Dayton Hamvention 2007 CPF gathering

[PhotonWrangler]

The 2007 Dayton Hamfest runs from Fri-Sun, May 18th-20th. Last year we had a gathering of CPFers in the main food concession area, and we're planning on doing the same thing this year.

For those of you who don't know, the Dayton Hamvention is the largest gathering of ham radio and electronics hobbyists in North America. People from all over the world travel to Dayton for the biggest electronics blowout of the year, and the place is packed with vendors of all sorts of things, including some LED and flashlight vendors. The indoor booths house the regular vendors and the parking lot is a huge tent city of flea market vendors. If you're into electronics, ham radio or computers, it's a lot of fun.
Come for the bargains, stay for the comraderie.

Tickets are $20.00 in advance or $25.00 at the door and they're good for the entire weekend. IMO it's a good deal, especially if you're shopping for computer parts, software, miscellanrous electronics parts and kits, LEDs, etc.

Soooo... this Saturday, May 19th at 12:00 noon we'll have a CPF gathering in the same place as last year.

BTW, Dayton is also home to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. And another attraction for bargain hunters is a large surplus store called Mendleson's in downtown Dayton.


Hope to see you there! :wave:

pw

 

[fieldops]

It was great meeting you at Dayton last year. I wish I could get away this year, but I got some family medical holding me home. I recommend the meeting to anyone who can go. It was fun meeting such a good group of folks. hope you guys have good weather and a super time...

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Sorry you can't make it this year, FieldOps; we enjoyed your company last year.


73's,
pw

 

[Omega Man]

I'll be at my little diddley-squat hamfest the weekend after

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Say moderators, can we merge this with the other Dayton Hamfest thread?

 

[Radio]

I'll be at my little diddley-squat hamfest the weekend after

Which one is that? Anybody make it to NEAR-FEST in Deerfield NH?

 

[Omega Man]

It's listed below your Dayton one, http://www.qsl.net/w2vtm/hamfest01.html
The thing is tiny tiny tiny. But if I have the weekend off and don't attend, I'll feel like I probably missed the guy selling his entire Surefire collection for $5 a light, and every other deal of the century, you know?

 

[Radio]

Here is my list and I don't miss many! :lolsign:

NE Fleas

 

[Omega Man]

Daaag, ALOT of MA hamfests! Lucky dog. We get 2 big ones in MD, then a few piddly ones in the spring/fall.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Look for the CPF sign in the concession seating area on Saturday at noon. :wave:

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Well, it was a bust. Only one person showed up besides myself - kf4zht. We wound up talking to two ham operators sitting next to us who came over from Germany (!) for the convention. We exchanged stories about each others' hobbies and they said that they'd check out CPF when they got back home.

 

[cedarcreek]

Sorry I missed it. I live in Cincinnati, and I had a family obligation pop up Saturday morning.

One idea for next year, just a thought, would be to have a time for both Saturday and Friday. I was there Friday and actually walked by the location a few times.

Oh well, bummer.

Did you find any items of CPF interest? I found Eneloops, 4-packs of AA and AAA, for $12. Didn't buy any. I found one place with "interesting" LEDs. Just emitters, no stars, and mostly non-white. Didn't buy any. I checked 3 battery dealers for Li-Ion cells. Saw a few, but...didn't buy any.

I did buy a laboratory power supply for $40. 0-40V, 0-5A. HP. Analog meters. Weighs a ton.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I found a pack of 50 Nichia white SM LEDs for $10.00 from an LED vendor located in the North Hall. I also picked up a couple of edison-based 120v LED lamps, a white one and a UV one. I haven't powered them up yet.

There was another indoor vendor selling various LED flashlights (notably a few Fenix models) as well as bare PC boards with their own "custom phosphor" SM LEDs mounted on them. Almost bought one until I realizerd that I still have some similar strips bought in previous years that I haven't done anything with yet.

I did find a few miscellaneous electronics bargains (an Alesis Midiverb 4 and a Cisco UBR-924) as well as some cool SM prototyping PCBs. It was definitely worth the trip for me.

 

[jerryd]

I would second the Friday and Saturday meeting idea as I was there on Friday only as I had another event to visit on Saturday in Indiana.

Noticed a vendor selling the Sams Club HID lights for $60.
There was the usual collection of low end LED flashlights.

Jerry

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Maybe it would work out better to schedule a CPF dinner meeting at the end of the day?