Location:
John, W2GW, the LIDXA Treasurer, called to order the meeting
of February 16th at 8:15 PM. Pat, KE2LJ,
the LIDXA Vice President who has been
filling in as LIDXA President, was not available for tonight’s meeting.
Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included W2GW, K2MFY, KC2OPX,
W2VZQ, N2KA, W2FGD, KC2MAU, N2DXJ and XYL.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
Starting
the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the January 19th 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 February 2007 meeting notice. Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the
minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
Club Treasurer, John, W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. Annual dues for the 2007 calendar year are
now due in the amount of $20. John
indicated that about thirteen members had already paid their dues. John mentioned that in order to stay an
ARRL-affiliated club, at least 25 members must be part of the club. Ed indicated that the next LIDXA update to
the ARRL for club status is required in early 2008.
John
said he would preside over a limited number of LIDXA meetings while Pat is down
in Florida; however, John suggested that since Pat is leaving the NYC area for
a Florida retirement in the late Spring, we must quickly elect a new club
President, along with a Vice President.
John announced that Karen,
KC2OPX had just joined the LIDXA as a new member. The club welcomed in our new member and
offered our support in any DX matters.
It was reported that
ex-member Larry, K2LS, had relocated down to
Ed indicated that this weekend was the ARRL DX Contest—CW mode. The SSB portion of this contest is over the weekend of March 3–4.
Ed mentioned that early
this year he had to contact the LIPA Interference Division, Special Services investigator,
Mike Malinowski, regarding some line noise Ed was hearing on all HF bands since
late 2006. It turns out that Mike is a
ham (N2QOY), and was most cooperative to eliminate the reported QRN source, and
stated that he would shortly be doing an investigation in the area. As of tonight’s meeting, Ed said that Mike had
made a number of sweeps of the area. Although
minor noise sources were found, they did not appear to be objectionable. Mike said he would try to have repairs made
shortly but continue his investigations.
Ed said he would keep members aware of progress on this QRN problem.
Art, N2KA, said he had
dealings with Mike a number of years ago that resolved some interference
problems. Mike even visited Art’s shack
in his search for the QRN source(s).
A discussion arose about the
entertainment program for the club.
Although Pat did obtain a number of DVDs and VCRs that Marty, NN2C, had
purchased over the years, the club had already seen most of them. An amount of $100 was approved to purchase
any new DX-related DVDs at the 2007
John suggested that with all the DX talent in the club, we put on our own programs regarding member’s “areas of specialization.” He said he would offer to lead off with a presentation on his QRP activities. Other members should think of areas where they feel a presentation of their knowledge would benefit the club.
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. This year daylight savings time has been
moved up to March 11 and extended to end in the Fall on November 4; however the
net always meets at 9 PM local time.
A video was then shown on the October 2000 multi-national DXpedition to
Kingman Reef (as K5K). The 15 operators
amassed over 70,000 contacts from the reef.
John said he would bring his portable DVD player to future meetings as a
backup in case the school loans us the VCR-only unit.
This meeting concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled
business and entertainment had finished.
The next LIDXA meeting will be held on Friday March 16, 2007.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary