hamvention09

The 28^th Annual “Gathering Of The Faithful” is rapidly approaching! It will occur on Friday, May 15^th starting at 6:30 PM at the Farley Flophouse Estate (N 39 54.611’ W 084 20.432’). Y’all plan to attend!!!

Our Flea market spaces (N 39 49.373’ W 084 15.451) are the same as the last few years: 3347, 3348, and 3349 (Now with a proceeding FW for Flea Market West) and Tom, W5KUB, and the rest of the Tennessee/Arkansas gang will be at FE3407, 3408 and 3409! Tom plans to have live streaming video during their travels Wednesday and during the flea market through HamVention! If you can’t make the hamfest, at least you can say hi to the gang and maybe you can win one of the prizes Tom has made arrangements for! http://w5kub.com

We have reservations for the all-you-can-eat buffet at Rob’s in Brookville scheduled for Saturday evening at 6:30 PM . You can also order off the menu if you prefer. Separate checks will be set up, so, no need to R.S.V.P. Just plan on being there!

In the next e-mail I will send a copy of the HamVention week so you can plan your weekend.

Tennessee/Arkansas gang in the flea market to set the floors and the van storage unit

6:15 AM - 7:00 AM - Breakfast at California Garden Shiloh Springs Rd. across from the Salem Mall near Hara Arena

Banquet Room - 705 Arlington Road , Brookville See ZWJ 4 maps (N 39 50.588' W 084 25.499')

Rt 40 in the K-Mart Shopping Center (N 39 52.531' W 084 18.607')

This year the first IOOK'er from out-of-town to arrive was Tom, W3TOM. He arrived on Monday prior to HamVention. He helped with some of the last minute chores of preparation for the 2009 HamVention.

Tom parked his camper at the Farley Flophouse for a few days until moving it to the KOA campground later in the week.

On Wednesday prior to HamVention, Keith and Tom drove to Muncie, Indiana to pick up John, N5AAA where he and Jan were visiting relatives. John had been working on setting up an Ubuntu machine for Keith to use at the Farley Flophouse as an APRS machine. Of course, there were a number of things that needed to be set up and matched to the hardware, so, arriving a day early gave him the time and opportunity to complete the task prior to HamVention. It was a full day's task and it is now operational with a local RF connection, weather station interface and full time Internet connection. At one point during HamVention, it was tracking some 2,000 APRS stations! John, you be da man! (http://aprs.fi/?call=wa8zwj-1&mt=m&z=11&timerange=3600)

Wednesday afternoon Keith went up to Lou, N8KXM's and helped him load the floors into his pickup truck.

We awoke Thursday morning to rain. UGH! We met at the California Garden and our waitress, Nancy, and helper Lou kept us drinking coffee until the rain finally slowed down a bit.

We went to the flea market to drop off floors and our timing was fantastic. Tom, W5KUB and his gang from Tennessee had just arrived at their new flea market location. We off loaded his floors there and then went to our space and set up the van and floors there.

Thursday afternoon the activity picked up with folks coming into range of the repeater. Bob, N0BIX was next to arrive soon followed by Hoss, WA5ZAI, Margareth and Jan, KA9VQS.

Hoss' antenna did not seem to be working right and after working on the mount and making it a bit more secure we discovered that his antenna had a problem and would not resonate in the ham bands. So, he had an additional purchase to make over the weekend.

The gang met at the Toll House Tavern in Union for dinner. Hail, hail, the gangs all here! OOPS - that ain't right. Some of the gang were severely delayed and totally missed the dinner. Shucks! We found out about the time we were finishing dinner that some of the Oklahoma City guys had been delayed 4 hours because of weather. ARGH! Ted and Menchie from California were delayed as well and didn't get in until midnight!

Ron, AA5RT surprised Hoss and Margareth by showing up. He had told them that he could just not get away and would not be making the trip.

After dinner some of the guys went to the flea market to finish our set up of the booth. The primary task here is sorting the poles, assembling them together, attaching the tarp and then moving it over the booth. Then Lou secures it to the floors and van so it cannot fly away in a gust of wind. This is a team effort that takes 6 or 8 guys to accomplish.

