Recap of the Dayton Hamvention in 2013

If you have any interesting stories or fun moments about Dayton in 2013, any reviews of any forum, please send them to K8CX and I will add them to this page.

This years attendance was 24,542.

The weather on May 17, 18, 19, 2013 was sunny and humid in the low 80's on friday. Saturday was rain and overcast in the morning. It cleared up around 11:00 AM and had sunny skys with highs in the 70's. Sunday also had highs in the 70's.

This years theme is "DX Hamvention". This will reflect an important part of ham radio: the distant contact. "Hamvention is often an important DX destination for amateurs from all over the globe," Hamvention General Chairman Charles Kaiser, KD8JZR, explained. "Working DX is often a mix of magic, conditions and the diligent application of radio theory."

Amateur of the Year (withdrawn):
Mustapha Landoulsi, DL1BDF,was named the Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year for 2013. Landoulsi -- for many years a fixture at the DARC table at Hamvention -- has been instrumental in promoting Amateur Radio all over the world. Fluent in Arabic, French, German and English, Landoulsi has worked tirelessly to bring radio amateurs together in the Middle East, Africa and other parts of the world. He established six Amateur Radio stations in Tunisia and continues to help re-establish them after the Arab Spring, the pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that began in December 2010. As a pilot for Lufthansa Airlines, Landoulsi has organized the delivery of emergency medical equipment and medicine to African countries. The Amateur of the Year Award is given to an well-rounded radio amateur who has contributed to and made a long term commitment to the advancement of Amateur Radio.

The Dayton Hamvention Awards Committee announced on April 7 that it would be withdrawing its Amateur of the Year Award for 2013. According to Dayton Hamvention General Chairman Charles Kaiser, KD8JZR, the committee had received “conflicting information from credible sources regarding the accuracy of the winning nomination.”

The Technical Excellence Award:
DARA named two radio amateurs -- Dave Witten, KD0EAG, and David Rowe, VK5DGR -- as the recipients of its 2013 Technical Excellence Award. Recognized for their FreeDV software -- a GUI application for Windows and Linux systems that allow any SSB radio to be used for low bit rate digital voice -- Witten and Rowe developed FreeDV using open source Codec2 software. The Technical Excellence Award is given to an amateur or amateurs who have made an outstanding technical advancement in the field of Amateur Radio.

The Special Achievement Award:
George Thomas, W5JDX, was named the winner of the 2013 Special Achievement Award for his work on Amateur Logic TV and Ham Nation, both Internet-only broadcasts featuring Amateur Radio. Thomas -- who co-founded Amateur Logic TV in August 2005 – serves as the show’s producer and co-host. He has produced the “Smoke and Solder” segment on Ham Nation for more than 80 episodes. The Special Achievement Award is given to an amateur or amateurs who have made an outstanding contribution, usually spearheading a single, significant project, to the advancement of Amateur Radio.

Amateur Radio Club of the Year:
The West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group in West Palm Beach, Florida was named the 2013 Amateur Radio Club of the Year. The club was selected based on its contribution in mitigating the effects of disaster situations, support of public service events, Amateur Radio education and recruitment, youth programs, years of service and number of members. The selection committee noted the club’s work with the South Florida Science Museum, youth recruitment, ARISS participation in the ARISS program and training classes.

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 2013 inductees (listed alphabetically) are:

* Evelyn Garrison, WS7A (SK) - amateur radio industry leader
* Joel Kleinman, N1BKE (SK) - former Managing Editor of QST magazine
* Laurie Margolis, G3UML/GPC3L - Longtime BBC correspondent and contributor to amateur radio magazines
* Michael Owen, VK3KI (SK) - Longtime president of the Wireless Institute of Australia and chairman of IARU Region 3
* Harry Rubinstein (ex-9EEV) (SK) - Inventor of the printed circuit, the slider potentiometer and the combination potentiometer/on-off switch
* Walker Tompkins, K6ATX - Journalist, author and historian, his three dozen books included several well-known ham radio-related novels
* Joe Walsh, WB6ACU - Rock music performer and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee
* William G. (Bill) Welsh, W6DDB (SK) - CQ Novice Editor for 20 years; responsible for helping thousands to get their ham licenses

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 2013 inductees to the CQ DX Hall of Fame are:

* Vladimir Bykov, UA4WHX/AC4LN, has visited and operated from over 100 DX entities in the past ten years and operated from all six continents in 2012 alone. Has provided over 700,000 DX contacts for hams around the world (and QSLed them all).

* Robert "Gary" Dixon, K4MQG, is a founding member of the Carolina DX Association and as Founding President of INDEXA, the International DX Association, which has helped support over 200 DXpeditions in the past 30 years.

The 2013 inductees to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame are:

* Dale Green, VE7SV, is a world-class contester who has been hosting teams of new and experienced contesters at his superstation for the past 20 years, and recently helped start a contest group in Chile.

* Charles "Chas" Fulp, K3WW, also a multi-award winning contester and past president of the Frankford Radio Club (FRC), which says Chas "is our role model and sets the standard for other FRC members to strive to achieve."

Contest University by K3LR was held on Thursday May 16, 2013, 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. Participants gained much contest knowledge.

2013 CTU Professors were:
Dave McCarty, K5GN, Doug Grant, K1DG, Frank Donovan, W3LPL, Ed Muns, W0YK, Rob Sherwood, NC0B, Randy Thompson, K5ZD, Joel Harrison, W5ZN, Tim Duffy, K3LR, Jim Brown, K9YC, Bob Cox, K3EST, John Miller, K6MM, Bob Wilson, N6TV, Dr. Richard Jaeger, K4IQJ.

Topics were:
2013 Contest Radio Performance, RTTY Contesting – multiple sessions, How to Improve your Contest Station, Contest Preparations, 2013 Contest Propagation, Operating ideas to improve your score, Contest Antennas multiple sessions, 2013 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, 2013 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.

Many Contest friendly vendors provide support to the CTU program.

This year's DX Forum included talks on:
* DX legend Al Hix, W8AH (SK) - speaker Hal Turley, W8HC
* Interesting talk on propagation, Cycle 24 and a possible second peak - by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA
* DXpedition to St. Peter & St. Paul Rocks - by George Wallner, AA7JV
* DXpedition to Yemen (Socotra Island) - by Dave Collingham, K3LP

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. 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.

Crowne Plaza now gives a form (second year) to fill out before leaving. This reserves you a room (3 nights only) for the following year. This is a much better arrangement than setting a date for you to call in.

The Dayton 2013 Photo Gallery is now up and contains 353 photos by Tom Roscoe K8CX. Others are encouraged to submit their 2013 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 list of this years Silent Keys that were paid tribute at the Contest Dinner. A moment of silence with much respect was given to: NØSS, W3ZZ, KQØB, W9JUV, W1UQ, K3MMM, VK6HD,
K2GN, K2OWE, W3NV, YBØARA, K1IK, NT5C, KH6HME,
W5PG, K1FO, K4XG, K2MM, JA3AA, K6SV, GM4FAM,
DJ5IR, YT2A, LU1VK, ZS4PB, K7RX, GW3JXN, G3FPQ,
WØCEM, LY2PM, XE1L, W8GG, W1NJM, DL4JS, N6ND,
VE1AL, W5UWB.

Additional information for this page on Dayton 2013 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, K9RA, KD8JZR