Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of March 20 at 8:15 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included W2GW, KC2OPX, W2FGD, N2AJ (ex-WB2ZHB), K2MFY, W2PNJ, WB2QJ and YL KC2NOT, N2KA, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn, N2DXJ and XYL Tanis.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
A number of Expeditions to the Pacific Ocean/Oceania area are expected in the next few weeks. Among them is VK9GMV to Mellish Reef, VK9AA to Cocos Keeling Island, and a group to operate from Lord Howe Island.
Propagation is primarily on 20 meters, with brief openings on 17 and 15 meters during the daytime. The solar flux has still not started to rise for the new sunspot cycle of 24.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the February 20 meeting minutes. The minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by K2MFY, and sent out to the membership with the March meeting notice. Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
Ed said last month he had forwarded John’s notes of the February 2009 meeting to Pat for insertion on the LIDXA web. Also Ed forwarded to Pat an update of the membership/e-mail list which appears on the site. It has not been revised since September 2006.
Now that Pat has moved to Florida, but still is active in the club with respect to the web site, the membership voted unanimously to vote Pat an honorary “Member at Large.” This is a constitutional membership classification that is given to members who have rendered outstanding services to the Long Island DX association.
W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. He reminded the membership that the 2009 dues are now due. As of tonight’s meeting 16 members had paid their 2009 dues.
The membership congratulated Karen, KC2NOT, upon her upgrading to Amateur Extra license.
It was unanimously agreed to donate $100 to the October Midway Island DXpedition. Further details on this DXpedition can be found on the KH4 web site (http://www.midway2009.com). The LIDXA logo appears as a club sponsor.
It was mentioned that LIDXA Honorary Member and famous DXer, Jim Smith, VK9NS of Norfolk Island, had recently passed away. The LIDXA will be sending a sympathy card out to his widow, VK9NL, Kirsti.
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 March 2008 DXpedition to Rwanda was shown. The callsign used was 9XØR and operation was in the Akagrea National Park near Kigali, Rwanda.
This meeting concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished.
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Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary