The fifth Contesters' Dinner took place on May 2, 2003 during the 54th Annual International DX Convention in Visalia, California.

This report is purely for the record, but might also inspire some contesters to attend any such events in the future. The 54th Convention was hosted by the Northern California DX Club, next year it will be the Southern California DX Club's turn. The webpage is already there but not much information can be found on it now. Please add the link to your favourites, http://www.scdxc.org/visalia/ and check for news later on.

The fifth Contesters' Dinner attracted some 150 persons. I must admit that I did not recognize many faces from the 2nd Dinner at the same spot in year 2000. I did recognize the organizers, though - Ken K2KW and Steve N6AW. The prize stack was bigger this time and I had two tickets - I brought my non-ham son with me - but as usual I did not have any luck, while some others were more fortunate. For instance, Bernie W3UR won a one-year free subscription to Daily DX bulletin. There is no justice in this world, not only is he the owner and the editor of the Daily DX, and then gets a subscription for free.

Simultanously, competitive dinners took place at Visalia. There was an Islands On The Air dinner and First Class Operators Club dinner on Friday night . What to choose if you are all of the above and a dedicated contester ? Of course, the choice is obvious...

Now follow the pictures, unfortunately without captions. I only hope the persons depicted here will be recognized, both by themselves and other contersters browsing at this site.

Until next year, hasta la vista !

all photographs copyright

Henryk Kotowski SM0JHF

August 9, 2003