my ticket at the Hamvention I
normally check out what the prizes are. This year
I couldn't see even one item from Yaesu. Kenwood
and Icom etc. had items on display, but not Yaesu.
I wonder if the Hamvention did something to tick
them off.

Yaesu was not in the same arena with Icom and Kenwood, either. Don't
recall if it's always been that way.

Also I would say that both the flea market and the
inside vendor numbers were down by at least 20%.
There were MANY empty spaces in the flea market
area when in past years it was mostly full.

I was there on Friday. I thought it would plus-up on Saturday.

I also
heard that Mendelson wanted more space and a break
on the flea market rental since they are going out
of business. The Hamvention, based I what I heard
around, said no dice, so they didn't even bother
to show up and they're only a few miles from the
arena too. They spaced out many of the inside
vendor booth areas so it wasn't too obvious that
the number of vendors was way down.

The ARRL was there in force.

What did anybody else notice? I hope the above
isn't a long term trend.

Old men. Yes, it's a long-term trend. bb

K=D8HB wrote:
"John S." wrote

... and one vendor actually had bikini clad women prancing around.

Sounds good to me! You have a problem with bikini clad YL'S?

dit dit

de Hans, K0HB

Hopefully Robeson doesn't pop in here and tell us they were selling
"something."

On Mon, 23 May 2005 16:44:37 -0400, Michael Coslo wrote:


I've been going for three years now. There were less vendors this year
than last. But there was less crap than last year also. And a lot of the
crap that went missing this year was the people selling ancient
computers and old HT junk. If you wanted ham radio items, there was
plenty to be had. And I'd rather have fewer vendors selling more ham
radio equipment than more vendors selling IBM XT's and Old Handi-talkies
that some Fire department got rid of in 1990.

That's too bad since this is one of the few flea markets where you can
find this "old stuff". In fact I found exactly what I was looking for,
some old 72 pin 32MB EDO memory sticks and some 128MB 168 pin DIMM memory
sticks. It was FAR cheaper than any vendor on line I found, if they even
had what I was looking for in the first place. Those old computers get put
into service as packet nodes, dedicated remote rig control computers, DSP
based sound card digital modes, etc. I would rather tie up the old PII
333MHz machine I'm using right now, got it for $80 including the monitor
at a local Ham fest, than my new AMD FX-55 system. Now all I have to do is
find some Linux based sound card software.

Regards,

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

On Mon, 23 May 2005 18:55:16 -0700, bb wrote:


Yaesu was not in the same arena with Icom and Kenwood, either. Don't
recall if it's always been that way.

They were located in the same areas as they have been for the last 5 years
or so that I've been going to the Hamvention. This was the only year I saw
where Yaesu didn't have one single item donated for a prize.


I was there on Friday. I thought it would plus-up on Saturday.

That was nothing compared to a few years back where EVERY space in the
flea market area was filled! It used to take me at least one full day to
walk the outside area, this last time I did it in half a day because there
were so many empty spaces.

The ARRL was there in force.

They didn't look too particularly busy either. Several of the booths they
had set up for specific areas the people behind the tables looked like
they had a had time trying to stay awake since nobody was there asking
questions etc.


What did anybody else notice? I hope the above isn't a long term trend.

Old men. Yes, it's a long-term trend.

That's really too bad since there is a lot the ARRL can do to change that.
One of the big problems is the ARRL, and the old time Hams, who want to
treat HF as the "Crown Jewel" of Ham Radio and the heavy emphasis on it
when trying to recruit new Hams and current Hams to upgrade. The fact is
young kids can DX all they want on the computer, no license required. So
if they want to get young Hams in to the hobby they need to wake up and
show them what Ham Radio has to offer that they CAN'T get using the
Internet and a cell phone.

Regards,
Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

"bb" wrote

Hopefully Robeson doesn't pop in here and tell us they
were selling "something."

The correct terminology according to K4YZ is "Musta beem selling SOMEthing!". I
don't know how you "beem" sell SOMEthing, but I'm sure "Steve" (alias for K4YZ)
will provide a weasel-worded explanation.

dit dit
(Note Farnsworth spacing)

de Hans, K0HB

K=D8HB wrote:
"bb" wrote

Hopefully Robeson doesn't pop in here and tell us they
were selling "something."

The correct terminology according to K4YZ is "Musta beem selling
SOMEthing!". I
don't know how you "beem" sell SOMEthing, but I'm sure "Steve" (alias
for K4YZ)
will provide a weasel-worded explanation.

What "weasel worded" explanation, Hans?

You STILL have yet to explain this alleged insult adequately to
anyone.

I said that pretty faces in comely attire sell things. That's
nothing that any first year advertising student doesn't already know.

So...Just running off at the mouth on yet another self-righteous
rant, hans?

Seems like it too me.

Steve, K4YZ

"John S." wrote:

bb wrote:
John S. wrote:
If it was so bad in years past, why did you go this year. My last
trip
to Dayton was about 1995 and my impression of the used equipment
for
sale outside was that it had been carted between too many other
hamfests. And there was a surprising amount of non-radio
electronic
gear and parts. The inside was the usual glitzy trade show and one
vendor actually had bikini clad women prancing around.

ICOM had Very YL's in bathrobes and slippers.
JS Very YL as in pre-teens?


In my experience hamfests in general are showing lower attendance
because of both internet-based competition and the ham radio hobby
itself being on the far side of the growth and maturity curve.

Maybe if the Hamvention ran an advertisement in AARP...

JS I suspect that hams are already well represented in the AARP.

One only needs to be 50 to join AARP. Don't need no kids, lids or space cadets.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

Which is ... ????

Jim


if they want to get young Hams in to the hobby they need to wake up and
show them what Ham Radio has to offer that they CAN'T get using the
Internet and a cell phone.

Leland C. Scott wrote:
On Mon, 23 May 2005 19:01:36 -0700, bb wrote:



ICOM had Very YL's in bathrobes and slippers.


I saw that and I don't know what the point was they were trying to make.


Didn't see that. But as a Japanese owned company, they have a different
culture, and some of the things they do might seem a little different to us.

Yup... that seems different!

- Mike KB3EIA -