Dayton Hamvention

The "Dayton Hamvention" is one of the biggest events in amateur radio, held every year on the third weekend in May. It draws something in the neighborhood of 30,000 to 35,000 radio "hams" from around the world annually, most of them licensed amateur radio operators. I've lost count of the number of times I've attended -- probably at least a dozen times or so since sometime in the mid-1980s.

All photos here by Keith Baker

It's called the "Dayton Hamvention" even though it hasn't been held in Dayton for a number of years now. The event now takes place at the Green County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio -- about 20 minutes drive east of Dayton. It is still sponsored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, as it has been since 1952.

I burned out on the Hamvention long ago. Despite the size, it seems in many ways to always be the same. But this year, as last year, I went to volunteer at the exhibit for AMSAT, the Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation. AMSAT is a non-profit that works to build, launch, operate, and promote amateur radio communication satellites. I've been fascinated by both radio and space stuff all my life, so these are "my people."

My primary job was to stand (and I do mean that I was on my feet most of the time) for two full days in the "Beginner's Corner," answering questions and helping those who stopped by to understand how they could get started in satellite communication.

In addition, we sold copies of AMSAT's book, Getting Started With Amateur Satellites, a basic antenna for simple satellite ground stations, AMSAT memberships, and a few other items. But mostly I stood and talked for two days.

At one point, I got to help with a live demonstration as we contacted a couple of stations in Great Britain and a few more in the eastern U.S. This is everyday stuff for me, but we drew a crowd of folks for whom it was brand new -- including a couple groups of teenagers just getting involved in ham radio.

This year, I had a rider to help keep me awake on the 14 hour drive, a ham from Owatonna, Minnesota who is on the engineering team. And I had a roommate to share the cost of my hotel room, a ham operator from Pennsylvania who I had only met previously by chatting with him via satellite on the radio. He, too, was on the engineering team.

I'm not an engineer, and I don't build satellites. But I have managed to build a home station and I talk on the satellites regularly. I also volunteer as an editor of the AMSAT email newsletter that goes out to several thousand interested readers around the world each week.

I'm home exhausted by happy to have had the opportunity once again to share my enthusiasm for amateur radio in space.