Dayton Hamvention 2018 Breakdown

DAYTON HAMVENTION 2018 REVIEW

If you have any interesting stories or fun moments about Dayton Hamvention in 2018, any reviews of any forum, please send them to K8CX and I will add them to this page.

2018 Hamvention Theme: "Amateur Radio...Serving the Community."

Hamvention General Chairman was Ron Cramer KD8ENJ, Assistant General Chairman was Jack Gerbs WB8SCT.

This years attendance was 28,417 . Last years (2017) attendance was 29.296.

This was the 2nd year at the Zenia County Fairgrounds. The Hamvention committee is doing a great job. There were no traffic jams like last year. The flee market had some crushed asphalt on the walkways making a noticable improvement. There were golf carts transporting people to and from their cars in the large parking lot. This is a GREAT service that I appreciated very much! The parking field was very muddy in spots. Drivers must beware of these mud holes or chance getting stuck. Driving around the mud holes was fairly easy. DARA also had several satellite parking areas set up in all directions from the fair grounds that you could park and get bussed to and from the fair grounds. The large crowd seemed well spread out through out the several buildings at the fairgrounds even though some of the isles were jammed and slow to navigate. I think the rain brought in the crowd from the flee market. There were food venders outside but long lines at some. All in all it was a good experience and very enjoyable event.

Hamvention had several services available. Here are a few: emergency medical care with on site doctor, lost and found, message center, license exams, shipping service, special event station, talk-in frequencies, truck and trailer parking, camper parking, electric scooters, and more!

The Weather (May 17, 18, 19, 20, 2018):
Thursday was sunny and 84 degrees F. Rain started about 5:30 PM local time.
Friday was 72 degrees F with overcast skys and rain most of the day. Rain stopped around 5:00 PM and was overcast.
Saturday was mid 70's F and rain until around 1:00 PM and then sunny for a couple of hours and then rain again.
Sunday was low to mid 70's F and sunny.

2018 Hamvention® Awards Winners:

Valerie Hotzfeld, NV9L, is "Amateur of the Year

Valerie Hotzfeld, NV9L, of Crescent City, Illinois, is the 2018 Hamvention^® "Amateur of the Year." The Hamvention Awards Committee -- chaired by Michael Kalter, W8CI, and Frank Beafore, WS8B -- this week announced its 2018 award recipients for Club of the Year, Technical Achievement, and Special Achievement.

"I am extremely honored to even be nominated for Amateur of the Year, let alone to win this award," Hotzfeld told ARRL. "I would like to thank the Hamvention Awards Committee. Their decision must have been a tough one, as I am certain the other nominees have done an outstanding job representing this hobby too. I would also like to thank those who mentored me throughout my different learning phases of this hobby. Not only has Amateur Radio been a life-changing experience for me, there are so many helpful hams in this hobby that it just feels natural to give back."

First licensed in 2006, Hotzfeld has been very active in local Amateur Radio clubs and in ARES. Once she "discovered" HF, she became obsessed with DXing and contesting. In the past few years, she has enjoyed inviting new hams to her station to DX or contest. She has been the pilot or lead pilot for four major DXpeditions. Hotzfeld also is a co-host of the Ham Nation webcast and has created how-to videos on YouTube for the ham radio community.

In 2017, Hotzfeld became engaged in public service, first traveling to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to help rescue small animals. She subsequently was deployed to Puerto Rico with the American Red Cross for 3 weeks as part of an Amateur Radio volunteer contingent, facilitating critical communications after Hurricane Maria.

Club of the Year

The Portage County Amateur Radio Service (PCARS) of Ravenna, Ohio, is Hamvention's 2018 Club of the Year. PCARS was established in November 2005, and it is an ARRL-Affiliated Special Service Club. PCARS members average more than 40 hours of club activities each month, including special interest groups, license training, contesting run from the club site (K8BF), and club social events.

"Our members cover a wide range of interests that allow us to support public safety organizations, student outreach programs, and activities focused on growing our hobby," the club told the Hamvention Awards Committee. "We love to share our experiences and have a requirement that our events be filled with a lot of fun. Members have joined PCARS because of all the activities and fun we have."

The club donated more than $6,000 in time and money to the community last year. It has created its own contests and events, including the annual Freeze Your Acorns Off in February and Ohio State Parks on the Air, which was used as a model for ARRL's year-long National Parks on the Air event in 2016.

PCARS sponsors several "Build Days" each year, with projects including home-built transceivers, antennas, and digital equipment to allow members to expand their horizons into new areas of Amateur Radio. A monthly "Get on the Air Day" lets members and non-members use club site equipment to learn about HF and new operating modes. "It is all about building our hobby, helping our community, building our skills, and, most of all, having fun," PCARS said.

Technical Achievement Award

Chip Cohen, W1YW, of Belmont, Massachusetts, has received the Hamvention 2018 Technical Achievement Award. Licensed for 52 years and bitten by the antenna bug, Cohen became a radio astronomer and astrophysicist, working at Arecibo, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Very Large Array (VLA), and others. While a professor at Boston University, Cohen connected fractal geometry with antennas, pioneering a paradigm shift in the design of fractal antennas and what they make possible. The holder of 41 US patents, Cohen is known for inventing the invisibility cloak using fractal antenna techniques.

Starting 30 years ago with simple flea market treasures, W1YW bootstrapped fractal antennas with modest gear and employed ham radio to report on the success of his new technology. He started Fractal Antenna Systems, Inc. with WA1ZWT (SK) in 1995, and is presently its CEO.

Cohen is a DXCC Top of the Honor Roll DXer and a strong advocate for technical "innovation culture" through Amateur Radio. He is a Life Member of ARRL and a Fellow of the Radio Club of America, where he has served as vice president and director.

Special Achievement Award

Heriberto Perez, KK4DCX; Victor Torres, WP4SD, and Emilio Ortiz Jr., WP4KEY, are Hamvention's 2018 Special Achievement Award winners. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico last September, Perez mobilized his radio equipment to Radio Sol in San Germán, the local public broadcasting station, accompanied by Torres and Ortiz. The team handled health-and-welfare traffic to thousands of families across the continental US. Thanks to the support of more than 45 radio amateurs across the US, more than 4,000 messages were delivered via telephone to anxious families.

"We would like to thank everyone who nominated a candidate," the committee said in announcing the award recipients. "The process is always difficult." A formal awards presentation will take place this May at Hamvention 2018 in Xenia, Ohio.

The Intrepid-DX Group awards IDXC announced awards at the Visalia (California, USA) DX Convention, which just concluded yesterday. YL2GM and YL1ZF, Yuris Peterson and Kaspars Uztics, are co-awardees of the 2018 Intrepid Spirit Award for activating Annobon and Equatorial Guinea, 3C0L and 3C1L. The awards will be presented at the Dayton HamVention in May. EA5RM, Antonio Gonzalez, is the recipient of the Intrepid Humanitarian Award for his years of working in the Bolivian rain forest, helping set up comms from remote villages to hospitals and medical clinics.

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 2018 inductees (listed alphabetically) are:
Marlon Brando, FO5GJ (SK), iconic movie actor.
David Brown, KC5ZTC (SK), NASA astronaut killed in 2003 Columbia disaster.
Kalpana Chawla, KD5ESI (SK), NASA astronaut killed in 2003 Columbia disaster.
Laurel Clark, KC5ZSU (SK), NASA astronaut killed in 2003 Columbia disaster.
Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE, pioneer in popularizing open-source Bit-X "semi-kits" using Arduinos for affordable QRP transceivers.
Grady Fox, W4FRM (SK), SSB pioneer; worked on Manhattan Project during World War II and the camera for NASA's lunar landers.
Wendell King, ex-2ADD (SK), African-American pioneer of broadcasting and college radio.
Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, founder of QRZ.com, the most widely-accessed amateur radio website.
Mark Pecen, KC9X/VE3QAM, wireless communication and networking pioneer, inventor, cybersecurity expert.
Carole Perry, WB2MGP, longtime advocate for youth in amateur radio; moderator of Dayton youth forum for more than 30 years.
Ed Westcott, W4UVS, photographer who chronicled the Manhattan Project during World War II and later helped the FBI with its investigation of the Jonestown massacre.

The 2018 inductees to the CQ DX Hall of Fame are:
Kimo Chun, KH7U - was nominated by the Dateline DX Association, of which is is a founding member. He has operated on many major DXpeditions, including Kingman Reef, Christmas Island, Palmyra Atoll, Cambodia and Midway Island. In addition, he routinely provides logistical assistance to hams planning Pacific island DXpeditions; and provides electronic maintenance support for groups administering Pacific island nature preserves, including the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A longtime member of Hawaii's Department of Emergency Management RACES team, Kimo was recently featured on an NBC News story about last year's accidental nuclear attack alert message sent out in Hawaii, and emphasized the role played by amateurs as the first to alert the public that the message was sent in error.

Krassimir "Krassy" Petkov, K1LZ/LZ1SA - Nominated by the Araucaria DX Group of Brazil, the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs and the Yankee Clipper Contest Club, Krassy has made many behind-the-scenes contributions to DXing and contesting over the years. A veteran of two dozen DXpeditions, Krassy has also provided or arranged financial and/or material support to many others. He also co-founded the Young Ham Contest Program in 2003, taking hams under age 21 to operate in major contests from Caribbean superstations; and served on the board of the 2006 World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) competition in Brazil. He has also worked with fellow DXers during DXpeditions to promote amateur radio and provide equipment for hams in the countries in which the groups operated.

The CQ DX Hall of Fame was established in 1967 to recognize those amateurs who have made major contributions to DXing and DXpeditioning. This year's inductions bring the total number of members of the CQ DX Hall of Fame to 73.

The 2018 inductees to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame are:
Andy Blank, N2NT - Nominated by the Frankford Radio Club, Andy has been the director of the CQ World Wide 160-Meter DX Contest for the past decade. A world-class contester with wins stretching back to 1979, Andy has also competed in five Word Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) competitions and was Director of Competition for WRTC-2014, held in Massachusetts. He is also a member of the advisory board of the World Wide Radio Operators' Foundation (WWROF).

Tom Wagner, N1MM - Nominated by both the Yankee Clipper Contest Club and the Northern California Contest Club, Tom is best known for his development of and ongoing upgrades to the N1MM Logger, which has become the world's most popular contest logging software. The program supports more than 240 different contests, multiple operating modes and integration with any number of transceivers and station accessories. Tom now leads a team of developers who are developing further enhancements and were recognized with the YASME Excellence Award in 2015.

The CQ Contest Hall of Fame was established in 1986 to recognize those amateurs who have made major contributions to the art of radio contesting. This year's inductions bring the total number of members of the CQ Contest Hall of Fame to 71.

SWODXA's DXpedition of the Year Award:
Juris Petersons YL2GM and Kaspars Uztics YL3AIW was awarded the for their 3C0L Annobon and 3C1L Equatorial Guinea activations.

The Dayton Daily News reported that a Louisville, KY based developer, Michael Heitz, of Garrett-Day LLC Properties, is in the process of buying Hara Arena, which served as home to Dayton Hamvention^® from 1964 until 2016.

The Wampler family had owned and operated Hara Arena since the 1950's. Wampler Ballarena, then a dance hall was built in what had been a family-owned orchard.

Contest University by K3LR, 12th CTU was held on Thursday May 17, 2018, 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.

Contest Dinner celebrated their 26th anniversary and was sold out. It was held at Crowne Plaza downtown Dayton. Keynote speaker was Chris Janssen DL1MGB.

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 including NODXA Northern Ohio DX Assn. on the 10th floor, KCDXC Kansas City DX Club on the 5th floor. Crowne Plaza downtown Dayton is definately the place to be in the evening when visiting Hamvention. Please make it a point to join us there next year.

The new band formed by Ward Silver N0AX, "Working By Numbers", played Friday night in the Crowne Plaza Banquet Room with standing room only. The band members were N5OT, WY7YL, W4PA, N0AX, AA4NC, KJ9C. This is truely a high light event not to be missed! Their songs were wrote by N0AX, recorded and put on youtube.com by N6TV. They can be seen here!
Wards previous band was called "The Spurious Emissions Band".

Crowne Plaza gives a form (sixth 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 2018 Photo Gallery is now up and contains 392 photos by Tom Roscoe K8CX plus a few extras that will be submitted. Others are encouraged to submit their 2018 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. Past year photos can also be submitted.

There is a list of Silent Keys that were paid tribute at this years Contest Dinner. A moment of silence with much respect was given to them. They were: W3GH, K3LP, K4SQR, P43E, N5FG, K5IID, ZL1AH, G3RPB, VK6LK, VE1RGB, N2UN, W3MM, RU3AX, N4ZC, 5T0JL, N6ER, W4PV, N1CC, K2ZZ, W0RI, W7LNG, W7FF, N4AA, I2MQP, N6DA, WL7F, N6DQ, N2WW, 9M6XRO, W7EJ, K4VV, DK7FP, WA3LBI, AA5Y, N2BC, N4KG, OK1DIG, K2SB, NA4K, XE2MX, WB3AAL, ES1AR, HS0ZIA, K9XE, PY1RO.

Additional information for this page on Dayton 2018 can be submitted to K8CX.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this page.
Thanks to ARRL, DARA for permission on select item