MINUTES OF LIDXA INC.
MEETING—October 19, 2001
Location:
Polytechnic University, Farmingdale, N.Y.
The LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of October 19 to order at 8:18 PM. Marty welcomed all members and guests to tonight’s meeting. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, KA2NRR (and XYL), KB2HK, KE2LJ, N2DXJ (and XYL), N2JE (and XYL), N2KA, N2TU, NN2C, W2FGD, W2RL, W2UQ, and W2VZQ. Marty also welcomed guests Tom, KA2D; Ted, K2QMF; Mike, N2TX; Tony, AA2FB; and Eugene, AE2F, to this meeting.
In terms of DX, specific activities were mentioned:
·
A possible new DXCC
country, Ducie Island, in the Pitcairn Island group, is expected to be
operational around November 16. This
island, which is 291 miles east of Pitcairn Island, may satisfy DXCC criteria
once the Pitcairn Island Amateur Radio Association gets admitted to the IARU
society, which is coincidentally also November 16. All DX members were alerted to this possible new one coming up
next month.
·
Carlos, CU3FT, is now
operational from East Timor as 4W/CU3FT.
·
Another DXpedition to
Bhutan (A5) is expected shortly.
·
It was commented that
the 7O1DX operator in Yemen is a pirate.
·
The DXpedition to
Conway Reef has finished with over 40,000 reported QSOs. Veteran DXpeditioner, YT1AD, headed up this
team.
·
Several LIDXA members
reported that there have been good openings in the evenings to Southeast Asia
on 15 meters, and to Europe and the Middle East on 10 and 12 meters in the
morning.
·
Members were reminded
that the CQ World Wide Contest was coming up shortly. The SSB mode is over the October 27-28 weekend, while the CW
portion is over the November 29-30 weekend.
With the solar flux recently reaching 290, it was expected that the
conditions for the contest would be excellent.
At the outset of tonight’s meeting, Marty asked all members present to indicate if they are on the DXCC Honor Roll. All but four of the 13 members present indicated that they are on the Honor Roll.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the September 21 meeting minutes. These minutes were prepared in advance by the club’s secretary, Ed, K2MFY, and sent out to the membership with the club’s October meeting notice. In addition, thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, these minutes also appear in the LIDXA web site: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
Marty reported that the Melville Fire Department affirmed that our club still has authority to use the present repeater site at Jane’s Hill in Huntington, even though another organization may have to re-locate. It is felt that our present problems are still attributed to a defective antenna (or mast support) and/hard-line transmission line. We are still looking into getting a climber, at a reasonable fee, to make the necessary repairs.
Marty
commented that he had not heard anything new on the status of Millennium Tower Corporation’s
application for a tower construction permit with the Town of Babylon. The company had filed some necessary papers
with the Town, and it was expected that a permit would be issued since there
are other towers in the area. Millennium
expects to start pouring cement for the 420-foot tower base sometime in
mid-October. It is expected that the
new site for the club’s repeater, around the 220-foot level, might be available
in early 2002. In the meantime, the
LIDXA has use of the Grumman repeater, on 146.745 MHz.
Guest Tom, KA2D, mentioned about his participation with numerous other amateurs at the World Trade Center disaster. Some local amateurs who were coordinating activities were Frank, N2FF, and George, N2GA. According to all reports, these public service efforts are among “the amateur’s finest hour.”
Marty,
KA2NRR mentioned that he had received numerous electronic or “e-QSLs,” from the
Web site www.eqsl.cc/qslcard/, which
acts as a bureau to forward and receive incoming e-QSL cards. Ed said he had also received almost 350
e-QSL cards since he joined this electronic QSL center back in March. Members were requested to check-in and see
if they had any incoming e-QSLs on file.
This is no cost for this service–just a voluntary donation. The ARRL still has not approved any
electronic QSL cards for awards, although their proposed “Logbook of the World”
is about six months away.
Marty
took a hand count of members wishing to attend a Holiday Party in
December. After much discussion it was
proposed that we have the party over at the Liberty
Diner (the old Bernie’s Diner) on
Route 110 in Huntington. Marty said he
would check with the diner to verify that there would be no problem in issuing
separate checks. A tentative date of
Thursday, December 6 was agreed upon.
Marty will confirm all the details at the next meeting.
Marty
reminded the membership to read the article “The DX Saga of the ‘Li’l Pistol,’
” which was appearing in the November issue of Worldradio magazine. This
article was written by member Ed, K2MFY, and traces his early experiences in
chasing DX with low power. Ed provided
copies of this article to the membership.
At this point in the meeting, Marty turned over the floor to Ted, K2QMF, a representative of the Yankee Clipper Contest Club (YCCC). Ted explained that the YCCC is a special purpose amateur radio club devoted to the pursuit of operating and technical excellence. Ted outlined the goals of the club:
·
To promote the fun,
satisfaction and competitive thrill of radio contesting.
·
To assist members in
the development of their operating and technical skills.
·
To win the club
competition of the major amateur radio contests.
Ted mentioned that several members of the club are active on major DXpeditions, both during and outside of contest times. At the conclusion of Ted’s talk, several LIDXA members signed up for a membership in this club, while others requested additional information.
This meeting then
concluded at around 9:15 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment
had finished.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary