MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING— April 21, 2006

Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.

The LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of April 21 to order at 8:05 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, NN2C, KE2LJ, W2FGD, N2ZN, KB2HK, W2VZQ, AB2NT, NX2F, NA2P, WB2QJ and YL KC2NOT, W2GW and XYL KC2MAU, and N2DXJ with XYL.

Marty was very pleased with the large turnout at tonight’s meeting.
 
 

OLD BUSINESS

In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:

• The expedition to the Andamans Island (operating as VU4AN/(special op’s callsign)) will be concluding early next week. Although the openings to the East Coast were infrequent, a few members were successful in working some of the stations.
• A number of members reported working the DXpedition to Aves Island. Originally, the call was YXØA, but due to the sudden death of YV5LIX shortly after the team arrived on the island, the call was changed to YXØLIX for the rest of the DXpedition.
• Several members indicated that one of the best weekly DX newsletters is “425 DX News,” and edited by I1JQJ. A free e-mail subscription can be obtained at http://www.425dxn.org.

Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the March 17 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 club’s 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 did notice that he had the wrong year on the previous month’s minutes and said he would correct this error and forward a new revision to Pat for loading to the web.

Club Treasurer, John, W2GW, gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. Dues for the 2006 calendar year are overdue. John indicated that almost all but three present members had already paid their dues. John said would contact those individuals. It was requested that John publish an updated membership list. John acknowledged that a new list would be e-mailed to all paid-up LIDXA members before the May meeting.

It was also mentioned that the appointment of W2GW as the new approved DXCC card checker (replacing Emil, KD1F, who is moving up to Connecticut) means that both approved DXCC card checkers are members of the LIDXA (Tom, AG2A and John, W2GW). John’s position should be announced by the ARRL within a few weeks. Chances are now that DXers will usually find a card checker present at the monthly LIDXA meetings.

NEW BUSINESS

Marty indicated that Pat, KE2LJ, will be the only one present at tonight’s meeting that would be attending the Dayton Hamvention this year. As such, the May 19 LIDXA meeting (which will be take place during the Hamvention) will be still be held as scheduled. Members wished Pat a good time at the Hamvention and requested that he brief the club upon his return.

The club’s Constitution states that elections for all officers of the club (even years—years 2006–2008) must occur at the May meeting, and that nominations for all positions must take place during the April meeting (or before). The new officers of the club would then be elected at the May 19 meeting, and their terms would then become effective at the June 16 meeting. All members were asked to think about eligible candidates for LIDXA President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. In addition, at least three Directors must also be elected. The current slate of LIDXA officers are:

· President: Marty, NN2C

· Vice President: Pat, KE2LJ

· Secretary: Ed, K2MFY

· Treasurer: John, W2GW

· Directors: Emil, KD1F; Lew, W2BIE; and Andy, W2VZQ.

It was anticipated that the present slate would be running for the 2006–2008 election.

Mark, WB2QJ, passed around some photographs he took when he went to a reception back in September of last year, that was hosted by Ed, W2SN, for re-known DXers Tom (VP6TC) and Betty Christian (VP6YL) from Pitcairn Island.

John, W2GW, read a response he had gotten from LIPA Chairman, Richard Kessel, regarding his letter on the pilot program BPL LIPA hopes to conduct in the Hauppauge/Commack in the near future.

On the subject of LIPA, Ed updated the membership regarding the QRN he had been getting at his shack since late last year. The LIPA Investigator, Mike Malinowski, Special Services, also a ham (N2QOY), did an investigation near Ed’s shack and had found a nearby electric pole where arcing was present. Mike stated that repairs would be performed by a LIPA crew–hopefully before the end of May.

Marv, W2FGD, mentioned that he was very satisfied with the servicing that Hal Guretzky, (tel: 718-847-3090), had done on his ICOM unit. He said Hal is an authorized ICOM Service Center and repairs all types of ICOM, Kenwood and Yaesu amateur equipment. Another member indicated that he was not as happy with Hal’s work on his Kenwood amplifier.

The business portion of the meeting was over around 9PM. Marty then presented a video on the January 1997 multi-national DXpedition to the uninhabited Heard Island as VKØIR. This excellent video detailed the history of this remote island up to the present time. It also highlighted the diversified mammal life (sea lions) that resides on this island. The team made over 80,000 contacts–which was a world record back in 1997.

This meeting concluded at around 9:50 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished. The next regularly scheduled meeting for the LIDXA is on Friday, May 19, 2006.

______________________________________

Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary