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HamX is the largest annual gathering of Radio Amateurs east of Dayton and north of Huntsville. And it fields more talks and workshops than any other ham convention in the world. We’re not just a trade show, we convene to exchange ideas. Here’s your chance to participate. Locally, 2025 will be celebrated as the 250 th anniversary of “the shot heard ‘round the world.” But we all know that for over a century Amateur Radio’s signals have been heard ‘round the world.

Every year’s talks pretty much run the same gamut of subject areas—Antennas and Propagation, Contesting and DXing, EMCOM/PS, League, Operating Activities, Organization and Innovation, Technical, and Training. This year we’re emphasizing “signals heard ’round the world.”

So, consider volunteering to speak on signals.

• How we generate and transmit Amateur signals. (our bands, equipment, remote systems, antennas, propagation, etc.)
• How we modulate our signals. (CW, phone, digital, image, etc.)
• The uses we make of our signals. (on-the-air activities, EMCOM and public service, DXing, contesting, traffic, repeaters, EME. etc.)

Even if you can’t speak, you must have some ideas regarding what you or others want to hear about—elementary topics for the newcomers among us, intermediate-level topics for the general attendees, even advanced topics to challenge and educate us all. Pass them on as a
request.

Here are this year’s planning and preparation milestones:

• January through April – Individuals propose presentations. The Convention’s Programs Committee also solicits presentations. Speaker Login webpage active.
• By 30 April – Solicited presenters reply.
• By 1 June – Potential presenters commit to speaking if scheduled.
• By 30 June – Closeout: presentation curation complete. Presenters notified.
• By 30 June – Presenters finish populating database with personal information, talk title, and talk summary. (Minor grammatic and spelling edits are permitted until the database is locked.)
• 15 July – Database locked. No further editing by presenters.
• 31 July – Scheduling resolved, locked, and provided for brochure preparation.
• 10 August – Brochure submitted to printer.
• 21-23 August — HamXposition 2025!

It’s never too early to start planning! Contact HamXposition Program Chair Skip Youngberg at K1NKR@hamxposition.org.

It’s the most received comment and feedback we get.  “Where are the vendors?”

We’re working hard to bring back some of the old vendors who didn’t come in 2023. Plus, we’re working to recruit new ones.

It’s not easy—for a number of reasons. We hear from our vendors that:

• Overall sales are down
• We can’t find enough people to staff a booth
• Your gate numbers aren’t large enough to justify our time and expense

The latter point is a bit of a “chicken and egg” dilemma. We need more attendees to attract the top-notch vendors. But we also need those vendors in order to bring in the masses.

You can believe that the committee is working on the problem diligently and we’ve come up with some creative ideas. In the meantime, we thank our loyal vendors who continue with us, even in this post-COVID era. Vendors like:

• Quicksilver Radio
• Gold Metal Ideas
• N3ZN Keys

Look for marked improvement in this area in 2024!

One frustrated attendee asked, “Where is W1A?”

Our friend wandered around the hotel looking for the station and asked numerous people, but no one seemed able to direct him to the location of the special events station.

Admittedly, the signage directing people to W1A was lacking. As mentioned in the program book, the station was tucked away in the Corporate Room (E7) off one of the side hallways.  (See diagram below.)

The hours posted in the program booklet were:

• Friday: 6 pm — midnight
• Saturday: 9 am — midnight
• Sunday: 9 am — noon

Sometime on Saturday mid-afternoon when the gentleman finally did find the station’s location, the door was locked and no one was staffing the station.

We deeply regret the fact that none of the volunteers were present at W1A during the advertised hours when our friend wanted to visit. We’ll try to make sure there isn’t a repeat of this problem next year.

We received a complaint from one of the vendors situated near one of the outside doors of a strong tobacco odor. One of our HamXposition Committee members noticed this problem, too. Next year we will request people smoke further away from the exit!