Dayton Hamfest

The Dayton Hamfest is a fabulous show. It is THE LARGEST amateur radio convention [it's "official" purpose]. The Hara arena is a very good size facility, I'd guess in the over 100,000 sq. ft. range (perhaps WAY over), and it's all indoor, heated/air conditioned [not that it works with 35,000 people in the facility], and all commercial vendors, many, many of which are used computer and surplus dealers (there is lots of new stuff also). It's about 60%-70% computer, the rest general electronics and communications [radio] equipment. The flea market takes up the entire parking lot, in excess of 2,500 vendors. There are many commercial exhibits in the parking lot also, you will find a number of very large tents (10,000 square feet range each). Mendelson surplus always has a large tent, and almost every year Radio Shack [as in Tandy] collects their entire surplus and returned merchandise stuff from all over the nation and sends it all to a big tent at the Dayton Hamfest where it is sold for often ten cents on the retail dollar. However they didn't do this last year, for the first time I can remember, but they still had a huge indoor exhibit with many items, new, at 25% to 50% below normal store and catalog prices. The show is logistically difficult to attend for several reasons. First, it brings in so many people [over 25,000 plus a large local population] that poor Dayton, which is hardly a tourist mecca, is complete swamped. You can forget about finding a hotel at this point, the people who do this show get their reservations a year in advance. You may have to stay in Columbus or Cincinnati [both about 70 miles away], fortunately both are directly on an interstate highway and it's not a bad drive. The other problem is parking, since the entire lot is flea market there isn't any ! There are some LARGE fields around the complex that are used for parking, expect to pay $5 to $10 per day, and they are not paved, or very close, which become a real issue in bad weather. Then there are remote lots with busses, but that's a hassle also. The show is May 14, 15, 16. Here is an alternative, the Dayton Microcomputer association has a twice a year computer show at the same site. It's just about as large as the Hamfest, and it's ALL computer. There is no flea market, the parking lot is used for - surprise ! - PARKING ! It's almost like having 3 Dayton Hamfests a year, except that two of them don't have the flea market. This year's dates (it's only a two-day show): Spring: March 13-14 Summer/Fall: August 28-29 I plan to attend all 3 events.