Dayton Hamvention

From: Dan Veeneman <dan_at_ekoan.com>
Date: Thu May 20 13:21:36 2004

At 01:53 PM 5/20/04, you wrote:
>I think it depends on how good you are at looking or perhaps what you're
>interested in looking for. Your report varies greatly from the other
>report that got posted.

As Ethan, Joe, and others on this list have emphasized, you've got
to show up early to ham fests. The bulk of my purchases were on Friday
(the first day of the show) and mostly in the morning. I think Roger
arrived much later.

I have also made friends with some of the vendors, so by now they
know what I'm looking for and will hang on to things for me. (For
instance, that's how I got an early model of the HP 5036A with the
ROM in a ZIF socket last year and the HP Series 80 stuff this year.)

I guess my point is that the days of having lots of vintage DEC, DG
and other gear moving through Dayton are gone. The show itself is
also shrinking -- remember that it's mainly a ham radio event, and
the ranks of amateur radio operators are also shrinking. Attendance
these days isn't nearly what it was even a few years ago. Also,
a number of dealers have stopped coming and do much of their
selling on-line. The weather forecast didn't help this year, either.

>Your report makes it seem like the Dayton
>Hamvention is still a good place to vintage computer crap.

Obviously the best way to build a great vintage computer collection
is to hook up with an electronic recycling organization in a
technology-driven part of the country. :-)


Cheers,

Dan
Received on Thu May 20 2004 - 13:21:36 BST