Ham Hijinks Covered Dayton

The Ham Hijinks news team was very busy during the Dayton Hamvention making up news stories about the biggest ham radio event of the year. Those of you that stopped by to read and comment on the stories, we thank you. To those of you that thought the restroom story was real and called/emailed Dayton officials about it, we're still shaking our heads.

In case you missed it, you can read all of our Dayton coverage here.

What People Searched For, Installment #1

It's time for the first installment of "What People Searched For To Get To Noiseblankers.com"

The data is real, and we believe it to be the true pulse of amateur radio today. And now, we give you a random list of actual search terms used to get to noiseblankers.com in the past week, with some speculation thrown in for good measure:

• lady ham-radios yl on the air videos (We have some single guys in the club, so this may be our own fault. Likely, though, the searchers were looking for this article.)
• what happened to 14.313 (We can go on and on about what happened to that frequency. But, we think folks probably found this story or this one.)
• special mother in law (Don't we all have special mother-in-laws? This guy has one special enough to do a special event.)
• ham operator hit (Is this related to the Ham Radio Mafia mentioned here?)
• hamradio catcall (See bullet point #1)

Happy searching! We hope you enjoy the site.  - 73 de K5KVN -

Noise Blankers Win Something; First Thought To Be Prank Call

(Not the actual trophy awarded to The Noise Blankers)NORTHWEST Ark.; April 9, 2013 -- Today the ARRL announced The Noise Blankers Radio Group won 2nd place in the 2013 QST Video Contest. Kevin K5KVN submitted our video from the K5H Horseshoe Island Activation and the club was quite surprised that the League thought it was good.

"This is a highly unusual thing for us, as we've only received 'participation' ribbons for most everything we've ever done in life," said Noise Blankers President Gary WBØRUR. "I'm embarrased to say that Kevin hung up on the ARRL the first time they called, assuming that anyone wanting to give us an award must be a prank caller."

Read the announcement from the ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/news/qst-announces-video-contest-winners

And here is the award-winning video:

UPDATE: We made it into the June 2013 QST! Here's what it looks like on page 46. That's K5PO in the green shirt.

• Watch more of our videos here.
• Read about our K5H special event here.

Our Frolic In Fort Smith

By WBØRUR

This past weekend, the Noise Blankers Radio Group traveled to the "Hanging Judge Hamfest" in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Club members present at the event were Gary WBØRUR, Andy K5PO, Kevin K5KVN, Nathan K5KAC and Fred WD5DKA.  Both Kevin and Fred brought a harmonic on the trip.

After several miles of travel, it was determined that Steve K5OY was not present in the vehicle. It was only then we realized no one invited him. This is an unfortunate oversight and in no way is to be considered an indicator of his merits.  (Note:  Fred traveled in his own vehicle and his attendance was unknown until we arrived on location.)

There was lively conversation on the trip to the event, most of which cannot be published and is best forgotten by those who heard it.

Once arriving at the Knights of Columbus Hall (a junior version of the Knights Templar – but doesn’t have the responsibility of protecting the Holy Grail), we paid our admission fees and entered the hamfest. Unfortunately, not very many sellers did the same thing. We were met by quite a few open and vacant tables.   

Some new equipment vendors did a brisk business, perhaps because of the lack of "swap meet" sellers. A special Noise Blankesr "thumbs up" to The Main Trading Company and Associated Radio for displaying a wide array of products ranging from cables and accessories to top-end HF transceivers.

On the positive side, we recognized several hams at the event.  On the negative side, we recognized several hams at the event.  

There were a few purchases made by our group, but only those of a minor nature.  The largest order of business was picking up an amplifier previously purchased by WBØRUR – who was too cheap to pay for the shipping and opted to pick it up from the dealer at the hamfest.

The highlight of the hamfest was when the public address system malfunctioned.  Several times, it blasted 65 decibels of static-laden white noise over the in-house speaker system. After this cacophony repeated continuously, several older gentlemen began yelling “TURN IT OFF!  TURN IT OFF!” It made your ears ring for several minutes afterward.

There was an ARRL forum, but we’re not exactly sure who attended, if anyone. Surely someone did. 

Lunch was at George’s Restaurant – an iconic Fort Smith lunch place with great service and food served with a side order of cholesterol meds. It should be noted that Fred ate at Dead Lobster, although that cannot be independently verified at this time.

Summary:

• The Hanging Judge Hamfest was having an off-year.
• The number of vendors was down. It appears that the number of attendees was lower, too.
• Noticeably absent was the fellow with the comb-over hair who sells components at every hamfest. (He must have been at a different event with actual attendance.)

HAMFEST SCORE:  5 out of 10