Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting
of April 17 at 8:20 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the
blackboard) included W2GW and his XYL K2MAU, KC2OPX, N2YBB, W2FGD, K2MFY, W2PNJ,
N2FF, KA2D, WB2QJ and YL KC2NOT, N2KA, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn, N2DXJ and XYL
Tanis. Also, with regards to tonight’s
entertainment, signing in as members of the Yankee Clipper Contest Club (YCCC)
were N2YBB, W2GW, N2MUN, KC2OPX, KA2D, N2FF, K2MFY, and N2KA. Guests included Frank, WA2LUY, Jim W2KFV, and
YL Darla.
In terms of DX, specific
activities were highlighted:
A number of expeditions
to the Pacific Ocean/Oceania area are active.
Among them is VK9GMV to Mellish Reef and a group from Lord Howe Island.
·
Ed mentioned that
he had worked XW1B in Laos and XU7MDY on Cambodia recently on 20 meters
CW. Best time to work these rare
countries is in the morning or early evening local time.
·
Currently active
is a major DXpedition to the Southern Sudan as SØ4R.
Due to the
low solar flux, 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 March 20 meeting minutes. Except for a minor correction, the minutes
were accepted as presented. In addition,
the minutes were prepared in advance by K2MFY, and sent out to the membership
with the April 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 he had forwarded to
Pat notes of the January 2009 meeting and an update of the membership/e-mail
list which appears on the site. This information has still not been updated on
the LIDXA 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. Ed recently
updated this list (along with the DX “Honorary Members”) and would forward it
out to the membership at the next mailing
W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s
report. He reminded the membership that
the 2009 dues are now overdue.
Several members reported working ex-LIDXA
members on the air and were asked to say hello to the membership; namely Lou,
N2TU and Shelly, K2BS.
Karen, KC2NOT, has recently upgraded to Amateur
Extra license grade and was expecting her vanity callsign, W2ABK, to be issued
to her. Many years ago this callsign
belonged to her great uncle.
John showed the membership a small QRP transceiver
he had just built that is produced by Oak
Hills Research.
It was pointed out that the annual “Long Island
Radio & TV Day” was being held at Tilles
Center on April 18. Sponsored by the
LI Wireless Historical Society, this event would feature a number of speakers
discussing radio history, “old time radio” programs, demonstration of the “Theremin,”
and radio novelties. Also a number of
exhibitors would be displaying antique radios and equipment, amateur radio and
emergency communications, etc.
The membership unanimously agreed to once again
sponsor the 21MHz SSB plaque in the ARRL DX Phone Contest. John said he would send out $75 to the ARRL.
Frank, N2FF, said he had just received the “Triple
Play Award” from the League. The plaque
is number 43. Frank also mentioned that
the Hudson Division is soliciting nominations for the Scholarship Award to be
given out to a deserving student this Fall.
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 8:50
PM, the floor was given over to LIDXA member Tom, KA2D, who was also
representing the YCCC. Tom spoke about
the advantages of having membership in the YCCC for the latest information in
contesting and maintenance of your station.
Also Tom did a presentation on “Logging and Automation Overview.” He reviewed several logging contest/logging
software programs and highlighted various station automation techniques. Hard copies of this presentation were also
distributed to all attendees.
This meeting concluded at around 9:45 PM after all the scheduled
business and entertainment had finished.
The next meeting will still be held on the third Friday of the month
(May 15). It was felt that there were
only a few members who could not attend the May meeting due to the Dayton Hamvention at that time.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary