I didn't get it. I passed the KUB booth inside, saw a "live video" screen, waved at the camera but could not see myself. 

So yea, Saturday rained off and on in the morning, but no more sunburn. Still, did not need boots!  I parked on pavement!  Just used a little bitty Chinese pocket umbrella till the shower passed.  So once again the Hamvention weather confounds me.  Sunday looked nice but I did not go. I blew my wad on stuff Sat. I really needed but hardly can find, and more redundant crap I did not need but gives me something to play with till next year.  And sold some junk setting around the house. Some did not sell but ebay will swallow it up for a good price. So stop cussing ebay, I gave hamdom a fair crack at it! 

Fool me!  It was very foggy and damp coming up to Dayton this morning, then overcast.  Was waiting for rain.  Instead, the sun eventually broke out midday and sunburn was on hand for everyone as well as heat.  The rain held off till well into the evening.  Now it may rain on Saturday too.  Or not. But more likely?  What will happen at Dayton, and what you will experience or find is totally a wild guess.  I particularly liked the tee shirts some were wearing.  Featured "Mr. Hanky" from Southpark(doo doo guy) holding an HT and "I survived Dayton 2011". 

Looking at the Thursday forecast for Dayton, you may need the umbrella on Fri. and Sat.(50% chance of wetness) Mid upper 70s for highs. So you may not need the suntan lotion. Parking may be mud in many areas if it rains. So don't wear the expensive shoes.  But be prepared for any contingency. Except, perhaps, snow. However the exact forecast has varied each day, this week. So no guaranteees.  Fair warning......

I asked them the other day if there was gonna be any kind of wireless wifi or something, at HARA, for laptops, or whatever you use for that.  THey said no unless someone else brought it in.  Tens of thousands of techno geeks in 2013 there, and you have no way to get online unless you pay your own way? Hmm. 

If you want to bring an HT, the freqs are much less saturated than back in the days before cellphones and when FM was a hot deal. Still, you aren't gonna be successful if you say, want to keep in touch on 52 all day. Any normal simplex will eventually get QRMed.  Pick an odd freq. and have everyone on PL or digital squelch together. Otherwise everyone you know probably has a cellphone to use, right?   UHF has lots of bandwidth and you can put on a splinter freq? Friday is the quietest on the FM bands. And I think UHF works better getting inside the building in case you want to talk from the flea market to indoors. But the noise level is such that they will have to crank the audio in there. Take at least one or two bottles of water, etc. each day. I hope it don't rain, but an all day flea market sunburn is worse than a little wetness. Overcast warm no rain no wind seems best at Dayton.

I shall consider all this at Dayton.  I saw some good bargains on nice older rigs last year that were sooo tempting, but I don't need another HF rig.  Seems less risky in a way than buying online, as you can actually see the radio, not fuzzy fone shots of it, and perhaps even plug it in and try it to power up.  Seller willing. Buying used anything entails risk to one extent or another.  I will not mention it here in detail, just that I can look at some people or talk to them, and I can judge them as sellers to an extent.  I know what types to be wary of after decades of dealing. So I am not gonna drop big cash in the flea market on something risky that I cannot prove to my own satisfaction is OK.  As for the guys with the over priced gear, they get to drag it back home.  Eventually it goes to their estate sales for a small price, usually.  Then someone gets a bargain.  With hams dying off constantly, alot of estate stuff is cheap out there, for the beginners! 

Well if you had a nice dynamic mic with an XLR balanced output, you could buy one of those little Shure inline transformers that are XLR input and quarter inch phone plug output with high impedance.(18$ or so?)  However beware that alot of dynamics that have cardiod patterns may boost bass too much, close talking. Like, the Shure 57/58 is an excellent voice mic until you get too close and the bottom end jumps up alot.  An Omnidirectional dynamic will not do that.  The whole world of crystal/ceramic vintage mics and even vintage hi Z dynamics is open to you, but beware that enough of the old mics have gotten weak or are dead to make testing or a no DOA guarantee important. And I have seen alot of old D 104 mics with pinholes perforating the aluminum diaphram.  CBers did it on claims that sounds better (!) and maybe just idiots or kids poked the rest.  Lets air/humidity reach the crystal and sometimes that ruins them. Or the diaphram comes unattached around it's perimeter and that has the same problems.

Really a shame.  As you may realise, there are not that many companies willing to cater only to a small niche consumer audience like hams, selling them specialised low production stuff with low profit margins. Therefore I hate to see one of the few hams only companies bashed but they should really hire some QC inspectors, or something. 

Nah, I would not bring waders to Dayton.  That sewer problem a couple years ago was the only time I have seen that happen since say, 1974. So what are the odds? Now it may rain, and some of the parking areas may be muddy from that, so perhaps do not wear your best dress shoes. Bring shoes that will be comfortable for standing and waking all day long.  You will thank me later.  Bring an umbrella that is handy size and also excellent sun protection. Use one as the situation warrants. Bring money. only cash works in flea markets.  Try to take care of "Nature's necessities" as much as possible before arriving.  The bathroom facilities are always insufficient and become more and more nasty.

I hear some people on 7.1-7.125 or so, using slow CW and some vintage rigs(I can tell by the keying, the chirps, etc.)Maybe novice nostalgia or just a handful of old novice crystals on hand. Seems to be a nice place for ops to pick up code speed or work QRS getting their feet wet in CW without being run over by the QRM and speed keys down in the lower portion. 

I wonder, how can they keep it up constantly, with ammo being so scarce and very expensive?  Unless it is shotguns.  The stores are full of shotgun ammo with no shortages of that at all, for some reason. 

Also there is a SM cap in the bandswitching that shorts occasionally and causes a power short but it only reveals itself when you select 160M.

Do they still have YL nets on HF?  And QST used to have monthly columns of YL operators and stories with pictures, activities, etc.  So they got rid of that, was it considered to be somehow incorrect to showcase YL activities?  I would have thought it would be encouraging to women that felt they were the only female hams in their area, or such. Or open the eyes of guys that thought it was all a male hobby.

Just to notify anyone searching for Gonset G-63 receiver data, it is now posted on BAMA by me.  Fairly rare radio and rarer manual.  All the info you need is on there.