Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
The meeting of May 27th was called to order at 8:15PM. This meeting was held on the fourth Friday of the month since a number of club members were attending the Dayton HamVention last week. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, NN2C, W2FGD, AB2NT, AG2A, W2VZQ, KE2LJ, N2FF, W2GW and XYL, KC2MAU, guests Mark, WB2QJ and YL Jane, KC2NOT.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the April 15 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 March meeting notice. Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear on the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
Club Treasurer, John, W2GW, gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. Past members who have not paid their 2005 dues have now been dropped from the club’s roster and mailings.
The membership was requested to attend the LIDXA weekly nets on Sunday night at 9PM local time on the Grumman Hauppauge repeater at 145.330/144.730 MHz (with 136.5 Hz PL).
Ed mentioned that he had a surprise visit a few weeks ago. Amateur radio operators Willi, OE7KWT, and Branko, OE7BPJ, made an unexpected visit to Ed’s QTH. Ed had a QSO with OE7KWT back in September 2003 and Willi mentioned that he had grown up in the Plainview, NY area–back in the 1970’s–where his mother still lives. The QSO lasted for about 30 minutes and then Ed mailed Willi a recent map of Plainview to show him the changes in the neighborhood over the past 30 years. Willi was now visiting New York for a number of weeks and was staying over his mother’s house. He and his friend Branko decided to walk through the neighborhood, noticed Ed’s antenna, and stopped by his house. Following that impromptu meeting, Ed invited Willi and Branko to the monthly QCWA dinner the following week. The two Austrian hams felt at home, as a few QCWA members spoke fluent German and were able to converse with them in their native language. Marty, NN2C, said he would write about their visit to Chapter 81 of the QCWA in the next QCWA Journal.
The remainder of tonight’s meeting dealt with a summary of the recent Dayton HamVention.
Some of the attendees; namely NN2C, KE2LJ, K2MFY, and ARRL Hudson Division Director Frank, N2FF, spoke about various issues discussed at the convention and the annual ARRL National Convention/ARRL EXPO 2005. A number of photos of the HamVention were put on the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
Frank discussed the importance of supporting ARRL’s legal battle against interference from broadband over power line (BPL). Frank urged all amateurs to support the League’s activities in this area and to write letters to their congressional representatives in support of H.R. 230. This resolution calls on the FCC to comprehensively evaluate BPL's interference potential incorporating “extensive public review and comment,” then to “reconsider and review” its new BPL rules in the light of public input.
Pat mentioned about the new SteppIR antenna, in which the elements actually change their length (under computer control) as a function of the operating frequency. Several photos of this antenna appear on the LIDXA web site.
Marty highlighted some new software he had viewed and indicated that the developers of the DX4WIN program had just released their latest version of the logging program at the convention. Marty also discussed the DX dinner and the DX forum.
Ed spoke about the presentation that the group from the South West Ohio DX Association made at the Forum. They are urging amateurs to contact their government representatives to support bill H.R. 1183. This bill will allow the public access to the islands–which would open the door to Amateur Radio expeditions. They also had a booth open at the convention to support this Legislation.
Ed also indicated that he had the opportunity to operate the special station W1AW/8 that was set up in the parking lot of the HARA field. He later identified that this station was using a 4-element SteppIR antenna on a portable 70-foot tower.
This meeting concluded at 10PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished. The next meeting will be held on June 17, 2005–the third Friday of the month. This meeting will be the last one prior to our summer hiatus until September.
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Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary