The Premier Cincinnati Hackerspace

Hamvention is fast approaching! Ham radio fans converge upon Dayton to brave the sun, rain, and nerds to broadcast their radio knowledge. A decent portion of our members have ham radio licenses and are annual visitors to Hamvention. We're ready to ham it up, here are some of our members' best tips for optimizing your trip to Greene County Fair and Expo Center!

Come with a list of what you're looking for and be at peace with the fact you will not see all of the outdoor flea market. - Brian

Hamvention has indoor vendors as well as an outdoor flea market. While you can play out your indoor route pretty easily, the flea market has way more vendors and can be overwhelming. Come with a plan AND cash!

Bring a backpack and lots of water. - Ryan A.

Walking the grounds can be exhausting in the May sun and extra storage may be required if you find a great score (which you will). Staying hydrated and unburdened is a huge part of having an enjoyable time.

It's going to rain, bring appropriate footwear and a rain jacket. - Drew K.

Rain at Hamvention is just a given due to it occurring in Ohio in May. The fairgrounds can handle some mud but can you? Make sure to bring stuff you don't mind getting muddy and wet.

Wear tan cargo shorts, a t-shirt with a radio manufacture's logo on it & a baseball cap and you will blend in seamlessly. - Ryan A.

Every subculture has a uniform and ham radio is no exception. Cargo shorts do double duty as part of the uniform and holding your flea market scores. What's in your pocket? A Meshtastic node? Some vintage tech? A kitschy ham sticker?

Our members will be out and about at Hamvention! Will we see you there?

Hive13 is excited to announce that we are expanding our membership structure to include the newest tier of membership, apiary members.

Since our space began in 2009, we felt like our student, standard, and cornerstone memberships were able to cover the populations that would be in the space. It was brought to our attention last night via prophetic dream that we were missing a very small-in-size demographic that we could welcome into our space. After an emergency board meeting, the apiary membership was born!

What is an apiary membership?

An apiary membership is $2,000 a month through Paypal and has all the same rights/responsibilities as other membership tiers but allows for one indoor beehive! Beehives will be evenly spaced throughout Hive13 as to best encourage cross-pollination of wards. Apiary members will be expected to manage their hive accordingly, making sure each bee is certified before using certification-only equipment, that the bees are cleaning up after themselves, and that the bees put the toilet seat down and wash their (many) hands after using the bathroom.

"Y'know, I never thought that leadership would be so excited about apiary memberships but I feel so supported in the space," said newest apiary member, Michael with a B, "Having thousands of bees with me at all times to help carry things, give insight to how to use tools, and to dance with has really improved the community feel."

Many, many members agreed with Michael with a B as we asked him for commentary. Dave Bee chimed in, "Pollinators have a lot of value to our space. They have great horticultural knowledge but also a collaborative mindset."

Adjusting to these thousands of new members in the space has been complex but has built new, hexagonal support structures throughout membership. Barry B. Benson was able to re-run our electrical cables with his buddies and they were simply buzzing with excitement.

"Hive13 really expanded my knowledge, I never thought I would learn electrical skills," Barry remarked as he wiped his proboscis, "My jazz band takes up a lot of my time so it's good to get out of old habits and into some new skills."

If members have questions about this new membership tier and what it entails, we encourage them to reach out via their local meadows and touch some grass.

Just announced! Join us next week for a Tuesday Talk by member Dave Schwinn on the highs, lows, and hisses of caring for Madagascar hissing cockroaches as a maker.

From Dave:

Here are Melania and Stormy. They are Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, or Hissers. Come meet them and learn some fun factoids about roaches and keeping them as pets. The discussion will also include some of the electronics projects that I am working on in order to give them a comfy place to live.

Next week, join us for our Tuesday talk with member Adam Simoyi! You may know his work from Gun4IR, OpenFIRE, and a deep love for the arcade machines in our space. Get ready and hyped for an unserious approach to the ups, downs and curveballs of creating and contributing for open source spaces.

This Tuesday! Stop putting up blinders to your problems and attack your to do list. Come listen to Lisa's Tiny Tuesday Talk about Trello and parallel work on the things you have been procrastinating. All to-do lists welcome!