This weekend I attended the Great Lakes Division Convention and Cleveland Hamfest in Cleveland, Ohio with Director Jim Weaver, K8JE, Vice Director Gary Johnston, KI4LA, Ohio SM Joe Phillips, K8QOE, Michigan SM Dale Williams, WA8EFK and ARRL Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager Dennis Dura, K2DCD. Kentucky SM Jim Brooks, KY4Z, was unable to attend due to a previous commitment but did send greetings to the convention.

The Convention, sponsored by the Cuyahoga Amateur Radio Society, Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association and the Northern Ohio DX Association was held at the Sheraton Independence Hotel in Independence, Ohio (a Cleveland suburb). It began with a hospitality suite on Friday evening. Seminars and a banquet were scheduled for Saturday. The hamfest is held on Sunday at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.

I traveled to Cleveland through Atlanta where I hooked up with DXAC Chairman Bob Allphin, K4UEE, who was speaking at the convention and on the same flight. Unfortunately, due to some unknown mechanical maintenance situation with our inbound aircraft, our flight departed Atlanta three and a half hours late. We were originally scheduled to arrive into Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport at 5:15 PM, however due to the delay we didn’t arrive until 9:30 PM. We were met at the airport by convention chairman Bob Check, W8GC and his wife Betty who provided transportation to the Sheraton via a stop at a local pizza shop for a late meal.

The convention is a separate event from, but held in conjunction with, the hamfest and included seminars and a few manufacturer displays, but no dealers or flea market. A hospitality suite was open Friday evening and all day Saturday with food and drinks available. DXCC card checking was available at scheduled times. The convention kicked off Saturday morning with a general seminar by Bob Heil and Chip Margelli of Heil Sound. At the conclusion, two seminar sessions began simultaneously in two adjacent meeting rooms covering a wide variety of topics including DX, Contesting, emergency preparedness, ARDF, and AMSAT among others. The dual seminar schedule concluded at 4:00 PM when everyone reconvened into the large meeting room for the closing general seminar by Tim Duffy, K3LR on antennas, contesting and the K3LR multi-multi contest station. Following the seminar sessions, Director Weaver presented the 2007 Great Lakes Division awards after which a prize drawing was held. The banquet began at 7:30 with a buffet style meal. I was the keynote speaker, taking the opportunity to present my “Amateur Radio & New Technology” presentation. At 9 PM the Wouff Hong ceremony began with a number of “high profile” radio amateurs present that had never been initiated into the Royal Order! This concluded the scheduled activities of the convention.

Notable radio amateurs attending the convention were:

Bernie McClenny, W3UR (Editor – How’s DX, The Daily DX, The Weekly DX)

Bob Allphin, K4UEE (DXAC Chairman, DXpeditioner and CQ DX Hall of Fame member)

Tim Duffy, K3LR (K3LR Contest Superstation & CQ Contest Hall of Fame member)

Bob Heil, K9EID (Heil Sound & Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member)

Chip Margelli, K7JA (Heil Sound)

Paul Sergi, NO8D (DX Engineering & ARRL Maxim Society Ambassador Class Donor)

On Sunday morning Jim, Gary and I left the hotel at 8 AM for the short 15 minute drive to the fairgrounds for the hamfest. The Cleveland hamfest is a “normal” hamfest with a flea market and a few dealers and included an ARRL forum at 10 AM. A good group of approximately 50 attended the ARRL forum. I discussed the upcoming WRC and the latest BPL news. Dennis did an excellent job discussing emcomm issues and answered quite a number of questions and responded to comments from ARES & Field Organization volunteers about ARRL’s emcomm program and courses. Jim discussed the division legislative action program and SM Phillips reviewed a few section items.

I departed the hamfest at noon on Sunday for my flight back home that arrived this time, on time at 7:30 PM in Little Rock.

This was an outstanding convention. I really liked the format that concentrated on seminars rather than a flea market. It provided an opportunity for the attendees to expand their knowledge of a particular area of amateur radio and we all walked away really pumped up about amateur radio and getting on the air. It was a great atmosphere.

There wasn’t one negative comment about ARRL voiced to me over the entire weekend. All of the comments were positive and supportive of what we are doing.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Director Weaver and Vice Director Johnston for the invitation and hospitality over the weekend. It was a great convention.

73 Joel W5ZN

p.s. Some of you know I like hot dogs and always make sure I have at least one at any event (ham or non-ham) I’m at where hot dogs are sold. I also like to personally rate the hot dogs at these events and I think I’ll start including that in my trip reports. The Cleveland Hamfest hot dogs rate an 8 out of a possible 10.