MINUTES OF LIDXA INC.
MEETING—February 15, 2001
Location:
Polytechnic University, Farmingdale, N.Y.
The
LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of February 19 to order at
8:20 PM. This meeting met on Thursday
night due to the special program. Marty
welcomed guest speakers Norm, K2YEW; Ed, N2IMO; and Jeff, WB5GWB, along with
the XYL of member N2JE. Members present
at tonight’s meeting (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, N2DXJ,
N2FF, N2JE, N2KA, NN2C, W2BIE, W2FGD, W2RL, W2UQ, W2VZQ, and N2QW. Marty was pleased with tonight’s
turnout—especially that this meeting occurred on a Thursday night.
In
terms of DX specific activities mentioned:
·
Although the station
operating from Bouvet Island, as 3YØC, is having problems with his equipment in
the severe weather on the island, he still is appearing almost daily on the
bands. He is expected to be on Bouvet
until mid-March.
·
The D68C DXpedition
group from Comoros Island has been adding QSOs at a very high rate. They always appear to have three stations
operational. They will be on the island
until the end of February.
·
A DXpedition to St.
Peter and Paul Rocks, as PWØS, is now operational.
At the outset of the meeting, Marty suggested that
the club must encourage members to check into the Sunday night net and also
attend monthly meetings. He was
disappointed that at the first meeting of the New Year there were not enough
members to have a quorum (12 or more members).
In this regard, Marty said that lists would be maintained of all members
who check into the Sunday night net and attend the monthly meeting. At the end of season (either prior to the
summer break or end of the calendar year) the member, or members, who obtain
the highest attendance tally for the net and/or meetings, will be awarded a
gift from the club.
Since
the meeting of January 19 did not have a quorum of members, no club business
could be transacted. At tonight’s
meeting the membership approved the minutes of the November 17 as recorded by
the club’s secretary, Ed, K2MFY. In
addition, thanks to the efforts of LIDXA Vice President, Pat, KE2LJ, all
unofficial minutes also appear in the LIDXA Web site: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
The LIDXA Treasurer, Russ, W2RL, reported that the annual membership dues of $25 for the year 2001 are overdue. Several members turned their checks over to Russ at tonight’s meeting. A reminder was made to inform members not present to get their dues to Russ as soon as possible.
Marty commented that there was no new information
concerning the Millennium Tower
Corporation’s application for a tower construction permit with the Town of
Babylon. In the meantime the LIDXA has
use of the Grumman repeater, on
146.745 MHz.
Frank, N2FF, our ARRL Hudson Division Director, spoke briefly on a number of issues concerning ham radio. First of all, Frank urged all members to write the local NYS officials regarding Assembly Bill A-1565, entitled “Amateur Radio Preemption.” This bill will help radio amateurs erect legal antennas and antenna support structures in New York and help their neighbors in time of communications emergencies. This year the Hudson Division PRB-1 Task Force plans to concentrate on the NY Senate and get co-sponsors in the Assembly. Bill A-1565 will enable amateur radio operators to put up effective antennas without long, costly battles with their local governments to get a building permit. Frank handed out a sample letter. Additional data is available on the ARRL Hudson Division Web site http://www.arrlhudson.org/. Frank also added that the weekly “Hudson Loop” Internet bulletin has been temporarily halted.
On other League issues, Frank
mentioned that on March 1, rates for outgoing QSL cards sent to the ARRL
Outgoing QSL Service would be raised to $8 per pound. Also ARRL membership rates would be increasing to $39 per year.
The League is also looking into the feasibility of using DXpedition on-line logs as verification of contacts for new DXCC credit for an applicant. In this manner the DXCC applicant would not have to wait for the QSL card to arrive from the DXpedition before requesting credit.
Members were reminded that the annual ARRL DX Contest (CW mode) would be held over the February 17–18 weekend. The SSB portions of this contest will be the March 3–4 weekend.
Due to the special guests that are appearing tonight, this concluded the business portion of the meeting.
Marty announced that Norm, N2YEW; Ed, N2IMO; and Jeff, WB5GWB, who are all experts on QRP operation, would now giving a presentations and demonstrations of low-power transceivers.
QRP is generally defined as less than 5 watts output power (10W PEP), and QRPp as less than 1 watt. On one of the hand outs it was noted that the world’s QRP record (circa 1999) is held by Z32XA on 20 meters with almost 100,000 miles per watt (he was running the QSO at 70 mW).
The
guests then proceeded to explain QRP operation, supplementing their discussions
with numerous handouts. Many QRP rigs,
both commercial and home made, were passed around the room.
At
the conclusion of the talk, the membership warmly thanked the participants for
their informative presentation. This
meeting concluded at around 9:45 PM after all the scheduled business and
entertainment had finished. The next
meeting of the LIDXA will be held on Friday night, March 16, at 8 PM.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary