MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING—November 16, 2007

 

Location: Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.

 

John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of November 16th at 8:10 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included W2GW and XYL K2MAU, W2VZQ, K2MFY, W2FGD, NC2KY, N2DXJ and XYL Tanis.

 

The club welcomed to the LIDXA guests, Phil, N2MUN and Tom KA2D.

 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:

·         The station C91KDJ, from Mozambique, was reported workable on several bands.

·         A new DXpedition to Revilla Gidedo, is expected up shortly.

·         Although several stations from Brunei were reported up, limited propagation to our area prevented QSOs.

·         A group of Greek amateurs had activated Aswar Island (AS-186) off the coast of Syria as YK1SV,

  • The weekend of November 24–25 is the annual CQ WorldWide DX Contest–CW mode.  Quite a number of multi-group efforts are planned to be active from rare DX zones/countries during the contest.
  • Plans are well underway for a DXpedition to Clipperton Island in March 2008.  For further details look at their website at: www.clipperton2008.org.
  • A recent report indicated that some sunspots were recently noted, perhaps the start of Cycle 24.  Several members reported that conditions on 20 and 17 meters were improving; even afternoon openings on 15 and 12 meters were noted.  However, the solar flux numbers are still very low.
  •  

Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the October 19th meeting minutes.  Except for a minor correction, these minutes were accepted as presented.  In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by Ed, K2MFY, and sent out to the membership with the November 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.  The dues for the 2008 year will be due early next year.

 

Ed indicated that had filed the ARRL Club Annual Report recently with the ARRL

 

           

NEW BUSINESS

           

            A few LIDXA members indicated that they had attended the ARRL Hudson Division Awards Dinner on November 11 hosted by the Bergen Amateur Radio Association.  This year the club sponsored a ˝-page ad in the Awards Journal.

 

            Marv mentioned that on December 2 the NJDXA Holiday Party would be held at the Basking Ridge Country Club in NJ, honoring the 50th anniversary of the NJDXA and the W2 QSL Bureau.  NJDXA boasts that no other organization has managed an incoming QSL Bureau continuously for such a long period of time.


 

On the subject of dinners, Ed stated that he had made arrangements for the evening of Thursday December 13 with the Star Diner on 495 Old Country Rd. in Plainview for our dinner.  Ed had earlier e-mailed out an information sheet and map to all members.  Approximately 12 members (including guests) indicated to Ed that they would be coming to this get together.

 

            Members then discussed the forthcoming 2008 Ham Radio University (HRU).  John brought up the club’s participation in this forum.  HRU 2008 is scheduled for Sunday, January 13, 2008 at the Briarcliffe College in Bethpage.  Preliminary information on HRU 2008 can be found on the Web at http://www.hamradiouniversity.org/.

This year we have been allotted about 1-1/2 hours for our “DX Program”–from 10:00 to 11:50AM in Room E (Great Hall in the North Hempstead hall).  Members W2GW, Marv, W2FGD, and K2MFY said they would be available to do presentations.

            Based upon last year’s schedule, presenters at this meeting modified a few of the topics.  The final list was arrived at with areas of responsibility:

 

·         Introduction, Overview of DXing–What’s DX?—W2GW

·         DX Propagation–Using Propagation Information for Better DXing—K2MFY

·         QSL Checking & Criteria—W2GW

·         LIDXA/General DX Information—W2FGD, W2GW, K2MFY

·         Question and Answer Period—W2GW, K2MFY, W2FGD

 

It was felt that 15 minutes on each topic by the presenter would fill up the allotted time, and allow time for questions at the end of each topic.  Immediately following the club’s presentation is keynote speaker Gordon West, WB6NOA–and it was felt that additional HRU attendees may entering the room towards the end of our presentations.

Members were urged to come out and support the club and learn a few things at the Forum.

 

            Guest Phil, N2MUN, chairman of the 2008 HRU spoke in general about the activities of the HRU over the years since its inception in 2000.  He thanked the club for our past efforts and indicated that he would readily support our latest activities.

 

Guest Tom, KA2D, then introduced us to a number of items local to our area.  Tom is presently the Section Manager for NLI and served as ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator and Assistant Section Manager for New York City-Long Island, since 1998.  He spoke briefly about the “Neighbor Watch” program.  Tom suggested that all members subscribe to his monthly “NLI Section monthly e-Happenings.”

 

A DVD was then shown on the February 2007 Italian DXpedition to Moucha Island, (AF-053), J2ŘMM, about 10 miles off the coast of Djibouti.

 

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.

 

This meeting concluded at around 10:10 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished.  Since the Holiday party is scheduled for December 13, the next LIDXA meeting would be held on Friday January 18, 2008.

 

 

                                                                        ______________________________________

Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary