The weather on Saturday at the Dayton Hamvention was not pleasant, but I did visit the flea market during breaks in the deluge.
A sign of the times, approximately one-third of the flea market spots were empty and attendance overall seemed down. On the air, I heard someone mention that approximately 14,000 admittance tickets were sold, which is down substantially from the 30,000-plus attendees of past years.
“Not much new and exciting” was the word on the street and I have to agree. I grabbed a bunch of product data sheets to look over later, but most of the sheets I grabbed were for items that were already out there for sale and not much new.
While roaming the convention floor, I saw a familiar face, so I stopped him and asked for a photo. Owen Garriott, W5LFL, the first ham radio astronaut gladly complied and the result is above.
By mid-afternoon, I was very tired and was not looking forward to a 12-hour roadtrip on Sunday!
