Location: Town of Oyster Ice Skating Center, Community Room 1, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of March 15, 2011 at 8:20 PM. Members present included John, W2GW and XYL Louise, K2MAU; Ed, K2MFY; Steve, N2AJ; Bob, N2DXJ and XYL Tanis; Tom, KA2D, Marv, W2FGD; Mike, N2YBB; Woody, K2UU; and Frank, N2FF.
John welcomed guests Rich, K2RB; Mel, K2SG; Len, W2FX; Andrei, NP3D; and Bob, W2II. These guests are members of the Yankee Contest Clipper Club (YCCC). Tom, KA2D, LIDXA and YCCC member would be tonight’s speaker.
Several members reported that the solar flux has been varying between 107 and 150, and for the most part, conditions are getter better with longer DX openings on the higher bands.
Through a recent vote in the country, the Northern part of Sudan will be claiming independence from the South Sudan. A name for the new country has not yet been determined; however, a DXpedition is already planned for July 2011 once DXCC status has been assured by the ARRL.
Several members reported working a number of stations operating from Revilla Gigedo as 4A4A. The DXpedtion has been very active but will be concluding shortly.
The station. T6AF from Afghanistan has been very active on RTTY.
A group has started operation from the Andaman Islands as VU4PB. The station expects to be operational until late March.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the February 16 meeting minutes. These minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by LIDXA Secretary, Ed, 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
John, W2GW, LIDXA Treasurer, presented the Treasurer’s report. Members were reminded that dues (in the amount of $20) for the year 2011 are expected. John suggested that members give or mail him their dues at the earliest convenience. At the present time over 80% of the club’s memberships were paid up for 2011.
Ed reported on the status of the A/V projection system in the room. The Town of Oyster Ice Skating Center has finally replaced the Phone Jacks Inputs plate (which was damaged over the Christmas holidays). Although our presentation tonight would be using the PC input on the panel, it is expected that the phone inputs from an external DVD player would be operational again through the ceiling-mounted A/V projection system.
NEW BUSINESS
The club was informed about the emergency frequencies set aside for the Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief and good/welfare communications.
Guest Bob, W2II (ex-K2HFX), who was one of the founders of the LIDXA back in the mid-1960s, spoke to the membership about the early days of the club, the members, the meetings and activities.
John, W2GW, brought up the question on whether the club would be sponsoring the High Score Plaque, DX station, for the ARRL International DX Contest, 21MHz SSB, at a cost of $75. Due to the limited amount of money in the club’s treasury, the majority of the membership voted not to sponsor the plaque for this year. If the budget permits, the LIDXA will consider our sponsorship for the next year.
The membership was reminded that the CQ WPX DX Contest- will be held the weekend of March 26–27 (SSB) and May 28–29 (CW).
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.
At the conclusion of the business portion of tonight’s meeting Tom, KA2D, introduced a discussion on the origin, activities and goals of the YCCC. This overview highlighted membership, contesting techniques, awards, logging programs, station automation, and “the fun of contesting.” Detailed resources are available on the YCCC web site (http://www.yccc.org).
Following this overview, Tom narrated a PowerPoint presentation on “How New Technologies Affect the Art of Contesting,” which was created by Tobias Wellnitz, DH1TW.
This meeting concluded at around 10:05 PM after all the scheduled business had finished.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary