Recap of the Dayton Hamvention in 2012

If you have any interesting stories or fun moments about Dayton in 2012, any reviews of any forum, please send them to K8CX and I will add them to this page.

This years attendance was 24,483.

The weather on May 18, 19, 20, 2012 was very pleasant with temperatures in the 80's and sunny all 3 days.

All of us in Dayton are eagerly awaiting your arrival to Hamvention 2012. The theme this year is ‘Internationally Connected’ and as Amateur Radio Operators we have the unique opportunity to communicate and share ideas with friends from all over the globe. Today in a world with so many ways to communicate none can compare to Amateur Radio. As Amateurs we really can make a difference in understanding and celebrating our cultural differences. Each year we see more and more of our International friends attending so I ask you join me in making all of them feel welcome. Hamvention is a great time to see old friends but this year would be a great time to meet new Hams and discover a new aspect to the hobby. (Partial statement by Michael Kalter W8CI
General Chairman)

Hamvention 2012 Awards committee WS8B Frank Beafore & KF4KWW David Crawford have nominated Mr. S. Suri VU2MY Amateur of the Year, Joel Hallas W1ZR Technical Achievement Award, Steven Betza WZ2V Special Achievement Award, DARC Deutscher Amateur Radio Club chosen Club of the Year Award. Read here for more info!

(Dayton, OH - May 18, 2012) -- CQ magazine today announced its 2012 Hall of Fame inductees, celebrating the 45th anniversary of the CQ DX Hall of Fame with three new members, along with two new inductees into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame and 16 new members of the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.
The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honors those individuals, whether licensed hams or not, who have made significant contributions to amateur radio; and those amateurs who have made significant contributions either to amateur radio, to their professional careers or to some other aspect of life on our planet. The 2012 inductees (listed alphabetically) are:

George Badger, W6TC (SK), expert in tubes and tube circuit designs; executive of Eimac and later President of Svetlana.

Bill Brown, WB8ELK - "Father" of amateur radio high-altitude ballooning.

Robert Brown, NM7M (SK) - Expert on 160-meter propagation, author and retired physics professor.

Evelyn Gauzens, W4WYR - Chair of the Miami "Tropical Hamboree" hamfest for 45 years; ARRL Southeastern Division Vice Director, Honorary Vice President.

Richard Garriott, W5WKQ – Younger half of first U.S. father-son team to travel in space. (His father is Owen Garriott, W5LFL, the first astronaut to operate amateur radio from space, and a 2001 Amateur Radio Hall of Fame inductee.)

William W. Hansen (no call)(SK), "Father of Microwave Electronics".

Richard Kirby, ex-W0LCT/HB9BOA (SK) - Director of the ITU's International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) from 1974 to 1995.

Fred Maia, W5YI (SK) - One of the architects of VE program, first FCC-designated VEC; editor/publisher W5YI Report; long-time CQ columnist.

Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML - Communications Director, New York City Marathon, 1976-present; former ARRL First Vice President, Director.

Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI - Photojournalist who has covered major news events around the world for more than 50 years; CQ cover photographer for over 30 years.

Rowley Shears, G8KW (SK) - Founder of KW Electronics in UK; helped re-establish amateur radio in Germany after World War II.

Mike Staal, K6MYC - Antenna expert, co-founder of KLM and M2 Antennas.

Frederick Terman (ex-6FT, W6AE, W6XH) (SK) - Microwave pioneer, partner with William Hansen (see above).

Patrick Tice, WA0TDA - Manager, Courage HandiHam System; for more than 20 years.

Louis Varney, G5RV (SK) - Inventor of the G5RV antenna.

William A. Wilson, K6ARO (SK) - First U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican after formal diplomatic relations were re-established in 1984 after more than a century.

CQ DX and Contest and DX Halls of Fame:

The CQ DX and Contest Halls of Fame honor those amateurs who not only excel in personal performance in these major areas of amateur radio but who also "give back" to the hobby in outstanding ways. The CQ DX Hall of Fame, founded in 1967, celebrates its 45th anniversary this year.

The 2012 inductees to the CQ DX Hall of Fame are:

Don Chesser, W4KVX (SK) - Pioneering DXer and DXpeditioner; founder of DX magazine. Don passed away in 1985 and by all means should have been inducted years ago. That being said he was a DXer 24/7 as he lived, breathed and shared DX as a leader in the DX field. He was an excellent CW op and accomplished contester winning the single op category in the CQ WW CW in 1956 as well as two ARRL CW SS top finishes. Don organized DXpeditions to VP5BH (Caymans), KC4AF (Navassa), KS4BB (Serrana Bank) and was part of the all-time new one 4U1ITU. He was also the editor and publisher of "DX Magazine", which was started on June 4, 1957 as a post card and quickly grew to "the STANDARD for all DX bulletins". Also during this period Don server as the DX editor for CQ Magazine.

Glenn Johnson, W0GJ - A leading DXpedtioner, leading many teams, often to very rare countries; personally responsible for restoring amateur radio in Bhutan in 2000. W0GJ, Glenn, has been a leader and participant in many DXpeditions (including TO0R, VK0IR, FT5XM, A52A/A52GJ/A51B, VU4AN/VU3RYJ, VU7RG, K5Descheo and HK0NA) giving many a new country and new band points. He too has given back to the hobby as a member of the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) including his recent choice as Vice President.

Carl Smith, N4AA - Editor and publisher of DX magazine and the weekly "QRZ DX" bulletin. Also CQ's DX Editor and leader of effort to create Southern Appalachian Radio Museum. Carl has been delivering the DX news to DXers for over 15 years and tallies up the DX Magazine's "Most Wanted Survey" for DXpeditioners to know "Where do we go next". During the 1960's Carl was the ARRL's Assistant Circulation Manager. He has also served as a BOD member of INDEXA (International DX Association). Carl is the founder of the Southeastern DX and Contesting Organization (SEDCO/W4DXCC).

Plaques were presented to Carl Smith N4AA and Glenn Johnson W0CG at the DX Dinner at the Dayton Marriot Hotel. A plaque was also presented at the DX Dinner to K8MFO, KB8NW, and K8CX for their nomination of Don Chesser W4KVX.

The 2012 inductees to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame are:

Jim Reisert, AD1C - Maintains and constantly updates the country and prefix files that are depended upon by virtually all of the major contest and general logging programs, as well as software for the major DX clusters. Jim is another 24/7 Contester and DXer and the son of W1JR, Joe. "No one in recent memory has contributed more to the overall value to DX and Contesting logging programs than has Jim" says W4GKF, Chaz Cone, on behalf of the Southeastern DX Club. For years AD1C has been severing both the DX and Contest communities updating and maintaining multiple databases for the logging programs we use daily!

Lothar Wilke, DL3TD (SK) - Leading contester and promoter of contesting in Germany; under his leadership, DA0HQ won the IARU World Championship 11 times. DL3TD, Lothar, died tragically in a house fire last year. His former calls include DL5ATD, Y24UK, DM2DUK, DM4RFM and Y34K. He was a major player in the Y34K/DF0HQ/DA0HQ contest station for over 40 years and the driving force behind the 11 wins as DA0HQ in the IARU World Championship. He also had multiple first place single op finishes in the WAE and WAG. Lothar also headed DARC's DX and Contest departments.

N1DG, Don Greenbaum gave a presentation on DXpedition funding, an important topic in the financially difficult times. Many DXers who attend Don's talk last Saturday in the DX forum said their eyes were opened at the astronomical costs associated with DXpeditions to those remote locations to those rare DXCC Entities, especially south of 60 degrees south. For those who did not attended, and those who did, can see Don's excellent presentation, which is now posted on the Northern California DX Foundation's Website. Go to http://www.ncdxf.org/pages/dxresources.html .

The DX Forum on Saturday, also had excellent presentations on T32C, ST0R and HK0NA.

Also, announced was the SWODXA's "DXpedition of the Year" given to the HK0NA Malpelo Island operation, and the "DXpeditioner of the Year" was given Rudy Klos, DK7PE.

The TopBand Dinner was hosted by Tim, K3LR. 135 TopBand enthusiasts and many wives attended this event. There were presentations by W3LPL and W2GD. W3LPL’s presentation "1921 Transatlantic Tests, Progenitors to Modern Top Band Contests and DXing" is available on-line at: http://topbanddinner.com/page_presentations.html .

Contest activities at Dayton by K3LR webinar at http://www.pvrc.org/webinar/dayton_2012.wmv .

Contest University by K3LR was held on Thursday May 17, 2012, from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. This is the day before the Dayton Hamvention officially opens. Attendance was around 230. Participants gained much contest knowledge.

2012 CTU Professors were:
Doug Grant, K1DG, Frank Donovan, W3LPL, Ed Muns, W0YK, Rob Sherwood, NC0B, Greg Ordy, W8WWV, Joel Harrison, W5ZN, Tim Duffy, K3LR, Tree Tyree, N6TR, Kurt Andress, K7NV, Scott Dickson, W5WZ, Ramon Santoyo, XE1KK, Bob Wilson, N6TV, Ira Stoler, K2RD, Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA. 2012 CTU

Topics were: 2012 Contest Radio Performance, RTTY Contesting - 3 progressive sessions, How to Improve your Contest Station, Contest Preparations, Updated Contest Propagation, Ideas for operating which will improve your score, Contest Antennas - 3 progressive sessions, New VHF Contesting, The Spirit of Contest Rules, CW Skimmer, Reverse Beacon Network, Tower Safety for Contest Stations, Feedline - cable loss and maintenance, Multi Operator Contest Strategies, Short Vertical Receive Antennas, 2012 K1DG Eye Ball Sprint, Logging Software Review, Feedline Chokes and Baluns, Optimizing your Station, Contesting Clubs - organization and motivation, Small Station Optimization, Contest Operating from Outside of the USA, Selecting Rotors and Antennas.

"Anyone who is the least bit interested in contesting would be nuts not to attend if they have the chance." -- W6SZN

We also had a special presentation from the TI5N Youth DX team. Contest University could not happen without the hard work and dedication by Scott, W3TX and Jerry, K1SO.

Many Contest friendly vendors provide support to the CTU program. Thanks to the CTU Board of Directors K1DG, N9JA and K1AR for their guidance.

Eight hours of CTU were live streamed by Tom, KB4HQA

Thanks to Tom, KB4HQA for providing the custom hardware setup and chat software for the Dayton contest webcam. Over 20 hours were live streamed from the Crowne Plaza. We received many nice comments from all over the world. Everyone was very happy for Tom's hard work to provide this exciting technology. We hope to webcam even more events in 2013.

KB4HQA, Tom Samacicio, the fellow who set up and hosted the live Internet video cam for Contest University, Contest Dinner and the Hospitality Suite at Dayton was in the terrible car accident on his way to the Dayton Airport. He broke his back and neck but didn't have nerve damage. He is now back home in Georgia. “He has a long road to go to recover, but he is doing much better”, says K3LR, Tim Duffy. Tom is planning to be at next year’s Dayton event.

The Contest Super Suite on the 1st floor of Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Dayton was open 4 nights with free pizza all 4 nights. The Mad River Radio Club, Frankford Radio Club and North Coast Contesters hosted the Contest Super Suite for the 23rd straight year. K8CC from the Mad River Radio Club, K3WW from the Frankford Radio Club and K3LR from North Coast Contesters hosted the pizza and QSL (Quaker Stake & Lube) wing party Thursday night. The Potomac Valley Radio Club and Yankee Clipper Contest Club hosted two pizza parties in the Super Suite. 93 Pizzas and 300 QSL wings were consumed over all 4 nights - lots of smiles! There were also hospitality suites on other floors of the Crowne Plaza. There was Society of Midwest Contesters on the 4th floor, Kansas City DX Club on the 5th floor, and Northern Ohio DX Assn. on the 10th floor. Crowne Plaza is definately the place to be in the evening when visiting Hamvention. Please make it a point to join us there next year.

