It seems odd that there's no post-Visalia DX Convention followup topic, at least not that I've seen. Basically, this was my first time attending this convention and I had a pretty good time. I met a number of people whom I've talked to over the air but have rarely or never seen in person. I met others whom I know by reputation: book authors, frequent posters here or elsewhere, etc. That's what I got the most from this convention, meeting fellow hams. I attended a number of presentations and dinners and enjoyed it all. Every convention I've been to has their own style and traditions: various division conventions, Pacificon, Yuma, The Hamfest Formerly Known as Fort Tuthill, the Centennial one in Hartford 2 years ago, etc. I had fun at this one, I enjoyed it and I might be back again. Dave AD7DB
It was the worst ever, N6PSE Paul, bought 2 raffle tickets right after me and won the IC-7300 and I didn't win my FlexRadio. So I'll be coming back next year!!
I really enjoyed it!!! I sure enjoyed the banquet! Great steak!!! I think the best Program was the one on the 1947 Hallicrafters/Gatti DXpediton to Africa. I snapped alotta pix in that one and will put on a similar one for our local radio club. The Banquet and Breakfast programs were great, but they had some kinda projector problem where the image on the screens was too small. The DX forum was primarily about the Deletion of Kingman, Remotes and Kosovo. I was also a QSL Card checker, but we had little business cuz Everyone seems to be doing LOTW. I had Pizza Friday night at HOWIES PIZZA down on MOONEY. The Sunday Breakfast was really great!!! ALL U can eat and I did eat I could eat! What sucked was having to stay way out at the Holiday Inn. Saturday I arrived at the Convention Center/Marriott at 5:30AM so I could get a Parking space. They didn't have a Shuttle bus this year. The Nun enjoyed the POOL at the WYNDHAM (old HOLIDAY INN) along with her Grandbaby. She had Prime Rib at the hotel for dinner on Saturday! I am looking forward to next year
I didn't win a DOGGONE THING, even after buying $60 worth of tickets. Guys who bought $100 worth got some nice radios!!! Some even spent over $1000 on tickets!!! Those are REAL HIGH ROLLERS!!! One guy and his wife won 7 TImes at the banquet!! I bet he was one of the $1000 rollers!!!
I dropped $50 and got one of the hourly prizes. I also bought a couple of tickets for that IC-7300, didn't win. Keep in mind that several guys COULD have taken home a NICE RADIO but although they'd purchased raffle tickets, they didn't register for the convention! One person (who rumor says dropped a kilobuck) sure took home a lot of coffee mugs for their investment. Parking there seemed like it was barely enough. We got over there both mornings around 7:00am and although we had to hunt around a little, we found parking at the convention center. (We stayed at Super 8, about 3 miles west.) I liked the DX Forum, it got pretty lively, especially about ethics of domestic remote stations vs traveling across the country yourself. (You can do either one by getting out your credit card.) The Contest Forum that followed was also pretty good but I can't find my notes on it. Good banquet. I had the salmon. The DXpedition presentations at the banquet and the breakfast were both real good despite the AV issues, and I also enjoyed the others such as the Gatti-Hallicrafters one, Eastern Kiribati, etc.
