Well, here is my 2009 Dayton Report:
I was asked to work the ScannerMaster booth again this year and the deal offered was too good to pass up.
On Thursday I left home about 0300 and met up with my buddy Mike at a truck stop for breakfast at Crown Point IN. We then continued towards Indianapolis and along the way I got a rock hit on the windshield of my brand new SUV. After stopping at a couple shops we determined that the hole would remain stable and can be repaired (hopefully) later and we soldiered on. We arrived in Dayton in the late afternoon after I took a little sight-seeing detour.
The Hara Arena, home of the Dayton Hamvention for decades, can be thought of in one of two ways, a total dump that should be bulldozed into oblivion or a great "Joint" oozing with character. I choose the latter, I love the place, it is a working man's palace, no fancy stuff to be seen here. The local police, paid staff and ham volunteers have the traffic and people control down to a science and the facility is pretty much perfect for an event like this.
I met up with Rich Barnett and Gommert Buysen at the ScannerMaster booth and we started setting things up. After setting up the booth we headed back to the hotel (Dayton Marriott south of downtown) to clean up and head out for dinner.
Had dinner at Dayton's Packard Museum at a reception held by Icom. Fascinating place, learned a lot about the old Packard line of vehicles, saw dozens of them, and had a great dinner catered for Icom dealers and associates. Got a chance to check out the new IC-7600 HF rig, very impressive!
Once back at the hotel I was awoken several times by helicopters, I learned later there is a Med Center not far from the hotel that hosts Med Flights. I tried to find them on the scanner eventually but fell back asleep. Later on it seemed like one of the choppers decided to take a few laps around the hotel and hovered over the courtyard for a little while.
On Friday when the doors opened there was not a huge rush of people like in years past but the crowd was pretty decent. We had a prototype of the new Uniden BCD996XT at the booth, it has pretty much the same feature set as the BCD396XT (Read my review at Uniden Bearcat BCD396XT Police Scanner Radio). The faceplate of the prototype was black like the current BC15T, but I don't know what color faceplate the final version will have yet. We were told the new BCD996XT and companion BC15XT will be available sometime this summer (Can't wait!). They should pretty much emulate the feature set of the existing BCD396XT and BC346XT.
Friday night Rich B, Gommert and I met Lindsay Blanton of RadioReference.com for dinner and conversation. Lots of interesting discussion and banter ensued and a good time was had by all!
Saturday the crowds were less than in the past, but the weather was pretty wet (Can't be Dayton without rain!). This drove the crowds inside more and the Hara was pretty hot and muggy most of the day. Lots of trips to the food court and many bottles of water and lemonade consumed... Lindsay Blanton was in the booth and signed up many newcomers are renewals for RadioReference.
Saturday night Mike and I had dinner at the classic Old Hickory BBQ place on Main St, not far from the Hara and I then had an an early night in at the hotel. I had invites for a couple vendor receptions, including one right at my hotel, but I was beat and declined. I did do a little listening in on the local ham repeaters and searching around the air band. Found an interesting air-to air chat on 123.525 between a couple hams flying back from Dayton. One of the voices sounded familiar...
Sunday we had breakfast at a Waffle House (one of the things you just gotta do!) and I had one of the best waffles I have ever tasted. Back to the Hara and back to work. The Sunday crowds were light again, as they usually are. By 1:00 PM we were pretty much packed up and off we went for home. The trip home was pretty uneventful compared to the trip there, it was more trying to stay awake and get home to the families we haven't seen in 4 days!
Saw several CARMA members that stopped by the booth as well as several other friends from around the country. I was surprised at the large amount of Canadians that were there, many more than I have seen in the past. Since I have traveled extensively thru most parts of Canada I had some fun discussions with new friends from such far out places as Manitoulin Island, Red Deer and Charlottetown, all of which I was familiar with. They were surprised to meet someone who not only knew where these places were but actually had been there and could talk about them.
We sold a lot more high-end (digital) scanners this year, compared with previous years. So many places are going digital now that many newcomers are going straight to digital scanners. Analog scanners are starting to become the domain of listeners of more targeted services like railfans or aircraft chasers.
A few vendors were conspicuous by their absence. AOR was not there, nor was OptoElectronics. I was kind of disappointed, they have some neat toys that I would have loved to see. Other vendors that were there included a Radio Shack dealer from the area that always has a large and active booth, AOSC was there helping folks program their scanners for local areas, National Scanning and Norm Schrien had busy booths and several ham dealers that also sell scanners were there. GRE had a booth for the first time, and had their entire line as well as several older radios on display.
I got a chance to walk around the outside flea market a little bit Friday and Saturday. It was way down from years past, and the stuff that was there was not as interesting as in the past. The inside vendors were on par with past years for the most part.
We all had fun and most of us came home with some new toys. I got an AirNav box, I plan on getting that set up soon. I also got a couple Scanner Stacks, custom built brackets that hold scanners for the desk, as well as a few new scanners and accessories.
Dayton 2010 is just 11 1/2 months away...
