Sunday, July 20, 2014

ARRL Centennial Convention

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the ARRL 100 Centennial Convention on Friday and Saturday July 18th and 19th (I couldn't get accommodations for Thursday so I missed out on the first day).

What a great time I had!  I drove up with Bob, K2TV early Thursday morning (4:30 a.m. early) and arrived in Hartford, CT. at 7 a.m. in time to check in to the Marriott and head over to Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and a bagel.  As soon as the convention center opened we got our passes and started schmoozing with all the great friends and soon-to-be friends inside.



I have the say that the ARRL did a fantastic job organizing this event.  There were tons of vendors and speakers giving forums all throughout the day.  I'm only sorry I had to miss the RFI training track on Thursday, it was something I really wanted to attend.

Friday Bob and I attended the NCVEC forum first.  There are new rules for expired licensee credits that go into effect on Monday, July 21st and with our next VE session on the 26th we needed to know how to handle the paperwork.  We learned a lot about what goes in to the making of the exam pools.

Next on our agenda was a forum on collecting Morse keys.  Wow!  Some really amazing history at play and some really high prices fetched for some of these keys.  We're talking over $15,000 for some rare ones.

After the key collecting forum we took some time off to look at the vendor's offerings and at some of the exhibits on display, get lunch, and hang out with some of the other Great South Bay members who'd come up.

3 p.m. was Pete, W2JV (formerly WB2OQQ) with his super professional AMSAT presentation on working amateur satellites with your HT.  I've seen Pete do this talk probably 8 or 9 times now and each time it gets better.  I don't know how it's possible because every one of them has been top notch!

After Pete's talk we hung out for a bit then headed up to our room to get changed for the President's Banquet.

After the banquet some people wanted to go out for a while and others wanted to see how much trouble they could get in flying their quad-copters around the square.  Bob and I opted for an early night and headed back to the room to unwind and get some rest.  We also figured someone had to be available to bail out Pres, W2PW when Homeland Security had him taken into custody for flying a "drone" in U.S. airspace!

Saturday morning we were up early with a quick shower and I met up with John, W2HCB to pick up coffee and bagels.  We took the 6 minute walk (the hotel's Starbuck's wasn't yet open at 6 a.m.) over to Dunkin' Donuts only to find out that they were closed on Saturday and Sunday.  What?!  How can Dunkin' Donuts be closed on a weekend???  Oh well, back to Starbucks which was just finally opening and I was able to get Bob and myself our breakfast.

Once the convention hall was again open we were already outside the forum room for the 9 a.m. talk by our friend and fellow club member NN6JA, John Amodeo (producer of ABC's Last Man Standing) for his talk on Presenting Amateur Radio to the Media which was just fantastic!  Great job John.



We took an hour off to walk around the vendor tables again then headed over to Dean Straw, N6BV's talk on Blowing up Baluns and other antenna stuff.  I'm a big fan of Dean's as he used to edit the ARRL Antenna Book and is also co-author of "Simple and Fun Antennas for Hams" which is just a great book for everyone.

The last forum I attended with Walter, KA2CAQ was called "Hamshack in a Backpack – Lightweight
DXpeditioning" with Scott Andersen, NE1RD (yes, nerd!).  Walter and I have been talking about SOTA (summits on the air) operating and wanted to pick up some tips.

Bob and I finally said our goodbyes and got on the road home around 3:30 p.m. and only hit minor delays on the way home (yes, even the LIE wasn't too bad!) and we got back to Bob's house at 5:45 and I was home just after 6 p.m.

We all agreed that we wish the league would try to hold a convention like this more often at this location.  If not every year (it's really a lot of work!) maybe every 2 or 5 maybe?

If you didn't go, you really missed a great time.

73, Kevin AB2ZI

1 comment:

  1. If they do another one next year, I'm in! This is a convenient location and what could be better? I was sorry I could not be at this one, but as a newbie I suspect almost everything would have been over my head. More frustrating than that, however, is the fact that Starbucks isn't open that early!!! SHAME SHAME!!

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