I have to chime in as well. The youth at the Convention were quite delightful. They weren't the usual teens but looked like they ranged in age from about eight to twelve. What fun! I did make it home at 11 last evening and a good thing too. Although my daughter and grandson had fired up the generator and pumped the basement out, I found a bout an inch of water still in the floor when I arrived home. The float on the pump switch was hung. Judy and I have been hauling things up stairs and laying them out to dry. It is a mess but we are much better off than others around that lost lives, homes, autos, etc. Coy -- Coy Day, N5OK 20685 SW 29 Union City, OK 73090 405-483-5632 Joel Harrison wrote:
I trust those of you attending the ARRL National Convention in Huntsville arrived home safely, or are safely returning.
Coy left yesterday morning to return home where, as a result of the tropical depression in the gulf, received 9 inches of rain in his home town that prompted flooding, including his basement. Coy - hope the damage is not too severe and you and Judy arrive safely.
For those of you that were unable to attend the convention, it was great! While we don't yet have attendance numbers, my perception is it was up significantly from last years Huntsville Hamfest.
The ARRL Expo area was a big hit and traffic through the area was heavy. Huntsville always has a well rounded group of forums. The ARRL Membership forum room was full. I did not count the number of attendees, but here were several. There were a number of SM's in attendance as well. A number of good questions were asked at the conclusion of the forum and there were no complaints. In fact, I heard no complaints over the entire weekend. There may have been some, but they weren't expressed to me and if there were, I'm sure they were addressed and resolved given the group Directors, Officers, SM's and staff that we had on hand in the expo area.
There was a considerable amount of excitement and competitive action in the expo area as well with approximately 25 youth involved in our youth area. Several transmitter hunts were held with the "rabbit" being placed in a different location each time. At one point, I was surrounded by about 5 kids with HT's demanding that I let them look into the podium I was standing. A bit confused, I noticed they each had an HT and had tracked the signal to my area, and when they reached the area and the identified the signal being full scale knew to remove the antenna from the HT to further define the area of search. When I raised the podium and they saw nothing was there, one kid demanded I empty my pockets on the table!! I laughed, but complied with his wish to further disappoint them. Unknown to me, the "rabbit" was in the Develop booth just behind me. In a few moments, a young lady refined her search sufficiently to discover the transmitter. The excitement of these kids using ham radio in a competitive event was quite impressive and we all enjoyed watching the action. A number of the kids won great prizes as well. Here is a snip from an email I received last night from ARRL Member KD5YP whose 8 year old grandson passed his Technician Class exam on Saturday at the Convention (he's now studying for his General!):
"As you remember, Griffin at age 8 got his Tech. license Saturday morning. Shortly before the hamfest closed on Sunday, he won a dual band antenna from the kids corner at ARRL, then on another drawing at the kids corner, he won a Yaesu FT 60 R/E handi talkie.
He was really excited. I wouldn't have taken anything for being there and seeing that. Thanks to ARRL for supporting this great activity and Convention."
I saw Griffin walking out with his new antenna and from the look on his face you would have thought he had won $10,000!
Actual attendance and sales figures will be available later as Bob Inderbitzen returns and has an opportunity to finalize things.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their dedication and support in organizing the ARRL Expo for the National Convention and for all of the hard work in staffing it as well. An event like this just doesn't happen, and Bob Inderbitzen and his team did an outstanding job.
I also want to thank each of you for your work and support as well. The board had a good presence in the Expo area, forums and all of the activities over the weekend.
GAREC was also a great success, with over 100 attendees at the conference.
Thanks again to all.
73 Joel W5ZN