This event hailed as the second largest HamRadio convention in the USA after Dayton Hamfest was held over the second weekend of February this year, held in the Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park.
Organised by the Orlando Amateur Radio Club over a year’s planning and advertising it opened promptly at 9 am on Friday to the public.
Behind the scenes there are several hundred volunteers and committee members, all briefed and rehearsed in the previous months. Emergency services are hired to police the venue including medical services. A complete A4 book is available for free in order to find a way round the site, to the many stands and attractions. Strangely, while there are a few stands for the Female visitor outside of the hobby, there is a significant membership within it, with many XYL’s sporting their own callsigns, and demonstrating their own engineering talents.
The organisation committee invites volunteer organisations, special interest groups and commercial vendors from a wide global list, each given space for their own special needs, totalling over 100 such spaces. The Radio Society of Great Britain was not present owing to the recent sad loss of one of their staff, but globally recognised names were present, such as ICOM and YAESU, and Retevis sponsored the event.
Companies like HRO, DxEngineering, GigaParts Technology Superstores, and Tower Electronics familiar names in the US market, and Begali Keys from Italy were there for example.
Familiar products like AMSAT, ARISS, Ham Radio Deluxe, Heil, Elecraft, Comet, Buddipole were there as well.
The show takes place on an enormous scale, with a huge park for Recreational vehicles for the whole of the event, and a massive car park for day visitors. An area outside the main halls is marked out for individual sellers for the ‘Flea Market’, while there is a further area for the various concession stands, with the availability of typical food stuffs, sandwiches, pork chops on a stick, burgers, pizzas, corndogs and fries, with fresh fruit and ice-cream and drinks on demand. Prices are controlled by the park, so while a burger and fries for $18 dollars may seem expensive, it is freshly cooked and typically American sized, and I for one struggled with the quantity.
It was clear from the vehicles registrations, that visitors came from across the USA and beyond. I met up with a French group while I was there, and saw Brasil and Puerto Rico represented. The DARC from Germany also had a stand. I heard a cacophony of languages that’s for sure.
One of the first and essential stands is that provided by the Boy Scouts of America, where I got my ticket laminated and attached to a lanyard for only $5. In this hall were the organising committee registering visitors and vendors for the upcoming Dayton HamVention in May, as well as the organising committee for the Hamcation.
In the main hall were the majority of the sales and special interest groups where I got to see the upcoming offerings from ICOM and Yaesu, and many others. I was particularly interested in a new oscilloscope offered by Uni-Trend who have an extremely good range of compact and affordable pieces of equipment including RF analysers.
Here I met Lidy and Peter from the Netherlands on the International Relations Stand. Longtime Residents of Orlando, they are now based back in their native land.
The second large hall contained the ‘Swap Shop’, where some vendors had rented space for a larger array of equipment, both vintage and legacy, for sale or exchange. The hall contained the Bring and Buy selection of second hand equipment. Needless to say the variety of material for sale was limitless. Bargain prices were not so in evidence, as quite naturally folk wanted the best price for their offerings.
So even after two days at the event I still did not take in the scale of it all, it blew my mind. I did manage to pick up a bargain in the flea market of a Yaesu FT70D in new condition, that was very good value.
Two days is needed anyway for the flea market as often over the two days, the content changes. Although the show extends over to the Sunday, it is often less attended as people prepare to return to their home state before the end of the weekend. I was there for Friday and Saturday, and walked some distance in the Florida heat, unseasonably hot at over 80F and with a high pollen count, which was quite enough for me.
I was very fortunate that my Brother Kevin AA3XV invited me over, and together with his son, my nephew Tomas we had a great visit, combining the radio convention with a family holiday with my wife Anne.
My first impression was that it blew my mind, as I had never experienced a convention like this in the United Kingdom. Even in the days of the large Radio Rally events as Longleat House in England I cannot recall it being so large as what I found this month in Orlando.
Overall I saw that no effort was spared in preparation and organisation and I felt that this event was superlative in every respect. I was introduced to so many celebrated people that I had only heard about, and met so many other friendly people. I didn’t get the chance to operate the special event station, I was too mind-blown with everything else. I missed all the forums, as my attention was clearly on the commercial aspect. Even then my wallet was firmly closed, as was my luggage space for the trip home.
If an event such as this were to be held in the UK the state of Amateur Radio Activity and enthusiasm would be significantly enhanced. It certainly helped in my case, aided by my brother and his obvious enthusiasm for the pastime.
I have since been asked by some of the hams over in the UK about prices of equipment, an aspect that has some impact on the hobby. I can say from my visit that prices in dollars would equate to the same in GBP, with the differences in tax applied, so that in monetary value would suggest that it would still cost about 20-25% more in the UK.
Finally I have to sum-up. Firstly thanks to Kevin, and his invitation and the tremendous hospitality he and Mel provided us, but a big thank you to the organisers of the Hamcation event that overall has restored a lot more enthusiasm in me for some of the other aspects of the pastime that I had put aside.
I’m just waiting for the delivery of the New HF Station in the next couple of days, and I’m off into the workshop to put together the first of two new accessories for that new station
Chris G4NAB
g4nab.co.uk and the Svxlink Project.
