Contesters Put Down Their Keys and Enjoy A Weekend At Dayton Hamvention; The Sun Notices

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted May 17, 2009

For those ham radio contesters who gathered at the Dayton Hamvention in 2009, the biggest concern was the lack of sunspots and the usual banter over what was in the Contest Super Suite.

"The chicken wings are here!" was the cry as a luggage cart rolled in dozens and dozens of chicken wings late Thursday night for hungry contesters at the Dayton Crowne Plaza.

A year earlier, the halls of the Crowne Plaza echoed with debates about the controversial CW Skimmer program and its effect on the contesting hobby.

Compared to 2008, hardly a word was mentioned about it.

"I'm over it," said a smiling Stan Stockton K5GO, who drove 12 hours from his home in Arkansas to Dayton, adding that he was pleased with the way Skimmer was handled by the CQ WW and ARRL contest committees.

Those two committees sat down for a joint meeting again in 2009, trying to help each other deal with emerging rules issues, especially when it comes to new technologies that are being developed for ham operators.

But instead of debates about that, the emphasis was on fun.

Left to Right at the Socity of Midwest Contesters Hooters Party, Steve Franzen N9CK, Jerry Rosalius WB9Z, Mike Hance K5NZ and Paul Gentry K9PG)

The Dayton Hooters was again taken over by wackily dressed contesters, as the SMC offered up hundreds of chicken wings and dozens of pitchers of beer.

Over in the far corner was a small group of slow scan TV hams. When one offered his greetings, he was asked if he would give up 14.228 during the next big contest.

With a big smile he said, "Hell no!"

While hams the world over swapped stories of past contest exploits, there was also a lot of chatter about the Field Day style rules for the 2010 World Radiosport Team Championships in Russia.

In from Hawaii, Mike Gibson KH6ND said he was planning to go to Russia, as right now he has all but clinched the single qualifying slot from the Oceania #2 region.

On the left out in the parking lot outside of the SMC party was Gibson KH6ND, talking contest battles with East Coast powerhouse Paul Newberry N4PN.

Newberry's many tales of over 50 years of hamming left one table laughing, especially his story of a guy who hopped in his truck to go mobile - in his pajamas - to give Newberry needed counties in the New England QSO Party.

"I got my sweep this year," a smiling Newberry said, who has won the Single Operator crown in the NEQP every year that it has been contested.

As hams from around the world landed in Dayton, the sun seemed to take notice, as a small sunspot group from Solar Cycle 24 appeared on Wednesday, boosting the sunspot number from its usual level of zero this year.

On the subject of HF propagation conditions, Newberry told radio-sport.net that he's not convinced the low sunspot numbers of recent years have been all good news for the low bands, noting that he doesn't hear stations from Asiatic Russia on 160 that he has in the past at a sunspot minimum.

Of course, there are some of us in the US who have a hard time hearing Asiatic Russia on almost any band, making the stories of N4PN and others all the much more fun to hear in Dayton.