The Spurious Emissions Band played Saturday night in the Contest Super Suite. Here is one of their videos!

The 2012 Antenna forum awesome presentations from K4IQJ, K3TUF, K1KP, W2GD, K4ZA and K9LA will be posted later this week thanks to hosting from N5KO and help from K5TR. Watch http://www.k3lr.com for links.

Special Guest T6MO:
Eric Hall K9GY was a special guest of K3LR. Eric stayed at the Crowne Plaza and attended CTU, the Top Band Dinner and the Contest Dinner. Eric is currently serving in the US Army - deployed in Afghanistan. We were excited for Eric to spend his leave in Dayton.

Special Guest NN6JA:
John Amodeo, NN6JA visited the Contest Super Suite Friday evening. John is the producer of “Last Man Standing” a TC show that features Amateur Radio with Tim Allen.

Special Guest K3LP:
David Collingham, K3LP arrived directly from the 7O6T operation in Yemen, having operated there only days before.

Special Guest K5GN:
After spending many years living and working in Qatar (A7) – we were thrilled to see David McCarty, K5GN attend many contesting events in Dayton. David also won the 2012 Kansas City DX Code Copying Contest on Saturday night at the KC Hospitality Suite. Congrats David!

Last year in 2011 the Crowne Plaza was under a new manager. The rates for the Hamvention were close to $200.00 per night. Tim Duffy K3LR came up with a plan and took responsibility for reserving every room in 2012. This brought the rates back to a normal around $135.00 per night. Tim also coordinates the Contest University, Contest Dinner, Contest Super Suite, Antenna Forums, and more. Thank you Tim K3LR for your endless work to make things pleasant for all to enjoy...

The Dayton 2012 Photo Gallery is now up and contains 308 photos by Tom Roscoe K8CX. Others are encouraged to submit their 2012 photos to be included on the Gallery. There must be at least one ham in the photo that isn't already listed on this page. There is a search engine on this page to make checking easy. All hams in the photos must be identified by callsign.

Here is a story about the Society of Midwest Contesters suite on the 4th floor of Crowne Plaza. It was Friday night, I (K8CX) had just walked to the SMC door and was addressed by a security cop in uniform. He asked me if I knew who Paul (K9PG) was. I said yes, I will get him for you. Paul went to the door and the security guy told Paul he had to go QRT with his SMC suite. The hotel placed an airline pilot in the room across the hall and he complained about all the noise (SMC is the noisiest and rowdiest suite at Crowne). Paul told him the suite has been there in room 425 for decades during the Hamvention, he paid extra for the larger room, and they weren't about to go QRT. After some discussion the security cop left and the party went on (now with the door closed). Im not sure, but I think they may have moved the pilot to another floor. Whoever put the pilot across the hall from SMC must have been new at the hotel...hi

Here is a list of this years Silent Keys that were paid tribute at the Contest Dinner. A moment of silence with much respect was given to: AA5DX, AA6GZ, HC8FR, IS0OMH, K0BIT, K6EL, K8RR, K8UP, KC2NB, KC6NAX, KI6WF, N6EM, N6WR, N8AC, N9AG, NF1J, P43JB, PY2DBU, VE2XAA, VE3SY, VE6NM, W1BIH, W2AX, W2YV, W4ZW, W5AE, W5YI, W5ZL, W6BNB, W6DDB, WV1K, YV5ANT, ZL1AMO, ZL2JR.

Additional information for this page on Dayton 2012 can be submitted to K8CX.

CQ Hall of Fame inductees info courtesy of W2VU & CQ Magazine
W3UR & The Daily DX, KB8NW & The Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin
Info by K8CX, K3LR, K4KL, W8CI