MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING—March 14, 2008

 

Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.

 

John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of March 14 at 8:10 PM.  Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included W2GW and XYL K2MAU, KC2OPX, K2MFY, N2KA, W2FGD, N2FF, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn, N2DXJ and XYL Tanis.  John also welcomed new members Mike, N2YBB, Steve, WB2ZHB, and Tom, KA2D.

 

            A number of guests from the Yankee Clipper Contest Club (YCCC) were also welcomed to the club: Peter, WB2OQQ, George N2GA and his XYL, Diane, K2DO.  Also signing in on the YCCC side of the board were LIDXA members, N2FF, K2MFY, KA2D, N2YBB and WB2ZHB.

 

            Due to the large number of members and guests at tonight’s meeting, John had all attendees give a brief introduction to the audience.

 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:

·         The current operation from Clipperton Island as TX5C is just about over.  It is expected that operations will cease on Saturday March 15.  Quite a number of members have reported working this DXpedition, and verifying their contacts via their on-line link at their web site http://www.clipperton2008.org/.

·         With the initial activity of YU8/OH2R in the newly declared “country” of Kosovo, a number of other stations from that area have been signing with their YU8 prefix; however, it is not certain if they are really in Kosovo, or Serbia, but most importantly the YU8 entity is not yet recognized by the DXCC  community.

·         In the next week there are to be two DXpeditions from Africa.  A team out of Rwanda, signing 9XŘA, and a group from Mauritania, as 5T5DC, will be making DXers busy.

·         It was reported that the last two weeks YL, Babs, signing J8/DL7AFS, has been quite active from St. Vincent.

 

 

Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the February 15th meeting minutes.  These minutes were accepted as presented.  In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by Ed, K2MFY and sent out to the membership with the February meeting notice.  Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.

 

W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s report.  The dues for the 2008 year are currently due.  About 14 members have already paid up (including the new members joining tonight).  John urged all members to give him or mail him the $20 yearly dues for the club.  The only expenditure John accounted for since the last meeting was the sponsorship of the ARRL DX Contest plaque (for 21MHz SSB, DX).

 

John introduced three new members joining the LIDXA tonight Steve, WB2ZHB, Tom, KA2D, and Mike, N2YBB.  The membership congratulated these three active DXers in joining our club.

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

John mentioned that the LIDXA will be holding full elections for all officers and Board of Directors for the club (years 2008-2010) in May.  Ed heads the Nominating Committee.  All members were requested to contact Ed if they were interested in running as a LIDXA Club Officer or on the Board.  A slate would be prepared in April, with elections at the May 16 meeting; terms would then become effective at the June 20 meeting.  The current slate of LIDXA officers (2006–2008) are:

 

·                     President: W2GW (acting)

·                     Vice President: vacant

·                     Secretary: Ed, K2MFY

·                     Treasurer: John, W2GW

·                     Directors: Lew, W2BIE; (silent key–at writing minutes time), Andy, W2VZQ; vacant.

 

So presently there are no incumbents for President, Vice President, and two Directors.

 

 

Frank, N2FF, LIDXA member and also our ARRL Hudson Division Director reported that dues to advances in technology, a number of firms that were proposing broadband over power line (BPL) systems may be considering dropping their proposals and test systems.  This is certainly welcome news to the radio amateur community.

 

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.

 

A this point in our meeting Tom, KA2D, NLI Section Manager, avid DXer/contester, member of YCCC, and new member of LIDXA, spoke about the common thread between DXers and Contesters.  Tom is representing the YCCC and spoke in length about the advantages of joining this special purpose (contest) club.  He also detailed all the resources available for members on the YCCC web site (http://www.yccc.org).

 

This meeting concluded at around 9:45 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished.  The next LIDXA meeting will be held as scheduled on the third Friday of the month at April 18.

 

                                                                        ______________________________________

Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary