Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting
of February 20 at 8:15 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the
blackboard) included W2GW, KC2OPX and OM Bruce, W2FGD, N2AJ (ex-WB2ZHB), K2MFY,
KA2D, N2KA, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn, N2DXJ and XYL Tanis.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
·
Most members
reported working the very active DXpedition to Desecheo Island as K5D. Propagation from here to the island is very
good and the K5D stations have always been heard on most bands except above 15
meters.
·
The membership
was reminded that the weekends of February 21-22 and March 7–8 are the ARRL DX
Contests (CW and SSB, respectively). Our
exchange is 59(9)NY to the DX station.
·
A DXpedition to
Mellish Reef (VK9M) was reported for late March–early April timeframe.
·
A five-day April
operation was reported to be in the works from the Western Sahara as SØ4R. They plan to be on 160 to 10 meters, SSB, CW
and digital modes. Several stations are
expected to be operational simultaneously.
·
Amateur radio
operators from Azerbaijan will shortly be using special prefixes of 4JT and 4KT
in commemoration of the 17th anniversary for the victims of the
Khojaly massacre.
·
It was reported
that the US Fish and Wildlife Department had relaxed their standards for
amateur radio operation from Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean.
·
Propagation is
starting to pick up with good conditions on 20 meters, and brief openings on 17
and 15 meters during the daytime.
Starting the business
portion of tonight’s meeting was John’s distribution of the January 2009 meeting
notes he had written. Since the LIDXA
Secretary, Ed, K2MFY, was not at the January 2009 meeting and the “backup”
secretary Karen, KC2OPX, was unable to make this meeting due to poor weather
conditions, no “official” minutes were recorded for transmittal to the membership
with the February meeting notice.
Ed said he would edit and
forward John’s notes to KE2LJ, Pat, for insertion on the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa. Ed said he would also forward to Pat an
update of the membership/e-mail list which appears on the site. It has not been
revised since September 2006.
W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. He reminded the membership that the 2009 dues are
now due.
The membership congratulated Steve, WB2ZHB, on his
receipt of his new vanity callsign N2AJ.
Due to the efforts of Steve, the LIDXA Board of
Directors agreed to donate $100 to the current Desecheo Island DXpedition. Since time was of essence, the board unanimously
agreed to this money outlay in early February so that the LIDXA logo would be
able to get posted on the K5D web site (http://www.kp5.us/)
as a club sponsor.
The membership did reject a request for a donation
from a potential new DXpedition to the island of Nauru (C2).
It was mentioned that once again the US postal rates
are going up. On May 11 domestic mail
will be raised 2 cents to 44 cents and most airmail will rise from 94 cents to
98 cents (postage to Canada will be raised to 75 cents, while Mexico will go up
to 79 cents.) The “Forever Stamp” will
still sell at the current domestic rate–it was recommended to buy “Forever
Stamps” at the present 42 cent rate.
Ed questioned the membership regarding
recommendations on personnel who could do tower/antenna work–he would like to
have his tower cable replaced. Although
ex-member Woody, K2UU, indicated to Ed at the Holiday dinner that he still does
this type of work, Ed was not able to contact with Woody afterwards concerning
any commitments (Woody did this cable
replacement for Ed about ten years ago.)
Also ex-member Larry, W2EJ, apparently does not do this type of work
anymore. Ed mentioned that he had
received general e-mail information from W2RE, WA2VUN, and K1XX, although they
are more of professional/commercial installers.
Several members mentioned that John, W2GD, in Pennsylvania
does excellent work; however his transportation costs must be considered. In addition it was mentioned the site www.e-ham.net has a number of good
recommendations for tower/antenna installers.
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 the meeting over at
8:55 PM, a video on the October 2000 DXpedition to Timor Lorosae by 4W/K7BV and
4W/N6FF was shown. This excellent video
not only portrayed the ham radio aspects of this trip, but also presented a
remarkable travelogue on the people of this impoverished remote country at the
eastern tip of the Indonesian chain of islands.
This meeting concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled
business and entertainment had finished.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary