I was at Hamvention on Friday. Inbound traffic to the main parking was a mess and lots of complaints were heard over the radio. On the other hand, the shuttle buses from the satellite parking areas and back again were frequent and received good comments.
I just got home at 12:48 pm yesterday after having left my hotel in Jeffersonville, OH at 7:05 am. Thank goodness for rest areas every half-hour or so! 　
On-site parking was reserved for ADA attendees. Even though this was posted well in advance on the Hamvention website, quite a number of non-ADA drivers obviously missed the memo. That accounts for most of the truly horrible traffic congestion!
Friday's parking was excellent, but unfortunately due to the light rain in the late afternoon, followed by a huge downpour that lasted most of the night, the grassy parking areas had turned into a soupy mess by Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, they were prudent enough to have two Bobcats rigged with a snatch-chain to pull stuck vehicles out of the bog. Placing straw where the cars had to drive would have helped a lot.
Regarding the ADA folks, I saw several with power chairs get stuck trying to reach their cars, again some sturdy volunteers were ready and prepared to assist these folks in their distress with courtesy and helped to restore their good humor. Again, some straw placed in the lanes where the cars and chairs had to maneuver would have helped.
Speaking for myself, as I spent the majority of my time there as a volunteer "Shuttle Driver" of a 6 pax luxury golf cart, I was able to meet and gather the impressions from literally hundreds of attendees. With only two exceptions, the comments were extremely positive! One of the exceptions was a lady complaining at the lack of an air-conditioned building where she could have eaten her lunch. The other was a gentleman who complained about the ADA parking areas not being signed well enough. He completely forgot where he'd parked his rental car. I personally drove him from Fairgrounds road practically to the NE corner of the soccer fields before we finally found his car. Although he did thank me profusely for my patience, his final comment was a complaint that he'd gotten a speck of mud on his white trousers... :roll: <thud!> I spent forty-five minutes personally helping him.
My major lessons learned was to make certain that I take rain gear with me next year, as well as a pair of "big boy pants." Since I only took shorts, both my knees got rather sunburned! :lol:
Altogether, I had an absolute ball and am really looking forward to next year!
As for DMR, the only new release I noted was the Connect Systems CS800D, the dual-band version of the CS800. See:
Connect Systems
I did
not see the European dual-band DMR that was previewed at last year's Hamvention at the Hara Arena.
