[SADXA] Visalia 2012 - AA7A perspective

[W6XI]

Here is an observation by Ned of what one can expect by attending the 
annual Visalia DX convention. You might consider putting it on your 
bucket list for next year.

Jerry

Summary of Visalia 2012

The attendance was estimate at 800, which is an upswing from the past
few years.

DX University
A first-time event was held at Visalia this year. Wayne, N7NG, and
Roger, G3SXW, hosted a day-long program of relevant topics for new DXers
and seasoned veterans. The line up of professors was full of notables
and the sessions were very well received. This concept is planned to be
held at other conventions year.

DX Forum
The principle focus of this year's forum was a debate on how and why to
consider raising funds from the QSLing process for DXpeditions. There
have been recent changes to QSLing practices that have cause a clamor on
the DX scene. What is at the core of this appears to be the fact that
DXpeditions are costing more and the traditional sources of donations is
simply not increasing to cover the gap. There will be some hard data
forthcoming in an analysis by N1DG that will be presented at Dayton and
later posted on the NCDXF website. Hopefully, when more information is
out there for all to see, it will help people make sense of what is
going on. Stay tuned.

Contest Forum
Ward, N0AX, hosted the contest forum this year. It was a panel
discussion about the impact of digital technology, such as skimmers and
reverse beacon networks, on the art of contesting. A majority of the
panel consisted of unassisted ops, so there was quite a bit of
discussion about how to operate in contests without the new technology.
An interesting comment was made by one panelist that the Sprint Contests
with the QSY rules renders the value of the skimmer in contests to
zilch. In fact, there was even discussion about how to send CQ in a
contest without being spotted by a skimmer.

Banquet Presentation
The ST0R team gave the program on their visit to Southern Sudan to put
the new DXCC on the air. Essentially, a Spanish team and the US-based
Intrepid DX team joined forces and put together a big effort to kick off
the new counter. The team hauled an impressive pile of equipment into
Juba and put out an impressive effort. It was interesting to see six
stations operating Voice, CW and RTTY all at the same time all in one
room. The team won a new award this year, the Northern California
DXpedition of the Year award for 2012.

Sunday Breakfast Presentation
Bob Alphin, K4UEE, gave a captivating program on the recent HK0NA
DXpedition to Malpelo Island. The video clips and fantastic photographs
gave a fascinating view of the effort of this DXpedition team. The
effort to climb to the top of the peak of the rock to provide an
opportunity to the West Coast and Asia to work this DXCC was simply
amazing. How they got the gear up there and how the operators climbed to
that site is simply something to see. If you get a chance to see this
program at Dayton, I suggest that you do so. K4UEE will be producing a
video on the project which is likely to be out later this year.

New products
Elecraft has a K3/0 which looks to be a box that will support remote
operations with your K3.
Elecraft has a VGA board for the P3 which will permit you to display the
view of the P3 display on a larger computer monitor. Maybe your
significant other can see what you are doing in another room.
Alpha's 4KW tuner is out and looks like a piece of art.
A new UK-based antenna company called InnovAntennas has some impressive
new yagi designs.
Sierra Radio has an interesting line of microcontroller project
platforms and development tools for those who want to roll their own.
A group called CYTORQ has an interesting looking new rotor that should
fit in any tower and turn any antenna.
Another new solid state amplifier is on the scene from a group called
Expert Amps with pretty impressive flexibility and full 2 kw power from
160 thru 6 meters.

General Impressions
This convention never ceases to amaze me. While it seems, at times, that
the members of this hobby are getting older and slower, it does not show
at this convention. I saw a number of presentations that gave me some
great ideas for new things to. And, I got so much encouragement from so
many people to continue to do all the things that I like to do that I am
recharged and ready to go again. If you have never been to Visalia, you
should give it a try.

Favorite presentation
Chip Margelli did it again. He gave a talk on how to install easy-up
antennas for weekend contests or DXpeditions. I found myself taking more
notes than I ever took for College Physics. He has a great idea on how
to put up a very credible multiband gain antenna that can fit an pretty
much anyone's existing tower to provide a bog boost to your
competitiveness in a contest or for filling a hole in your antenna
collection to work DXpeditions on more bands. Hopefully he will make his
presentation public and you can see it for yourself. I will be ordering
some new stuff from Amazon. com here pretty soon to try out some of this
ideas.

73,
Ned
AA7A