The last two photos above show the installation of the flea market antenna with our IOOK flag attached to the top of the antenna!

Our very special waitress Nancy was ready and waiting for us when we arrived early Friday morning at the California Garden.

Stan, N5JFQ was feeling bad about the fact that Mike, N5MS was unable to attend due to work duties, so, he started sending Mike photos that he took on his iPhone. Each of the photos included a short description or caption. One appears below.

Friday in the flea market was fantastic! Afternoon temperatures got up into the low eighties and it was delightful!

Above you see John attempting to program Dottie, KD8BXK's HT. Ted, KD8BXJ and Dottie later sold both of their matching HT's and bought new ones that should be easier to program!

The folks below are listed left to right and top to bottom: KK8O, W8TQ, W5JCS, WA8MSD, N2FOE, AD5JK, KC4YG, K9XA, KA0AZS and N0BIX

Margareth (no call), KA9VQS, WD8CJD, N5JFQ, KD8BXJ, KD8BXK, K8RBM, W5LOL, W5WHY, K8OW, W8TVT, W8TVC

AF6AR, AE5CJ, W5KUB, Friday lunch chef's W8TVC & KB8FJB (with N5JFQ poking his finger), K8BTE, KG6WNV & KF6BFI

Friday afternoon we had the pleasure of visiting with our good friend Luis, XE1L and his friend, Ron, K1RE.

Mike was appreciative of the photos and captions that Stan was sending so, he sent Stan a photo of himself hard at work!

KC9EJB, W9KD, W8AK, KA8ZSB, his son Steve, KD8BXK, K9XA, WB9TSC, WA8ZWJ & WA5ZAI

IOOK President, KBob, KG7SB took time out of his busy schedule on the Outer Banks to call the Faithful at the Gathering and make a Presidential address! This was absolutely TOO MUCH!

Below appear two samples of the awards handed out at the "Gathering Of The Faithful"

Please feel free to contact N0BIX to order your copy of the 2009 HamVention DVD.

Saturday morning found the early birds back at the California Garden for breakfast!

Sunday morning at the California Garden finds Hoss making a presentation to our waitress Nancy who is assimilated into the IOOK!

Sunday at the flea market was kind of slow as many of the flea marketeers had left in a hurry when Saturday afternoon's gusty wind and rain storm tried to lift our tarp cover away.

While Big Al, KB8FJB and Dave, W8TVC were inside watching tickets for the final drawings, we started the pack up procedure in the flea market.

Many IOOK'ers managed to take in the Air Force Museum during the weekend. Since we had a number of photos taken by the gang that attended the museum on Sunday, it seemed only fitting to include a few of their shots here as well.

After returning to the Flophouse Sunday afternoon, several of us enjoyed some sunshine and beer on the patio. We were joined by Lee, WA8MSD's mascot from his high school reunion, Hairy Beaver. Lee's class were known as the "Eager Beavers" so it is only fitting that their mascot is a beaver. Hairy is traveling the country and snap shots of his travels will be shared at the next class reunion in a few years.

After dinner we had a "transferring snap shots" meeting back at the Farley Flophouse to build the collection for this presentation.

Almost every year one of us manages to catch a shot of John, N5AAA stacking a few ZZZ's in the easy chair! Monday morning found the remaining gang back at Rob's for breakfast before they headed home.

Post HamVention 09 Note

Well, HamVention has come and gone! It hardly seems possible that the time has already flown by us!

Last Monday Tom, W3TOM started HamVention week by being the first of the out-of-town IOOK’ers to arrive. He was followed on Wednesday by the arrival of N5AAA. Then Thursday the remainder of the 2009 IOOK contingent began to arrive.

Here it is Sunday evening and we are all “fed up” again to coin Big Al’s phrase. This will be a short recap and I emphasize the word short.

Thursday evening after our dinner at the Toll House Tavern, the die hards went to the flea market and finished setting up our booth.

Friday morning bright and early the “early birds” met at the California Garden to partake in breakfast before heading to the flea market to set out our sales items. Friday morning we had the pleasure of visiting with our friends Luis, XE1L and Ron, K1RE who joined us for a soda and a cigar! The weather was beautiful and afternoon temperature reached nearly 80.

Friday evening after an unfortunate mishap between two vehicles on front of the Farley Flophouse, the official Gathering of the Faithful 2009 continued as planned. There was an abundance of food, fun and frivolity.

Unfortunately Ron AA5RT was taken ill with a bout of vertigo during the day which resulted in his cutting his surprise visit to HamVention 2009 participation short.

Scattered showers throughout the day Saturday did not dampen the spirits of the IOOK! However the sales day was cut a bit short by strong winds and rain late in the afternoon. Saturday evening’s dinner at Rob’s was well attended and a fantastic time was had by all.

Sunday was partly sunny and cool with afternoon temperatures reaching the mid 60’s.

Sales were good for the IOOK throughout the weekend and many individual purchases were made by IOOK’ers including a Friday purchase by N0BIX of a new dual band APRS rig that he and N5AAA installed in the N0BIXmobile prior to the Gathering! Incredible! (check out: http://aprs.fi/?call=N0BIX-9&mt=m&z=11&timerange=3600)

Sunday evening’s get together at Marion ’s Piazza was a fun time too and well attended!

NN3V, K8EI, W6KJ and others were not in attendance and were missed by all present!

Thanks to all who contributed to making the 2009 IOOK activities during HamVention a success.

Stan, N5JFQ observed the following: Looking over your Post Hamvention “short recap,” I might add that following items for inclusion in the final report:

Besides Ron being sick, Aaron got food poisoning from airport food and was miserable most of the day Friday. He felt better late in the day and he was able to go the Air Force Museum for the special evening event out there. Since I drove Aaron out to the museum, I was not present for the vehicle mishap. This was also the year for everyone to catch up on their attendance at the museum.

Flying out to Dayton on Thursday there was severe weather in Dallas which delayed our flights by 4 hours. Therefore we missed the Toll House event entirely. With the weather in Dallas & Dayton, the wreck and folks getting sick, this was the year for mishaps.

D-Star is popular with the Oklahoma crew and the following members bought the Icom mobile rig, IC-880H: Aaron, Stan, Joe Garland, Al Snyder and Dennis Orcutt.

Don’t forget to thank this year’s lunch chefs, too.

Others not present: N5MS, Roger Ryan, and how could you not forget the El Presidente.

As I tell my wife, one of the biggest reasons I make Dayton is for the fellowship.

Stan, N5JFQ
IOOK Oklahoma Chapter

KBob won the Heil foot switch.

It was good to see everyone again. This was a busy trip for me. I was like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

Even got stopped north of Nashville doing 86 in a 70 mph. Chat room was taking up donations to bail me out. I'll tell you about it later. I got out of it.

Tom

Post HamVention California Mini-Gathering

Once Ted, KF6BFI and Menchie, KG6WNV returned to California after HamVention they contacted Charlie, NN3V and made plans to present Charlie with the awards he had "earned" and had been presented during The 2009 Gathering Of The Faithful.

This next shot is of Ted presenting Charlie his "year old" certificate from Hoss, WA5ZAI.

This final shot is of Charlie, Menchie and Ted as Ted presents Charlie with his 2009 Gathering Of The Faithful Award.

Many thanks to Ted and Menchie for transporting and presenting the awards to Charlie! Your assistance is greatly appreciated

Many thanks to all the photo contributors! This year's list is: K8OW, KC4US, KC4YG, KF6BFI, KG7SB, N0BIX, N5AAA, N5JFQ, W8TVC, WA8MSD and WA8ZWJ. We will add NN3V to the list of photo contributors because Ted and Menchie forgot to take their camera along to the Mini-Gathering - so Eli took the shots using Charlie's camera!

I apologize for it taking me so long to get these photos organized and posted. However, sorting through the 550 originals from 11 different sources and arranging them in somewhat a chronological order was no easy task!

Many thanks to all of you for everything you do to make the IOOK special for each of us!

Best 73 and it is not too early begin making your plans for next year's HamVention!