OPERATION: GEM CITY
or another adventure to the
Hamvention^® 2011 in Dayton, OH

by Luther Guise - K5NOB
with photographs by Luther - K5NOB & Paul - N4PD
(Cursor Over Photo For Credit)

 

Sally (K4NOB), Luther (K5NOB), and Bill Frisbie (W3EMH) left the Guise QTH in Leesburg at approximately 0930 on Wednesday, May 18th. Other than the some severe rain and thunderstorms in the mountains the trip was pretty uneventful and gave everyone some time to chat and discuss their times in Tehran.

 

Arriving a day early Sally and Luther spent the day at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. It is a great museum even for a former Army wienie like Luther. While Luther was over taking photos Sally ran into Nancy (N1NCY) and Paul (N4PD).

 

 

The "Big Wheel"
at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
On Next Trip Visit the
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

Thursday ended with a fun dinner with Paul, Nancy, Sally and Luther.

 

 Friday, the first day at the Hamvention was a beautiful day to be outdoors and enjoy the flea market. There was the usual cast of characters as well as a couple of new ones.

 

 

Big hair and an antenna, what more could you ask for?

 

 

One of Henry's (K2BFY) buddies, K1TTY (Note the battery powered fan, one cool cat)

 

A few minutes were spent visiting with Meg (AI4UX) at the AMRAD booth but Frank (K0BRA) was AWOL, supposedly headed to the latrine (which is French for library).

 

After a lunch of barbecued brats the afternoon was dedicated the looking for "treasures" inside the arena.

 

  Good ole "Gordo" West in his Mr. Electricity outfit

 

 

While drooling over the goodies inside, a quick stop was made at the HandiHam booth to see Ken Silberman Esq. (KB3LLA). Some of you may remember that Ken had spoke at one of the meetings last year. Ken and Luther had a lively discussion about amateur radio, the upcoming HandiHam camp in Minnesota where Ken volunteers, and old movie lines, but were stumped by the great philosophical question as to whether a Jewish lawyer can really be a ham. Ken was going to check with his rabbi and get back to Luther with the answer. Ken or Luther has never had a conversation they didn’t enjoy.

 

A brief W2YE (Dick) sighting occurred in the flea market, but he appeared to be on a mission and was lost in the crowd. Rascal's faster than he looks.

 

Ken (KB3LLA) and Luther (K5NOB) at the HandiHam Booth

 

Luther (K5NOB) & Nancy (N1NCY) Searching for a GEM

 

Love Those Tubes !!!
Check The Big One - WLW - In Cincinnati

 

Jim (K4FW) Flew In Again This Year

 

Bill Frisbie (W3EMH) and Luther (K5NOB)

 

 

Sally and Nancy visited with other YLs at the YLRL Booth while Paul and Luther made their rounds. Another enjoyable day followed by a great dinner at the Original Rib House in Vandalia with Paul and Nancy, Tony Manna (WA1ENO), his XYL Anne (WB1ARU), Anne’s sister Shirley, Bob Clogg (VK5ZHW) his XYL Tina (VK5TMC), Tom Gutshall (W3BZN) his XYL Lois (WB3EFQ),Sally and Luther.

 

Nancy (N1NCY) and Sally (K4NOB) in the arena

 

Saturday turned out to be another picture perfect day except when the SWR in the sewer line at the convention center got excessively high and the RF (Reeking Fluid) started seeping out into the flea market area. This caused the arena to close all the bathrooms except one. This fiasco made things a bit exciting and just added to the aromatic ambience, but all in all every one seemed to have a stinkin' good time.

 

Did I want to come home and go back to work?