Dayton Hamvention Recap 2014

If you have any interesting stories or fun moments about Dayton in 2014, any reviews of any forum, please send them to K8CX and I will add them to this page.

This years attendance was 24,873. A bit up from last year's 24,542.

The Hamvention was on May 16, 17, 18 and the weather was as follows:
I left for Dayton on Thursday afternoon from northeast Ohio. While driving through Akron, OH., there was a torrential downpour. It rained so hard, I could hardly see the car right in front of me. After Akron, it was fairly overcast but no rain the rest of the way.
Friday was overcast with a high of 54 degrees F.
It got up to 58 degrees on Saturday with rain, hail, and sleet.
Sunday was clear with a high of 66 F.

This years theme was "Makers".
We are living in what some are now calling a “maker renaissance” - a culture that has risen from the desire to build things. In this era of everything electronic, instant information and instant gratification, there remains a counter action involving something a bit more tangible. Any of us who ever took something apart to see how it worked and then couldn’t get it back together will understand this feeling. Indeed, the current maker movement encompasses a broad swath of ideals and activities Amateur radio operators have been using for decades: building projects, repurposing old, learning new skills, techniques, and solving problems. Making things makes you a critical thinker, a problem solver.
Today, “makers” are using 3D printers, CNC machines, and yes, even electronics to solve problems or do projects; but they’re still using the same basic principles as Amateurs, as tinkerers, have for years. We in the Amateur radio are all “makers” at heart and in a few short months you’ll have a great opportunity to experience what’s going on in the Amateur world and electronics.

Amateur of the Year: Dr. Larry E Price, W4RA
Dr. Price served as President of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) from 1999 to 2009. Dr. Price's leadership had significant and direct impact on the development of amateur radio throughout the world. - At his direction, many noteworthy achievements occurred such as elimination of the Morse requirement, protection of existing frequency allocations, adoption of ITU Recommendation ITU-R M.1544, Minimum qualifications of radio amateurs, expansion of the 40 meter amateur band in ITU Regions 1 and 3, and new LF allocations.

Special Achievement Award: Dave Sumner, K1ZZ
As Special Achievement Award winner, Sumner was cited for his contributions to the international Amateur Radio community through the International Amateur Radio Union and for his leadership in the fight against Broadband over Power Line (BPL) interference to radio amateurs.

Technical Excellence Award: David Freese Jr, W1HKJ
Dave Freese is recognized for his development and distribution of the Fast Light Digital Modem Application (fldigi) family of programs for use in amateur and emergency communications. FLDIGI is an easy to use, free of charge, and open source computer program intended for Amateur Radio Digital Modes operation using a Personal Computer. FLDIGI operates in conjunction with conventional radio transceivers, and uses the PC sound card as the main method of input from the radio, and output to the radio.

The Club of the Year Award: Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society, W4GR
The Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society serves Gwinnett County, Georgia. The Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society has several well rounded training programs aimed at old and novice amateur radio operators with many programs aimed at youth. They continually host and support amateur radio programs and they participate in a multitude public service events. Their last effort for Field Day was a massive effort that included eight stations. Their TechFest is an opportunity for the community to become aware of the many modes of operation of Radio Amateurs and view some of the preparations taking place by public service volunteers in the Ham radio community. Maintain a wide area repeater system while hosting several nets each week.

On Friday afternoon, the ARRL presented the 2013 Bill Orr, W6SAI, Technical Writing Award to Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA. The ARRL Foundation selected Luetzelschwab for his article "The Sun and the Ionosphere," which appeared in the March 2013 issue of QST.

Dayton Hamvention 2014 already was a Regional ARRL Centennial Event, but May 18, Hamvention's last day, was the 100th anniversary of the League's founding. A birthday party and free cake helped to draw a room-filling crowd of 200 or more for the Sunday morning occasion. ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, told the gathering, "The Second Century is up to us," and expressed the hope that in another 100 years, the Amateur Radio community would reflect on the League's first century with respect and admiration.

CQ ANNOUNCES 2014 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
(Dayton, OH - May 16, 2014) -- CQ magazine today announced its 2014 Hall of Fame inductees, adding two members each to the CQ DX and Contest Halls of Fame, as well as eight new members of the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.

