HARA Arena to Close – Hamvention® to find new home

On behalf of the Hamvention General Chair and the DARA Board of Directors. This is an Official Announcement concerning the 2017 Dayton Hamvention and beyond.

Dayton Hamvention® 2017 News Update

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) regrets to inform our many vendors, visitors and stakeholders that, unfortunately, HARA has announced the closing of their facility. We have begun execution of our contingency plan to move Hamvention® 2017 to a new home.
DARA and Hamvention® have enjoyed many successful years working together with HARA Arena and we wish the Wampler family the best.
DARA and Hamvention® have been working on a contingency plan in the event HARA would become unavailable. We have spent many hours over the last few years evaluating possible locations and have found one in the area we believe will be a great new home! Due to logistics and timing issues, we will make a formal announcement introducing our new partner. This information will be coming soon. We all believe this new venue will be a spectacular place to hold our beloved event. Please rest assured we will have the event on the same weekend and, since it will be in the region, the current accommodations and outside events already planned for Hamvention® 2017 should not be affected.
We look forward to your continued support as we move to a new future with The Dayton Hamvention®.

Ron Cramer
General Chairman
Dayton Hamvention® 2017

Extra Class Pool goes into effect 1 July 2016

Studying for your Extra Class ticket?  It’s time to switch gears and start using the latest question pool, which is the Public Release March 5, 2016.  This pool goes into effect for all VE testing on the first day of July 2016.

You can always find the latest version of any question pool on the NCVEC website at http://www.ncvec.org/.

If you are blind and wish to use the recorded version with only the correct answers as a study guide, you will be able to find the latest version read by Handiham volunteer Jim Perry, KJ3P, on the Handiham website in the members section by July 1.  It will also be available in DAISY format for download as a zip file and for placement on NLS digital cartridges.

A great big THANK YOU to Jim for his excellent recording!

Accessibility Improved at W0EQO

Users connecting to W0EQO will now hear the receiver audio immediately instead having to find and toggle the power button on the graphical user interface. While there are keystroke commands for the basic functions used in operation of the RCForb software, there is no such command for the radio’s power switch. That meant that JAWS users had to use a tedious process of trying to find the button labeled PWR with the JAWS cursor.

Now when you connect the radio is already running.

W0EQO is back!

Tall tower supporting dipole antenna, with ladder line dangling down toward camera

Check out the two HF remote base internet stations available to club members. Find out more at https://handiham.org/remotebase. See the user guide on this website, too.

The photo shows the dipole antenna fed with 450 ohm ladder line.  It is high on the tower at the apex of the inverted vee.  The legs are 150 feet long, for a total dipole length of 300 feet.

Handiham Club Daily Net

What are you waiting for? Check into our Handiham nets… Everyone is Welcome!

How to find the Handiham Net: 

  • The Handiham EchoLink conference is 494492. Connect via your iPhone, Android phone, PC, or on a connected simplex node or repeater system in your area.
  • You will also find us on the IRLP linked repeater system. Look for IRLP 9008.

The Handiham Net will be on the air daily. If there is no net control station on any scheduled net day, we will have a round-table on the air get-together.

Our daily Echolink net continues to operate for anyone and everyone who wishes to participate at 11:00 hours CST (Noon Eastern and 09:00 Pacific), as well as Wednesday evenings at 19:00 hours CST (7 PM).  If you calculate GMT, the time difference is that GMT is six hours ahead of Minnesota time during the winter.  Note that we do not have a Thursday evening session at this time, that session has been moved to Sunday evenings at 8:00 PM Central Time.

Doug, N6NFF, poses a trivia question in the first half of the Wednesday evening session, so check in early if you want to take a guess.   The answer to the trivia question is generally given shortly after the half-hour mark.  A big THANK YOU to all of our net control stations and to our Handiham Club Net Manager, Michael, VE7KI.