I was asked to work the ScannerMaster booth again this year and the deal offered was too good to pass up.
On Thursday I left home about 0300 and met up with my buddy Mike at a truck stop for breakfast at Crown Point IN. We then continued towards Indianapolis and along the way I got a rock hit on the windshield of my brand new SUV. After stopping at a couple shops we determined that the hole would remain stable and can be repaired (hopefully) later and we soldiered on. We arrived in Dayton in the late afternoon after I took a little sight-seeing detour.
The Hara Arena, home of the Dayton Hamvention for decades, can be thought of in one of two ways, a total dump that should be bulldozed into oblivion or a great "Joint" oozing with character. I choose the latter, I love the place, it is a working man's palace, no fancy stuff to be seen here. The local police, paid staff and ham volunteers have the traffic and people control down to a science and the facility is pretty much perfect for an event like this.
I met up with Rich Barnett and Gommert Buysen at the ScannerMaster booth and we started setting things up. After setting up the booth we headed back to the hotel (Dayton Marriott south of downtown) to clean up and head out for dinner.
Had dinner at Dayton's Packard Museum at a reception held by Icom. Fascinating place, learned a lot about the old Packard line of vehicles, saw dozens of them, and had a great dinner catered for Icom dealers and associates. Got a chance to check out the new IC-7600 HF rig, very impressive!
Once back at the hotel I was awoken several times by helicopters, I learned later there is a Med Center not far from the hotel that hosts Med Flights. I tried to find them on the scanner eventually but fell back asleep. Later on it seemed like one of the choppers decided to take a few laps around the hotel and hovered over the courtyard for a little while.
On Friday when the doors opened there was not a huge rush of people like in years past but the crowd was pretty decent. We had a prototype of the new Uniden BCD996XT at the booth, it has pretty much the same feature set as the BCD396XT (Read my review at Uniden Bearcat BCD396XT Police Scanner Radio). The faceplate of the prototype was black like the current BC15T, but I don't know what color faceplate the final version will have yet. We were told the new BCD996XT and companion BC15XT will be available sometime this summer (Can't wait!). They should pretty much emulate the feature set of the existing BCD396XT and BC346XT.
Friday night Rich B, Gommert and I met Lindsay Blanton of RadioReference.com for dinner and conversation. Lots of interesting discussion and banter ensued and a good time was had by all!
Saturday the crowds were less than in the past, but the weather was pretty wet (Can't be Dayton without rain!). This drove the crowds inside more and the Hara was pretty hot and muggy most of the day. Lots of trips to the food court and many bottles of water and lemonade consumed... Lindsay Blanton was in the booth and signed up many newcomers are renewals for RadioReference.
Saturday night Mike and I had dinner at the classic Old Hickory BBQ place on Main St, not far from the Hara and I then had an an early night in at the hotel. I had invites for a couple vendor receptions, including one right at my hotel, but I was beat and declined. I did do a little listening in on the local ham repeaters and searching around the air band. Found an interesting air-to air chat on 123.525 between a couple hams flying back from Dayton. One of the voices sounded familiar...
Sunday we had breakfast at a Waffle House (one of the things you just gotta do!) and I had one of the best waffles I have ever tasted. Back to the Hara and back to work. The Sunday crowds were light again, as they usually are. By 1:00 PM we were pretty much packed up and off we went for home. The trip home was pretty uneventful compared to the trip there, it was more trying to stay awake and get home to the families we haven't seen in 4 days!
Saw several CARMA members that stopped by the booth as well as several other friends from around the country. I was surprised at the large amount of Canadians that were there, many more than I have seen in the past. Since I have traveled extensively thru most parts of Canada I had some fun discussions with new friends from such far out places as Manitoulin Island, Red Deer and Charlottetown, all of which I was familiar with. They were surprised to meet someone who not only knew where these places were but actually had been there and could talk about them.
We sold a lot more high-end (digital) scanners this year, compared with previous years. So many places are going digital now that many newcomers are going straight to digital scanners. Analog scanners are starting to become the domain of listeners of more targeted services like railfans or aircraft chasers.
A few vendors were conspicuous by their absence. AOR was not there, nor was OptoElectronics. I was kind of disappointed, they have some neat toys that I would have loved to see. Other vendors that were there included a Radio Shack dealer from the area that always has a large and active booth, AOSC was there helping folks program their scanners for local areas, National Scanning and Norm Schrien had busy booths and several ham dealers that also sell scanners were there. GRE had a booth for the first time, and had their entire line as well as several older radios on display.
I got a chance to walk around the outside flea market a little bit Friday and Saturday. It was way down from years past, and the stuff that was there was not as interesting as in the past. The inside vendors were on par with past years for the most part.
We all had fun and most of us came home with some new toys. I got an AirNav box, I plan on getting that set up soon. I also got a couple Scanner Stacks, custom built brackets that hold scanners for the desk, as well as a few new scanners and accessories.
Dayton 2010 is just 11 1/2 months away...
