​Hamvention 2017 Days 2 and 3

You know life is good when you go to bed tired and happy with what was accomplished that day and wake up full of energy ready to do it again. That is the way I have felt the past several days.

Saturday is the big day at Hamvention in terms of crowds and presentations. The Miami Valley Mesh Alliance and AREDN booth saw its share of both all day Saturday and all morning on Sunday. There was a non-stop stream of hams interested in how an AREDN mesh network can help them provide better services to their local emergency responders. And we were prepared with answers and examples for them.

As a result of preparing for Hamvention, we will have photos, presentations and new content on the website soon. Just give us some time to rest and organize the material. We will also have links to media created by others who covered our presence at the event.

Andre's presentation on Building a High-Speed AuxComm Data Network was a big hit with the approzimately 400 hams who packed the forum room. Jason KC5HWB video recorded the presentation and plans to show it on his YouTube channel HamRadio2.0 in the near future. Be sure to watch it and take a look at the other great episodes Jason has created.

The mini classes we conducted were a big hit. The most popular were the sessions on voice over IP telephony by Mark N2MH, the use of WinLink by Bill WA8APB and the network planning overview by Andre K6AH. Many of the attendees expressed in an interest in having us do longer classes, which we will consider for the future, but there was only so much you could do in a show booth.

As a special surprise for our mini class participants, we held door prize drawings on Friday and Saturday. Due to the generosity of several anonymous benefactors, we were able to offer five pieces of new Ubiquiti gear. The lucky winners of the door prizes are:

• Stephanni KM4KPW - Loco M2
• Ron N4RT - AirRouter HP
• Kevin KK4JZS - Loco M2
• Donna WQ4M - AirRouter HP
• Sebastien VE2GTZ - Nanostation M2

But nobody went away empty-handed since we gave away AREDN branded stylus-tipped pens to those who didn't win a door prize.

We all learned a lot from each other. There were a few units we flashed with the new AREDN firmware and a couple that we unbricked. Mark N2MH setup a new PBX for a ham on a Raspberry Pi he just purchased at a booth on the other side of the building we were in. N8JJ helped me a lot by getting a Sunba camera operating properly. Tim N8NQH demonstrated live streaming video and answered hundreds of questions. Bill's grandson, Mike, helped out a lot in the booth too. Mike took and passed his Tech license exam on Saturday and is now KM6KOU. Congratulations Mike!

I'm sure that I am overlooking the contributions of some people and some notable events, but there will be more information in the near future after all of us get some rest and take some time to collect our thoughts. 

I will close by saying that the AREDN team had a number of specific goals in mind when planning our attendance at Hamvention. I can report that we met or exceeded all of our goals, due in large part to the efforts of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) in organizing Hamvention in the face of some difficult constraints and the Miami Valley Mesh Alliance (MVMA) who provided a tremendous amount of local support and expertise.  I want to thank the many hams who took the time to visit, ask questions and share their experiences with us.