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 2014 inductees (listed alphabetically) are:

Clifford Berry, W9TIJ, who helped usher in the computer age as co-inventor of the Atanasoff-Berry computer (or ABC), the precursor of virtually all electronic computers.

Warren Bruene, W5OLY, prolific radio designer and innovator who designed many Collins radios and helped the company introduce single-sideband voice communications.

John Huntoon, W1RW, former ARRL General Manager, QST Editor, helped bring about international allocation of the 30-, 17- and 12-meter bands.

Mike Koss, W9SU, DXer and Dxpeditioner; founder and owner of filter manufacturer ICE (Industrial Communications Engineers); key player in establishment of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Amateur Radio Club, W9IMS; organizer of special event station W87PAX at 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis.

Nancy Kott, WZ8C, former Editor of WorldRadio and WorldRadio Online and tireless promoter of Morse Code as U.S. coordinator of the FISTS CW Club.

Paul Laughton, N6BVH, software designer whose accomplishments include developing Apple's disk operating system and Atari's operating system.

Ralph Showers, ex-W3GEU, expert on electronic interference and leader of efforts to set national and international standards for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). He holds several awards from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Steve Wozniak, ex-WV6VLY and ex-WA6BND, co-founder of Apple Computers.

CQ DX and Contest 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 2014 inductees to the CQ DX Hall of Fame are:

Joe Reisert, W1JR, a DXer and DXpeditioner since the 1950s, Joe has DXCC Mixed, Phone, CW, Digital and QRP with over 300 entities confirmed for each, along with 13-band Worked All States, 13-band Worked All Continents and CQ's USA-CA All Counties award. Joe is also a pioneer in 432-MHz EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications, ran his own antenna manufacturing company (Antennaco) and is a prolific writer and public speaker.

David Collingham, K3LP, a leading DXer and DXpeditioner who is also focused on using amateur radio as an educational tool, at home and around the world. He has equipped a complete station at his hometown elementary school and has taught amateur radio to young people in Iraq, Ethiopia and Rotuma.

The 2014 inductees to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame are:

J. Scott Redd, K0DQ, is already a member of the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame for his service to our nation as an Admiral, Deputy Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and the first Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Scott has always found time within his professional duties for amateur radio and his first love, contesting. He is one of only two people to have won the single-operator category of all of the world's major contests.

Ed Muns, W0YK, is a noted RTTY contester with 9 single-op all-band and one multi-two championships and six world records. Ed is also Director of the CQ World Wide RTTY DX and RTTY WPX Contests, and manager of the North American Sprint RTTY Contest. He is also very active in the Northern California Contest Club and is a past club officer and director.

Contest University by K3LR was held on Thursday May 15, 2014, 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.

This years DX Forum included talks:
John Miller, K6MM--K9W, Wake Island
Dr. Jay Garlitz, AA4FL--T33A, Banaba Island
Krish Kanakasapapathi, W4VKU/VU2VKU--VU7AG, Lakshadweep Island
Dr. Ralph Fedor, K0IR --FT5ZM, Amsterdam Island

Amsterdam Island FT5ZM was awarded the DXpedition of the year at the DX Dinner.

N6PSE, Paul, and K3LP, David, presented K9GY / T6MO, Eric, with the Intrepid Spirit Award at the Dayton Icom Booth on Saturday.

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 Friday night in the Contest Super Suite.

Crowne Plaza now gives a form (third 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 2014 Photo Gallery is now up and contains 361 photos by Tom Roscoe K8CX. Others are encouraged to submit their 2014 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.

There is a list of Silent Keys that were paid tribute at the Contest Dinner. A moment of silence with much respect was given to them. They were: K6KM, WX7P, VR6TC, KR5V, K5TSQ, ZC4LI, W2NSD, 5B8AD,
W6BH, KH2D, N4AAI, NP3D, GW3NJW, LU1DZ, K4PG, K8RA,
W6ISQ, W6OSP, W2XT, WK5X, N4XR, HA3OV, VE3RM, N1IW,
WZ8C, W4SVO, K6AUC, N3NA, KB8OCP, W9EFL, W5JBO,
NL7G, KH6BZF.

Additional information for this page on Dayton 2014 can be submitted to K8CX.

Thanks to DARA & Hamvention General chairman Charles Kaiser KD8JZR, 2014 Hamvention Awards Committee David Crawford KF4KWW & Nancy Krodel KC8RMT