By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ recalls all the friendly faces at the Dayton Hamvention®.

One of the reasons I attend the Dayton Hamvention® each year is to see old friends and to meet new ones. During my tour of Hamvention two weeks ago, I found many new friends: The folks staffing various booths on the convention floor who went out of their way to invite people (including me) to see what their booths had to offer.

These folks were genuinely friendly under tough circumstances. Staffing a booth at an event such as Hamvention is hard and tiring work. I know, because I’ve done it. Please note that the people staffing the booths I am about to mention (with one exception) did not know me. They assumed I was just another ham in the crowd and were not aware that I write this column each week.

• First, the exception: The Digital QST booth at the ARRL EXPO, staffed by Magdalena Owczarska, W1MGZ, and Debra Jahnke, K1DAJ. These two women know me, and despite that, they could not have been friendlier.
• The folks at the booth of the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) -- Canada’s national Amateur Radio Society -- were also very welcoming and described their organization to me, despite the WA1 prefix printed on the badge hanging down from my neck.
• The women at the Young Ladies Radio League (YLRL) booth were couldn’t have been nicer, and after I mentioned that I was the one who had written about the YLRL in Surfin’ a few weeks ago, they were grateful, too.
• The guys at the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) booth were so friendly that they convinced me to join. After all, with 44 years in my logbook, I was a little overdue.

I plan to make even more new friends at Hamvention in 2014. I hope to see you there. Until next time, keep on surfin’!

Editor’s note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, seeks the unusual in radio. To contact Stan, send e-mail or add comments to the WA1LOU blog.