For more than ten years, ARROW, my ham radio club here in Ann Arbor, has put on a bus trip to the Dayton Hamvention. We make a few bucks on it and it’s fun for the club and the amateur radio community. Over the years it’s grown, and we’ve been able to get donations from many ham radio vendors. I’m donating some of my books this year.
If your club is within a bus ride of Dayton (well, Xenia this year), you should consider doing one of your own. Here’s the announcement for this year:
Once again, it is that time of year when lots of hams around the world start thinking of the Dayton Hamvention. After all, with 25,000 attendees from all amateur radio interest areas, what’s not to like!
Don’t you wish you were going? You’re not looking forward to that long drive? Don’t drive! Take the Arrow bus! It’s inexpensive and easy. Even if you come from out of the Metro Detroit Area, you still relieve yourself of almost 8 hours of drive time!
As in years past, The Arrow Communication Association is sponsoring a bus trip from Ann Arbor, Michigan to the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Xenia, Ohio and back. The date is Saturday, May 20. We leave the park-and-ride at 4:00 am and get to the show at 8:00 am. We leave Xenia at 5:30 pm and arrive back to our large park-and-ride site by 9:30 pm. A continental breakfast is included on board. What more could you ask for?
Please Note: The departure time is 4:00 am this year because Xenia is one-half hour farther.
There is more. If you want to sell your stuff in the flea market, we have reserved a space there just for you! Every year, Arrow reserves a swap spot just for the bus trip crowd. You save $70.00. All we ask is that you keep your items to a reasonable limit and that you volunteer at least one hour of your time at the swap tables.
There is still more! As in the past several years, we are giving away DOOR PRIZES! In 2017, we have OVER $500 in donations from Ham Radio Dealers around the U.S. including:
- Heil Sound (As always, something wonderful! Usually a nice, expensive microphone!)
- Elecraft (Sorry! Not quite a K3s, I’m afraid! A nice little QRP kit!)
- MCM Electronics (TWO Raspberry Pi 3 Computers!)
- DX Engineering (FOUR 24-Hour Analog Clocks: BEAUTIFUL! PLUS: Discount Stickers, again!)
- Comet Antenna (Dual-Band HT Antenna)
- Pacific Antenna / QRP Kits (Don’t know, yet! Surprise)
- EAE Sales (Another great soldering station!)
- Five Dash (Tony gives us TWO built SDR boards: 1 40/30/20 1-watt SDR transceiver board and an 80-30 meter SDR receiver board. You’ll find Tony Parks referred to in QST and QEX!)
- NW Digital Radio (Choose ONE of two possible digital prizes: Bryan will give it to you at their Dayton Booth! More info later!)
- RT Systems (Radio Programming Software: your model radio)
- HamCall / Buckmaster (Ham Call DVD: More than just QTH info!)
- HamTestOnline (Extra Class Study Course)
- KB6NU (The “CW Geek” gives us an Extra Class Study Guide and a CW Training Book)
- Borden Radio Company (WB5REX digs into the wireless history attic to give you a really nifty crystal radio kit. Its polished wooden base not only makes it look great, but its multi-tapped coil lets you tune from below the AM Broadcast Band up to almost 12 MHz. Did you say “Grand Child!?”)
- Far Circuits (KF9GX sends one or more copies of his DVD with hundreds of articles about wonderful things you can build in ham radio: Of course, he wants you to buy a circuit board or two from him, but the DVD is a treasure trove of construction articles taken from QST, CQ, 73 and Ham Radio Magazines!)
- Klingenfuss Publications (Joerg Klingenfuss again sends us his fine book of Shortwave Broadcast and Utility Stations! You can purchase his books and CDs from the ARRL, too!)
The cost is $55.00 for the round trip. (This increases to $65.00 on or after April 1.) Please mail all applications to ARROW Communication Association, 2545 S. Lima Center Rd., Chelsea, MI 48118. Please note that this does not include the Hamvention ticket. That one you’ll have to do yourself! Go to the ARROW website to purchase a seat using PayPal.
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