Have fun

It's been a week (just about) since Visalia -- the International DX Convention in Visalia, CA.

I was extremely fortunate to have the time off from work to make a trip down to this convention.

The way I planned it out is I would camp along the way (working 10 meters from my mobile/portable station) and eventually find myself in Visalia.   That's exactly what I did.

On the way down from Seattle towards California, I camped along the edge of Mount Shasta and then made a side trip into Los Angeles to visit some family.  I stopped by Ham Radio Outlet to pick up some gear I needed and then headed back north to Visalia.  I stayed at the Lemon Cove campground just 15 miles outside of town.  It was a perfect spot -- nearly flat in the near horizon and I was able to work the radio quite nicely from the RV.

In the convention, I happened to meet and talk with a long list of DX'ers and DX'pedition experts.  I just filled a notebook with advice, information, and checklists of things to follow up.   It was really way beyond what I expected.   I made some friends and established contact with those who I think might be good people to talk to in the future.   

In particular, I had the opportunity to meet Rusty W6OAT and his friends from the Western Washington DX Club (K6UFO, N7QT, and others).   I think the talk/presentation put on by Tom ND2T was really important.  

A lot of "take-aways" from the tutorials and sessions.   I don't think I'll be able to capture all of it coherently in notes, but I will try in the weeks ahead.

At any rate, once I arrived back home near Seattle, Rusty and I made contact via email and I took him up on an invitation to visit his QTH --- a bit of a drive out west towards the Olympic Peninsula, but once there found a friendly face and an simple and efficient station.

Rusty and I worked out some details for how we might cooperate on some up-coming contests -- and this is important because contesting is something (as I learned in Visalia) can help train the aspiring DX'peditioner how to deal with a host of issues that are similar to a DX'pedition -- spots, pileups, certain software applications, and being efficient with time spent on a frequency, working stations and then moving on, and more.    Plus, we discussed at length a lot of the practice and procedure that goes into a contest operation -- which again proves to be useful to have in mind when considering a DX'pedition.   I had to scribble many pages of notes as we discussed the software/application setup and I will need another round of explanation because there was just a lot to take in.

I cannot thank him enough for the time he spent with me.

In the evening, I arrived back home and approached my own station (not that different than Rusty except he has a beam antenna that can be directed quite nicely while my wire-loop is always "there").

I approached my station and realized that there were already things I can do differently to work new DX.  So that is what I set out to do. 

I logged a few new ones on 40 meters.  Not rare, but ones that I just happened to need for 40 meters.    Rusty is also fluent at CW at top speed and this reminded me that I also love to work CW -- except for the fact that I am still a bit rough at it.  I can probably copy 15-17 WPM so I send that fast.   And even now when I CQ on the CW portion I get that pang of fear that I will have to discern the call that comes back.  But, you know -- learning by doing is how it gets done and I don't care anymore at all about making mistakes.  I'm going to get better if I keep trying.  I saw that 20 meters wasn't completely dead, but had some signs of life so I threw out a CQ DX for a while -- and got spotted for trying.  Maybe it wasn't actually the best evening to work 20 meters.   But it was sure exciting to get that paddle warmed up again.

The point here is:  Have fun. 

If I can focus on that (and I am), then by having fun, it doesn't matter.  We're not trying to score big points, or log all new ones --- the goal is to have fun.   As I make contacts it will get easier and more fun.   Put another way, the more I can use CW and work CW with new DX -- - that really makes me excited about the amateur radio experience.

Visalia turned me around on a whole long list of assumptions I had about DX'ing and I'm really fortunate to have had the opportunity to go, listen, watch and then internalize it.    I've said it many times already and they may be tired of hearing it -- but for those who I met -- thanks.  Really, you don't know just how much it means to me.   I promise to share what I learn and I promise to use what I learn to be a better DX'er and gain skills to make myself useful for any future DX'pedition.   I need some time still, (don't call me just yet.. hihi).    One step at a time.

• Step 1 is have fun.
• Step 2 is refer to step 1