Lates (not quite news, for those who were there) of the Hamvention

[Dan Romanchik KB6NU]

I think they're saying that there are no other venues in the Dayton area that can accommodate that many people. They may be right. I really don't know. There are, of course, many venues in other places that can handle that many people, but it is the Dayton Amateur Radio Association that puts on this event, not the Richmond ARA or the San Mateo ARA.

That's really no excuse for the poor condition of Hara Arena, though. There's really no telling how many people stay away because the place is such a lousy place to meet. (I was going to use a more profane word here, but thought better of it.) Eventually the other big ham gatherings, such as HamCation, or the one in Texas, are going to become the premiere events because they are more pleasant places to meet. 

The Dayton people think they have the upper hand because Dayton's been the biggest and best for so long, and the diehards will probably keep showing up there, but they're digging themselves a bigger hole every year. Maybe those of us who really hate Hara could organize and petition some of the big exhibitors to put some pressure on the DARA to move it to a different place. Surely, there are some venues in Cincinnati that could handle a crowd that size and that have working toilets.

73!

Dan KB6NU
----------------------------------------------------------
CW Geek, Ham Radio Instructor
Station Manager, WA2HOM at the Hands-On Museum (www.wa2hom.org)
Read my ham radio blog at http://www.kb6nu.com


On Jul 30, 2011, at Jul 30,10:59 PM, K3WRY at aol.com wrote:
> All
> The new Meadow Even Venue on I95 just north of Richmond,VA is a new very large facility and grounds that also hold the state fare and would hold the 100,000 people and have have plenty of hotels, etc. in the area.  It is also close to Kings Dominion Park which is well know venue all over the country.
> This could replace Dayton easily and is new and clean.
>  
> Joe   k3wry
>  
> In a message dated 7/30/2011 8:11:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, andre.kesteloot at verizon.net writes:
> On 7/30/2011 19:47 PM, Joseph Bento wrote:
> > The powers that be over the Dayton Hamvention speak of how difficult it would be to find an alternative venue to handle the capacity.  Browsing through my latest issue of Make 27, I see that since the Maker Faire was conceived about 7 years ago, more than 100,000 people now converge upon the San Mateo County (California) Fairgrounds during a Maker Weekend.  I grew up in San Mateo, less than a mile from the county fairgrounds.  They had nice facilities as of 12 years ago when I last lived there.
> they still do, it happens that I attend the Maker Faire almost every 
> year. They also have convenient nearby parking facilities
> Of course Dayton may have been chosen originally --or be have become 
> popular--  because is is 2/3 between the two Coasts ?
> 73
> André N4ICK
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