MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING— March 18, 2005

 

Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.

 

The meeting of March 18 was called to order at 8:08PM.  Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, NN2C, KE2LJ, W2FGD, N2KA, AB2NT, AG2A, W2VZQ, KB2HK, KG2T, and guests NM2C (Andy) with his son AB2TN (Adam).

OLD BUSINESS

 

In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:

• The DXpedition to Kerguelen Island as FT5XO just arrived on the island and will setup equipment shortly.  Several stations are expected to be activated simultaneously.  They plan to be operational until the end of this month.  QSL via VE3XN.
• Several members reported working a number of British stations operating from both Jersey Island and Guernsey Island in the English Channel.
• Good openings to the South Pacific were indicated in the early evening on the low bands of 30, 40 and 80 meters.
• Members of the South West Ohio DX Association have had their application to operate from Desecheo Island (KP5) and Navassa Island (KP1) turned down by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The KP1/5 Project Team is urging amateurs to contact their government representatives to support bill H.R. 298.  This bill will allow the public access to the islands–which would open the door to Amateur Radio expeditions.

 

Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the February 18 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 March meeting notice.  Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear on the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.

 

Since the Club Treasurer, John, W2GW was not at tonight’s meeting there was no Treasurer’s report.  Marty reminded the membership that dues for the 2005 calendar year are overdue.  Past members who have not paid their 2005 dues will be shortly dropped from the club’s roster and future mailings.

 

The membership was requested to attend the LIDXA weekly nets on Sunday night at 9PM local time on the Grumman Hauppauge repeater at 145.330/144.730 MHz (with 136.5 Hz PL).

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

Marty mentioned that he had received information from K1XN, who publishes the QSL database of “GOList” QSL manager database, that there is a special discount rate for club members who wish to subscribe to the List.  Contact Marty for details,

Several club members indicate that they use the freeware that is available on-line via the program “Pathfinder” (at http://www.qsl.net/pathfinder/), or at the VE7CC DX cluster (at http://www.ve7cc.net/).

 

Marv, W2FGD inquired from the membership about the low turn out at the weekly DX weekly net.  A few members indicated that the net conflicted with their Sunday night television programs.  Marv also reminded members that with the change to daylight savings time next month, the net will still start at 9PM local time.

 

It was mentioned that LIDXA member Dan, W2NDP, a resident of Florida, had sent in the paper work to the ARRL forming a new DX club, “The Mid-Florida DX Association” (MFDXA).  A callsign is expected to be issued shortly.  This club will be a “sister” club of the LIDXA.  Several LIDXA members were made honorary members of this new DX club.

 

Joe, KG2T, stated that he plans a trip to Sicily in the early Fall.  He is also looking into the possibility of visiting Tunisia and was interested in getting licensing information.  Several members mentioned that Tunisian club station 3V8BB is very active, usually under the direction of YT1AD.

 

Lenny, KB2HK, just returning from a cruise down to South America, detailed a few distressful events that happened to him and his XYL on the ship and also in the city of Buenos Aires.

 

The business portion of the meeting was over around 8:50PM.  Marty then presented a video on the March 2000 multi-national DXpedition to uninhabited Clipperton Island as FOØAAA.  This excellent video detailed the history of the remote island, past DXpeditions, the orange-like crabs that infested the area and, of course, detailed scenes depicting the station(s) setup, operating skills of the team, and day-to-day activities on this remote spot.  The team made over 75,000 contacts.

 

This meeting concluded early at 10PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished.  The next meeting will be held on April 15, 2005.

 

 

                                                                        ______________________________________

Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary