[SADXA] My impressions of Visalia 2016

[Jim W]

Carl (KB7AZ), Bill (K6SWC), and I spent the weekend at the 2016 Visalia 
International DX Convention.  Most of us know that Carl is a pilot: this 
trip was made possible by Carl's decision to fly to the Convention in 
his plane.  We shared the fuel expenses and that made the trip much more 
affordable for each of us.  None of us had been there before and the 
first thing we all noticed was the friendliness of the attendees.  The 
people at Visalia 2016 typically were very gracious.

At the meetings I was able to associate faces with calls among those 
with whom I have exchanged signal reports over the years.  There were 
groups who came in from Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Canada and other 
places.  The majority of the Americans came from California, which is to 
be expected.  I had a chance to meet and talk with members of the CADXA 
and the Arizona Outlaws Contest clubs.  Nice folks.  I also met a few 
celebrities like Bob Heil (K9EID) and the some of the HamNation crew.  I 
particularly enjoyed my conversations with Bengt (SM5ALJ).

Most of the major tower, accessory, and radio manufacturers were out in 
force, displaying their wares and taking orders.  Kenwood was noticable 
by their absence.  DX Engineering was not there as a vendor, but their 
owner was a conference attendee.  He dropped off a small stack of 
"Hamfest Special" discount coupons on one of the tables.  They're good 
for a one-time discount of 20% off on a $100+ order, and expire on 
5/31/2016.  I picked up a small number of them and will bring them to 
this Thursday's monthly meeting.  See me if you want one.  First come, 
first served until they run out.

There were many good presentations on DXing, DXpeditions, contesting, 
Software Defined Radios, RFI remediation, learning how to tweak your 
audio chain for best signal intelligibility (demonstrated by Bob Heil), 
etc.  I was particularly impressed with how the latest and greatest 
high-end FlexRadio could be run as a one-box SO2R contest station.  
Maybe when they start turning up on the used-equipment market in a 
couple of years I'll be able to afford one.  Several times I wanted to 
be different presentations that were being held in the same time slot: 
Visalia 2016 thereby met my criterion for a high-quality convention.  
There were some substandard aspects to the conference experience, however.

Unlike last year's convention there were no conference attendee 
nametags, so everyone had to provide their own ID.  Hamfest callsign 
tags were in abundance, although I didn't bring one since I didn't think 
I'd need it.  A bad assumption on my part.  This year there were no 
shuttle buses, so those who were staying at other hotels than the 
Mariott (i.e., a great many of those present) had to provide for their 
own ground transportation.  The first day the three of us went back and 
forth from the conference center and our hotel by using taxis, which 
were expensive.  Carll, Bill, and I got good at hustling for rides from 
those who had their own cars (our thanks went to K0XG and K6CEL for 
their help).  But we still paid over forty bucks in cab fares.

The Southern California DX Club ran this year's conference.  Perhaps the 
shuttle buses and name tags will be back next year, when the Northern 
California DX Club runs Visalia 2017.  My overall evaluation is that 
this year's conference content was excellent. However the conference 
logistics are in need of some improvement.

So that was Visalia 2016 from a newbee's perspective.  Would I return 
again?  Yes, I would.  First to see the differences between the Southern 
California-run and Northern California-run versions. But more 
importantly, to get a better sense of how DXing is improving over time, 
and to meet and learn from my fellow DXers.

73,  Jim  W9FI