Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of September 19 at 8 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included W2GW and XYL K2MAU, KC2OPX, K2MFY, W2FGD, W2PNJ, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn, WB2ZHB and XYL Margaret, KC2KY, KA2D, N2KA, N2YBB, and guests WA2LY, Frank, and W2KFV, Jim.
John welcomed the membership back after our annual Summer hiatus. The attendees then introduced themselves to the membership.
OLD BUSINESS
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the June 20th meeting minutes. The minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by Ed, K2MFY and sent out to the membership with the September meeting notice. Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
W2GW gave the monthly Treasurer’s report. Members who have not paid their 2008 dues will be dropped from the roster and e-mail announcements. A new membership list would be distributed shortly.
NEW BUSINESS
John mentioned that he got a call from NS2N, Bill, who lives out at Southampton. Bill is getting on in years and does not use his ham equipment. He offered his station to the club to dispose of as we see fit. John picked up the items and checked the Yaesu TS-530 transceiver out with a dummy load. It seemed to load up properly. John questioned the club on what should be done with this equipment. Since the items are all relatively old (about 25 years), selling it did not seem feasible. For the time being the club decided that John would hold on to the equipment to loan out to club members as necessary. It was requested that Ed send NS2N a letter of thanks for his donation to the club.
Neil, KC2KY, spoke briefly about the July operation of ARRL special station W1AW/KL7 from the Alaskan Arctic Circle. He was excited that he was able to operate this station for a while at the end of July. Neil also reminded the membership that he will once again be chairman of the annual HRU Forum at Briarcliffe College. The date will be Sunday January 11, 2009. A link, with preliminary details about HRU 2009, can be found on the web at www.HamRadioUniversity.org, or contact Neil. Once again, the club offered to present our ever-popular “DX Program.”
Ed mentioned that his two year ordeal with LIPA, regarding the line noise he was hearing on all the HF bands, had finally been resolved in August. Thanks to the persistent efforts of Mike Malinowski, N2QOY, of the LIPA Interference Division, all the required repairs in the area were now completed. Ed suggested that club members note Mike’s e-mail address at [email protected]. This method appears to be the most efficient way to get in touch with Mike regarding LIPA generated QRN problems.
Tom, KA2D, present Section Manager (SM) for the NLI Section, introduced LIDXA member Mike, N2YBB, who is currently Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) for the NLI section. Since Tom will not be running again for SM, there will be an election between candidates N2YBB and WB2OMW. Mike spoke briefly about his current work in emergency communications for this area and his plans for our section should he be elected new SM. Mike said the ballots would be shortly mailed out to all ARRL members in the NLI section.
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 membership concluded at 9:05 PM, John then presented an overview of operating Wusing the digital modes–RTTY, PSK, etc. The club thanked John for his review of these digital modes.
Steve, WB2ZHB, then showed a DVD that he had just created depicting his August trip to Indonesia with his XYL Margaret. In the video he showed the Indonesia countryside, temples, restaurants, etc. during his visit around the town of Kebumen in central Java Island, Indonesia. In this regards he donated an Alpha multiband antenna package as a gift to the local hams of the Kebumen amateur radio club. Steve even got to operate briefly from one of the local stations. From Indonesia Steve then traveled to West Malaysia and Thailand. At the end of this very informative DVD, Steve offered interested members a copy of his DVD. The club applauded Steve for his great presentation and his fine work in promoting international friendship through ham radio.
The meeting concluded at around 10 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished. The next meeting of the LIDXA will be held on Friday October 17, 2008.
Ed Whitman, K2MFY LIDXA Secretary