Location: Town of Oyster Ice Skating Center, Community Room 1, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of January 18, 2011 at 8:30 PM. Members present included John, W2GW and XYL Louise, K2MAU; Ed, K2MFY; Woody, K2UU; Steve, N2AJ; and Marv, W2FGD.
Due to the inclement weather of tonight, only a handful of members made it out to the Center. John thanked the attendees for braving the snow/ice.
The meeting started out slightly later since a few individuals from the Town of Oyster Ice Skating Center were trying to fix the A/V projection system in the room. Apparently in the last month a Cablevision box was permanently installed by the projector, near the ceiling, and the only input that was recognized by the projection system was the cable TV from the box. The Center personnel were called down in an attempt to check the wiring so that the inputs from our external DVD player could be recognized.
Several members reported that band conditions had been poor in the last few weeks. Flux numbers have dropped down below 80.
It was reported that the station VQ9LA would be leaving Diego Garcia shortly to return to the USA. Larry has been very active since December 2002.
A group has been quite active from Burkina Faso as XT2RJA. The station expects to be operational until mid-February.
Several German stations signing V5/home call in Namibia. have been quite workable. Also other Africans have been worked/heard with good signals.
It was announced the forthcoming DXpedition to the Spratly Islands, as DXØDX, has been postponed indefinitely due to a number of transportation problems. Full details are provided on their site: http://www.dx0dx.net/
Quite a few members have received QSLs directly, or via LOTW, from the new counties of PJ2 (Curacao), PJ4 (Bonaire), PJ5/PJ6 (Saba and St. Eustatius), and PJ7 (Sint Maarten). Contacts will not be accepted by the ARRL until the beginning of 2011. John, as ARRL DXCC Field Checker, said that he could verify these QSL contacts if the applicant shows him the cards, paperwork, and applicable fees.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the November 16, 2010 meeting minutes. Except for a minor editing error, these minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by LIDXA Secretary, Ed, K2MFY, and sent out to the membership with the January meeting notice. Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa
John, W2GW, LIDXA Treasurer, presented the Treasurer’s report. Members were reminded that dues (in the amount of $20) for the year 2011 are expected. John suggested that members give or mail him their dues at the earliest convenience.
Ed mentioned that we had a good turnout at the club’s annual Holiday party held at the Star Diner in Hicksville on Tuesday night, December 14, 2010. Ed said that a total of 14 member/guests attended this dinner.
Members W2FGD, K2MFY, N2AJ, and W2GW participated in the DX Forum. program at the 12th annual “Ham Radio University” on Sunday, January 9, 2011 at Briarcliffe College.
NEW BUSINESS
Several club members mentioned that they had received correspondence from past LIDXA member Jay Kobelin, WA2FIJ (now W2IJ). Jay is part of an international team that is going to Kanton Island, Central Kiribati, as T31A, in mid-April. Since the team includes some seasoned operators and the transportation/licensing details appear to be viable, the LIDXA approved a $100 donation to this DXpedition. Full details on the DXpediton can be found on their site as www.t31a.com. (The LIDXA logo also now appears under the “Sponsors” link.)
Marv, W2FGD, reminded the membership to check-in at the LIDXA weekly nets on Sunday night at 9 PM local time on the Grumman Hauppauge repeater at 145.330/144.730 MHz (with 136.5 Hz PL), to get the latest information on club matters and events.
With the business portion of this meeting concluded, John was intending to show a DVD. However, as mentioned earlier, there is a problem in using the Center’s A/V projection system. Ed said he would contact cognizant people at the Center to ensure that this problem is fixed before our next meeting in February.
This meeting concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled business had finished. The next LIDXA meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 16, 2011. This Wednesday date was necessary due to a scheduling conflict at the Center for this night.
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Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary