2026 - May: Dayton Hamvention

The 'Hamvention' at Dayton is the world's largest amateur radio event. In 2026 it was held on May 15th-17th at the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center near Dayton, Ohio, and I had the pleasure of being there, along with nearly 38,000 other like-minded radio hams.

The Flea Market is like no other - it stretches across acres of fields and has everything imaginable, waiting for a new home. The main halls hosted hundreds of exhibitors, from the big names down to local clubs and special interest groups. Then there are more halls, hosting presentations, covering all sorts of interests within the hobby. It is an event that should be on every radio ham's bucket list.

I left Birmingham Airport on a Dublin bound flight on Tuesday 12th May; transferring to a US bound flight in Dublin was an excellent choice - US Immigration is based in Dublin Airport, so landing in Philadelphia into a domestic terminal was a breeze. From there I took an onward flight to Dayton Ohio and eventually arrived at my hotel room, tired about 10pm local.

I wanted to use Wednesday to acclimatise; I visited a local shopping mall and just took things easy. Later in the day I met with my friend Bob GU4YOX and we headed for an early evening meal. It was nice to spend some relaxed time with Bob where we could catch up on chat and news.

Thursday, I headed to another hotel - the Hope Hotel is where many of the Contesting and DXing fraternity meet up and was to be my base for 3 nights. I met up with fellow FOC members and arranged a lift to the Hamvention the following morning. That evening, I was a guest of Bob GU4YOX to an ARRL dinner; I was dropped off at the Marriott Hotel in Dayton by Bruce K1AJ and had the opportunity to work HF mobile (CW!) on the way, using Amanda KY4GS's K3. I made a couple of contacts, but conditions were not great.

The two days I spent at the show flew by, it was great to bump into so many people and put faces to call-signs that I have worked on the air. On the Friday evening, I attended the 'Top Band' dinner, where the speaker was 160m legend Jeff Briggs, K1ZM.  Saturday evening, I attended the 'Contest Dinner' where guest speaker was Mark M0DXR, Chair of the WRTC 2026 Organising Committee.

Sunday morning saw another 07:30am start, this time for the FOC Breakfast. It was great to see more members there, ones that I had not caught at the Hamvention. Before I knew it, it was 10am and I had to make a departure towards the airport and back on my home-bound journey.

All in all, it was a whirlwind of a trip. Many thanks to Bob GU4YOX for an invitation to the ARRL event; to Bruce K1AJ and Amanda KY4GS for looking after me all weekend and being such great company; to Dennis W0JX for arranging the FOC Breakfast; to Tim K3LR of DX Engineering for being so generous with his time and raffle prizes.