I was lucky enough to travel to the Dayton Hamvention this year. I was demoing D-RATS in the dstarusers.org booth with the K5TIT folks. I received a lot of good feedback both about the current and future uses of D-RATS, as well as suggestions for additional features. People seemed mostly interested in the form and mapping pieces, which isn’t too surprising. I had the demo machine linked to my home machine for connectivity with other users in RF range of my home in Hillsboro, Oregon, as well as the VK3UR station in Ballarat, Australia.
This was also my first trip to Dayton, which was quite an experience. I was warned about the level of geekiness I would be exposed to, but I assured people that I hang around some pretty hard-core geeks that run in different circles. I wasn’t quite expecting to see so many people with HF antennas mounted on their backs, or VHF antennas mounted on helmets, but I wouldn’t say I was surprised.
I got to interact with a lot of smart and interesting people, and was rather encouraged to see the impressive demonstration of amateur radio passion. The place was packed with people, and it was really hard to take pictures since you almost can’t stand still long enough to get a decent shot. However, I did grab a couple and have posted them here . If I get to go back another year I will be more prepared and try to get more.
There were definitely some good “deals” to be had, although I had expected them to be a bit better. I did manage to talk myself into buying an IC-2820H from the HRO booth while I was there 