MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING— January 21, 2005

Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.

The meeting of January 21was called to order at 8:08 PM by the Secretary, Ed, K2MFY, who was filling in for the LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, and the Vice President, Pat, KE2LJ. Marty was sick with the flu and Pat had another engagement. Ed welcomed all members back after the holiday season, and was pleasantly surprised to have such a large turnout for such a frigidly cold night.

Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included NX2F, W2VZQ, N2ZN, K2MFY, AG2A, N2KA, KB2HK, WA2RB, AB2NT, W2GW and XYL, KC2MAU, N2DXJ and XYL, WB2QJ and YL KC2NOT.

OLD BUSINESS

In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:

• Propagation conditions on the HF bands were reported as being very poor for the past few weeks. Very limited DX has been heard on 10 meters and spotted openings on 15 meters. The best bands appear to be 20 and 17 meters during the day, with excellent openings on 40 and 80 meters in the evenings.
• Even with these poor openings, quite a number of stations operating from the Caribbean can be worked. About three stations have been very active on all bands from Guantanamo Bay (KG4).
• The DXpedition to Peter 1st Island (3Y) has been postponed from its early January start to approximately mid-February. This is due to the renovation of the vessel and re-registration. Details would be provided to the DX community shortly.
• A French team has planned a major DXpedition to Glorioso Island during May. Plans are being made to have five stations on HF, plus one station dedicated to six meters.

Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the November 19 meeting minutes. These minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by the club’s secretary, Ed, K2MFY, and sent out to the membership with the club’s December 2004 notice concerning the Holiday Party. Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.

Ed mentioned that about fifteen members and XYLs showed up at the Holiday Party meeting on December 14, at Mary’s Backyard restaurant in Bethpage. The food was excellent and all participants had a good time.

Club Treasurer, John, W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. Dues for the 2005 calendar year are now due. For the year 2005 the annual LIDXA dues is $20 (which was voted down $5 from previous years!). John indicated that about twenty members had already sent him their dues. A few attendees to the meeting said they would contact some of the “delinquent” members and remind them to send John their dues.

The membership was reminded to attend the LIDXA weekly nets on Sunday night at 9PM local time on the Grumman Hauppauge repeater at 145.333/144.730 MHz (with 136.5 Hz PL).

NEW BUSINESS

Ed spoke briefly about the success of this year’s Ham Radio University (HRU) 2005, held on Sunday, January 9, 2005 at the Briarcliffe College in Bethpage. It was reported that almost 450 people attended this years’ event–a record attendance. Featured were 25 different forums covering all areas of ham radio. A number of members of the club presented the following topics for our two-hour “DX Program” presentation, hosted by NN2C:

· Overview of DXing—What’s DX——NN2C, Marty

· DX Propagation——K2MFY, Ed

· Operating Techniques——W2FGD, Marv

· ARRL DXCC Program——KD1F, Emil

· Current DXCC Entities——W2FGD, Marv

· DX Aids on the Computer——AG2A, Tom

· LIDXA/General DX Information——W2FGD, Marv

Of special interest at HRU 2005 was guest speaker Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement for the FCC. Riley spoke on a number of different issues to the amateur community, from our noble work in natural disasters, mentoring new hams, to the restructuring on the horizon and getting new people into the hobby. He did not talk about the threat of BPL. Full details on the HRU 2005 events can be found on the Web at http://www.hudson.arrl.org/nli/news0205.htm

LIDXA member attendees were glad to see Lew, W2BIE at HRU 2005. He is feeling much better and is getting around with the help of his walker.

The business portion of the meeting was over around 8:45PM. Ed then presented a video he had previously taped on the “History Channel,” Modern Marvels show, entitled “Radio: Out of Thin Air.” This video traced the dawn of the electronics age, the advent of wireless, the famous inventors of the times, and the development and commercialization of radio. The video illustrated how radio changed life in America.

This meeting concluded early at 9:30 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished. The next meeting will be held on February 18, 2005.

______________________________________

Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary