MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING — October 15, 2009

 

Location: Star Diner, 495 East Old Country Rd, Hicksville.

 

 

Ed, K2MFY, the LIDXA Secretary, called to order the meeting of Thursday, October 15 at 8:15 PM.  The LIDXA President, John, W2GW, was away on a fishing trip and had asked Ed to chair tonight’s meeting.

 

Ed explained the reason for this sudden change of venue was that when he went over to Briarcliffe College two days earlier, to check on the availability of our room for Thursday night’s meeting, the contact person was unavailable.  The following day the school called Ed back and said that they had no record of the LIDXA being permitted to use their facility!  Also with new management for the school starting with the Fall semester, all group users must now fill out forms and have the school’s security review the documentation.  They said that the new application, review, etc. might take a couple of weeks.  So it was decided to have the October 15 meeting at the Star Diner until the LIDXA officers can get things straightened out.

 

Members present (per roster sign-in sheet) included K2MFY and his XYL Linda, W2ABK, W2FGD, N2AJ, KC2KY, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn.

 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:

·         A DXpedition to Midway Island as K4M is in full swing, with several stations being activated simultaneously.  They are expected to be on the island until October 19, and have launched their web site at www.midway2009.com.  Per instructions on the site, since the LIDXA is a “pre-operation” DX club donor, Ed will be sending their QSL manager the latest LIDXA membership list.  According, member QSOs will get loaded first to LOTW after the completion of the DXpedition.

·         The Gloriosos Island Dxpedition as FT5GA was completed last week.  All logs are now online and LOTW QSOs will be loaded shortly.

·         Quite a bit of activity was reported from the U.N. station 4U64UN (commemorating the 64th anniversary of the United Nations).  They are expected to have operators activating the station for a couple of weeks.

·         The membership was reminded that the weekend of October 24–25 is the annual CQ Worldwide DX Contest-SSB.  The CW section is the last full weekend of November.

     It was reported that the solar flux is low, but starting to improve, good conditions are found daytime on 17 meters and in the early evening on 20 meters and later on 30 meters

 

Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the September 11 meeting minutes.  Except for a minor change, these minutes were accepted as presented.  In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by K2MFY and sent out to the membership with the October meeting notice.  Thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.

 

Since W2GW was not present there was no Treasurer’s report.

 


NEW BUSINESS

 

            Ed discussed the important issue of the club meeting site for future meetings.  He reiterated the problems we were having with Briarcliffe College and mentioned some possible alternate sites.  Ed has been down to the new Town of Oyster Bay-Ice Skating Center in Bethpage which has several “Community” rooms.  The Center is just a short drive from Briarcliffe College–down Stewart Ave across the street from Bethpage H.S.  Ed had filled out an application for their large meeting room which includes a built-in screen along with a state-of-the-art ceiling-mounted projector that accepts DVD, VHS and PC inputs.  Ed said that the third Friday of each month was requested–but that is subject to Town approval.  He should know definitely from the Center in a few days.  (Secretary’s note:  As a follow-up: The day available for LIDXA meetings is the third TUESDAY of the month, and the time from 8-10PM is guaranteed through December 2010.  (Fridays were reserved for birthday parties at the Center and could not be guaranteed for club meetings)).

 

A brief discussion then developed on the club’s annual Holiday Party.  It was agreed to once again have it at the Star Diner in Hicksville.  Last year it was held on Thursday night, December 11, 2008 at 6:30PM.  Ed said he would check with the diner to see if the arrangements could be the same as last year.  Details would be provided at the November meeting.  Ed suggested Thursday night December 10 for this year’s party.

 

            Marv also mentioned that the North Jersey DX Association would be holding their annual Holiday Party on Sunday December 13 at the Basking Ridge Country Club in NJ (tel.: 908-766-8200 for details, or contact NJDXA member Doug Rue, W2EN).

 

Ed mentioned that John had used the professional services of W2GD to raise his new antenna assembly.  Ed said he had some tower work scheduled to be done in the future and would also be hiring W2GD.

 

It was reported that the Netherlands Antilles would be restructured in the Fall of 2010.  At least two new DXCC countries are expected to be created–Curacao and St. Maarten–and their old presence would be deleted.  However Bonaire and St. Eustatius would also become new DXCCs–with a net result of two new DXCC countries.

 

Ed mentioned that he was in Manhattan recently and stopped by the main post office at 34th street looking for the new type IRCs.  Much to his surprise they only had the “old type” which is to expire at the end of the year (which had stamps on it so the cost was about 20 cents higher).  He was informed that new IRCs were not on hand yet!  This was the same issue he found at the Hicksville post office.

 

            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.

 

The meeting concluded early at around 9:00 PM after all the scheduled business had finished.  Using the laptop PCs brought in by Steve, N2AJ, and also Neil, KC2KY, after some experimenting the members were able to crowd around the laptop computer of N2AJ and watch in full the DVD on the January 2007 DXpedition to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta as 1A4A.

 

(Secretary’s Note:  The next LIDXA meeting will be held on Tuesday November 17 at the Town of Oyster Bay-Ice Skating Center.  Details will follow in the November LIDXA meeting announcement).

 

 

 

                                                            ______________________________________

Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary