Dayton and FDIM---More

[w7aqk]

Hi All,
 
It's all over except the trek home!  I'm in Columbus, Ohio and have a plane out
early in the morning.  I'm happy to report that this was another outstanding
FDIM, and my condolences to those who couldn't make the trip.
 
My email at the FDIM hotel was very erratic.  Accordingly, I have lots of
messages that finally came rocketing through late last night.  Too many in fact
to really read through.  So, some of the info I'm passing along may be "old
news".  If so, sorry about that.
 
The banquet on Saturday night was well attended, and I think all who did attend
felt it was a good meal and a nice evening.  There were two new inductees into
the Hall of Fame.  I regret to say I am not familiar with one of them, the
fellow who actually started ARCI.  Certainly a deserving award though, when you
consider how substantial this organization has become.  
 
The other inductee I do know--it was Ken Evans, W4DU.  Ken is Vice President of
ARCI, and a tireless worker.  It was pointed out earlier in the week that Ken
has been to every FDIM.  This is only my 5th one, but I can tell you that at
each of the ones I've attended Ken has been one busy guy making sure things were  
handled smoothly.  I know Ken has been heavily involved in ARCI and FDIM for a
lot of years, and most of those have included a lot of hard work.  And it's not
just a flurry of work in May--much goes on throughout the year.  President Dick
Pascoe is known to be a good delegater, and I know much of his delegation goes
down to Ken.  Now, Ken is no wallflower about delegating things further, but I
also know that he works long and hard making sure that things are being done as
required.  It's really impressive, and this was a much deserved award.
 
O.K.  You want to know who won the big prize, right?  Well, it was almost
miraculous if you ask me!  Shortly before the sale of raffle tickets was closed,
Jay Bromley, his bride Kathy, realized that neither one of them had bought any
tickets for themselves.  Jay had spent much of the time since Thursday selling
tickets!  Anyway, when they realized they had no tickets themselves, they also
realized they had no money either!  Both had left their wallets in their room.  
Somewhat sheepishly Jay asked me if he could borrow $20 to buy some tickets, and
I readily complied.  Well, guess who's name got drawn for the K3?  Yep!  Jay
Bromley!.  That's about as close as I'm apt to come to winning something that
nice.  
 
If you know Jay, I don't have to tell you he was excited!   In fact, he sort of
lost his head for a while, and wanted to give me $100 instead of just paying
back the $20 I loaned him.  I decided to have some fun and refused to even take
the $20 back!  I wanted to razz Jay as much as possible about owing me big
time!!!!!  We had some fun over that.  Eventually I relented and took back my
$20, but I'm not ever going to let Jay forget it!!!
 
There was a very nice special award given, and one I think was certainly well
deserved.  Many (most) of you know about the building project that Jason
Mildrum, NT7S, has been sponsoring.  It has attracted a good bit of attention,
and is certainly the kind of thing that really stands out as an unselfish effort
to help others.  I certainly pass on my congratulations to Jason for all his
hard work, and I just hope he isn't worn out from the project.  Things like this
always seem to turn out to be several times as much work as originally thought.  
Good going Jason!
 
You always see lots of neat things at Dayton like new rigs, etc.  I do my share
of ooohing and aaaahing usually, but I saw something quite different this year
that has me excited.  Paul Cristensen, W9AC, was kind enough to do a little demo
for Jay Bromley, Vern Wright, and me on how he operates his TS-480 remotely.  
Now, I have a TS-480, and I had heard that it was one of the better rigs to have
for remote operation, but I wasn't prepared for just how Paul makes his work.  
He does it, not just using the computer, but he also has the remote head for the
TS-480 with him!  Now that is super cool!  Paul can be a thousand miles (or
more) away from home, and still use the actual control head for the TS-480.  
Obviously there are some interesting little pieced of hardware attached to his
laptop, but it really isn't overwhelming--not by a long shot!  I should probably
let Paul, or someone of greater competence than me, explain just how this is all
done, but it is fascinating.   I worked a couple of DX stations on CW from the
lobby table at the hotel.  Paul didn't even have his laptop plugged into AC!  
Everything, including the TS-480 control head, was being powered from the
computer!  The hotel WiFi was somewhat erratic, but it all worked!  I am super
enthused about getting myself similarly equipped.
 
Well, this email is long enough, so I'll stop.  But hopefully you can tell that
I had another great time in Dayton!  I think our QRP group has one of the best
things going at Dayton.  I sure hope more of you will make the effort to come
next year.  You just can't believe how well run this whole thing is.  And it's
so good to actually spend some time with some of the good friends you make
because of this hobby.  I'm very fortunate to have a few really good friends who
show up here.  I can't thank the ARCI folks enough for making it possible to do
all of this.
 
Dave W7AQK

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[Gill W4RYW]

Dave,

Thanks for taking time to write an interesting report for those of us who wish we were there!

Gill  ARCI #11246