- Date:
2025-05-15 -- 2025-05-18
Our Third Annual vacation to Xenia, Ohio for the 2025 Dayton Hamvention was a success. Haocheng found a reasonably priced short term rental house that is just over one mile from the Greene County Fairgrounds. Carol Ann was a joy to travel with, too. She is 14 months old, well-behaved, and very curious to explore the world.
Crossing into North Carolina while listening to WRBN-LP Clayton on the radio. We prefer to travel through Rabun rather than driving through Atlanta.
Picturesque nature as we cross into Tennessee. There is a river on the left side of the road. Imagine this area without the road. It is in the middle of nowhere. A great place to visit.
Haocheng drives, and I monitor 2m national simplex on the amateur radio (146.520 MHz). I considered replacing that Icom IC-2300 radio at the hamfest because it has a propensity for overheating when rag chewing, and it's receiver isn't very sensitive. Ultimately, I saved my money.
TV and FM antennas at Sharp's Ridge in Knoxville, Tennessee.
A 6-Bay FM antenna
Kentucky
Procter & Gamble (P&G) Twin Towers in Cincinnati
Our AirBNB in Xenia, Ohio. This house is fantastic.
Carol Ann playing with her toy cube. I often times find myself fidgeting with this toy, too.
Eating after a long car trip.
Friday morning Jim and Anna Trapani pick me up and drive me to the Hamvention.
They generously offer us vendor passes for their JT Communications booth, 3703.
JT Comms booth
Jim (right) showing his creations to a fellow amateur radio operator.
Setting up on Friday morning for the 3-day hamfest.
Inside the building where JT Comms is.
Coffee and light snacks in the break room were greatly appreciated.
Every year the Xenia Township Fire Department offers free sunscreen and water, and every year we take full advantage of it.
For me, Hamvention provides a great opportunity to see some old equipment, and to speak with a bunch of other hams. The exprience is just as valuable as the equipment I buy. A lot of the equipment is ancient.
...such as the VHF Motorola XTS5000 Model III radios that we use.
The bone yard fills up the entire center of the Horse Racing Track. This booth had free mints and Jolly Rancher candies. I enjoyed several throughout the hamfest.
The 900MHz Motorola XTS1500 Model I radios sell for as little as $20 each, but if your want Front Panel Programming on an XTS2500, they want $200 each. Fortunately, I found one at another booth that I negotiated down to $75, so I bought it instead.
Some fancy speaker mics I bought for my XTL-series radios.
I bought a Motorola XTL5000 UHF R1 radio in the bone yard, and the seller, Darren, hooked me up with some chargers and accessories. Thank you, Darren!
Before the hamfest I had two Impres chargers, so I bought two at the hamfest for $10 each. Then Darren gifted me two later. Now I have more than I need. Now I can leave them at places I frequent. :)
Thank you to Haocheng for preparing the majority of the food in advance of the hamfest. This was year #2 that we avoided these lines for overpriced carnival food. Winning.
The Four Landers - Based in Dahlonega, Georgia. These guys are brilliant. Haocheng and I traveled to their operation base a couple of times during their contesting a few years back.
Some Dell Micro Form Factor (MFF) computers I bought. I can build these out for future stock since I tend to give away many of my computers.
JT Communications booth
On the drive home, this guy put his feet out of the window. If I was doing this I would lose the socks - but that might be even more offensive. To me, this was pretty hilarious.
By the way, never sit like this in a moving vehicle, since a collision can result in spinal injuries.
Another vehicle. And, yes, he did pass us.
On the return trip, we decided to travel through the mountains rather than going through Atlanta. Since I forgot to intervene with Waze before it routed us back through Rabun County, Georgia, we took another route that was super rural, and as a bonus we drove right past Neel Gap on the Appalachian Trail.
Neel Gap Building
