-=> Daryl Stout wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-

 JA>Nashville (were in town to celebrate 30th wedding anniversary).

 DS>   Congratulations on the anniversary.

Thanks!

 JA>I'm wanting to get another mobile unit and a power supply to
 JA>have a duel band radio 'base station' for the winter time. I
 JA>like the idea of a J antenna in the attic. Any thoughts on
 JA>that?

 DS>   I have to plead ignorance on that. Plus, several rigs are being
 DS> discontinued in favor of newer models, so if you can still find some of
 DS> these discontinued ones around, you might be able to get them at a good
 DS> price.

Hmm... Good point! I was originally thinking of getting another unit
identical to the mobile in the truck (and the matching unit for my
wife's truck) just to be consistant... Would make it more likely for 
HER to use it as well...

 JA>We drove in Saturday morning to get to the Skywarn forum, which was
 JA>cancelled last minute. :-( We didn't hit any of the others but had
 JA>I known you were at D-Star (I should have surmised, from our previous
 JA>conversations) I would have at least met you at the door. :-)

 DS>   I had considered the Skywarn Forum, but decided against it, since
 DS> being a weather geek, anyway...I know what to look for.

Yeah - probably nothing there new for you. :-) It's all new to me though!

We have a fairly local (less than an hour away) training coming up later
in the month. Barring anything happening, we're planning to go to that
one.

 DS>   A few things I didn't like about Huntsville...

 DS> 1) Flying into/out of there was hellaciously expensive. The bus ride
 DS> was much cheaper, but combined with limited leg room, and hard metal
 DS> seats in the stations, it made for a rough trip.

Ouch - sorry... Wish I could have offered you a ride but we didn't know
for sure we were going until Friday night. :-)

 DS> 2) While the Embassy Suites was connected to the Von Braun Center
 DS> (which was good when it was storming outside), I didn't like the idea
 DS> of them hitting ones debit card for an additional $50 a day for
 DS> "incidentals".

Another ouch! Yeah, I saw it was connected and would have saved on parking,
but the hotel we stayed at was only about 3 miles away and was half a
mile from Golden Corral and about a mile from other restaraunts and such.

 DS> 3) You can only do so much in a one hour forum...as one was finishing
 DS> up and participants were trying to exit, a large group of the next
 DS> forum was trying to get into the narrow door.

I noticed that too! Looked like ZERO time between sessions. Conferences
that I've been a part of running have ALWAYS given time between sessions,
plus the sessions were typically 75 minutes.

 DS> 4) While I did like the made to order breakfast (omlette or breakfast
 DS> buffet) at the Embassy Suites, their restaurant was hellaciously
 DS> expensive (Ruth Chris' Steak, I think). When I went to the bar to oder
 DS> a sandwich and a drink, the hostess seemed intent on giving me an
 DS> alcoholic beverage, instead of just plain Coca-Cola. The second night I
 DS> was there, I bought a couple of sandwiches and a drink from the gift
 DS> shop instead, and that was my dinner.

We did O'Charley's Saturday night, then Golden Corral for Breakfast Sunday,
then stopped at Moe's BBQ in Decatur for a late lunch on the drive home.

 DS>   While I can say I've been to the Huntsville Hamfest, I likely won't
 DS> go back.

Well I enjoyed it, but it's also the ONLY one I've been to besides the
freefest in Bartlett. Vanessa found some magnetic jewelry she liked,
we got matching paracord bracelets, handles for our Yeti's - and of
course the radios. Not that I couldn't have ordered, but I feel like I
got a better deal, and of course just SEEING everything and talking to
the Diamond folks, etc. - it was a good experience for us, and a good
weekend away. :-)

And of course I've enjoyed the fire out of my dual band radion in my
truck now. :-)


... Auto correct has become my worst enema.
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