Location: Town
of Oyster Ice Skating Center, Community Room 1, Bethpage,
N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting
of November 17 at 8:15 PM. Members present included W2GW, K2MAU, W2ABK, W2PNJ,
W2FGD, K2MFY, KA2D, N2KA, W2VZQ, KC2KY, N2AJ (and XYL Margaret), N2DXJ and XYL
Tanis, and guests, Phil, N2MUM and Bob, W2ILP.
This was the first meeting the club had at this new
site. The membership warmly applauded
Ed, K2MFY, for all the work he did in guaranteeing the LIDXA this new meeting
place. Ed then reviewed the difficulties
that had occurred over the past month with Briarcliffe
College and their management changes regarding use of the classroom for LIDXA
meetings. He added that our new Tuesday
meetings at the Skating Center have been locked in through December 2010.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
·
A DXpedition to Chesterfield
Island as TX3A is in full swing. They
are expected to be on the island until November 30 and have a web site at http://www.tx3a.com/.
·
It was mentioned
that a group with the callsign PW6C is active from Coroa Vermelha Island. The IOTA is SA062.
·
The DXpedition to
the Comoros Islands, which was expected to begin any day now, has been
cancelled due to the unstable political situation on the island.
·
Several members
have noted that with the removal of commercial stations from the low end of 40
meters, excellent QSOs with DX station have been made on SSB starting at the
band edge of 7.125 MHz and higher.
·
The membership
was reminded that the weekend November 28–29 is the annual CQ Worldwide DX
Contest-CW.
It was
reported that some sunspots numbers have finally been observed. Although the high bands are still quiet, they
are starting to improve. Good conditions
are found daytime on 17 meters and 20 meters and later on 30 meters and the
lower bands.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting
was the approval of the October 15 meeting minutes. 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.
John, W2GW, LIDXA Treasurer, gave the Treasurer’s
report. John also reminded the
membership that with the beginning of year 2010, the annual dues of $20 is
required by all members.
Ed brought up information on the club’s annual
Holiday party. It is to be held at the Star Diner in
Hicksville on Thursday night, December 10 at 6:30PM. The arrangements would be the same as last
year; namely, complete dinner with choice of three entrees for $25 (including
tip and tax). Details would be provided in a future e-mail
to the membership. Ed said member/guests
should contact him regarding their entrée selection. By a show of hands, it appeared that about 10
members with/without spouses/guests would be attending this dinner.
Marv, W2FGD, 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).
Neil, KC2KY, who is chairman of the forthcoming 2010 Ham Radio
University (HRU), requested that the LIDXA continue to participate in this
forum and present its DX session. Additional
comments were made by Tom, KA2D, and guests, Bob, W2ILP and Phil, N2MUM.
Members then discussed in detail the
club’s continued participation in this forum.
HRU 2010 is scheduled for Sunday, January 10, 2010 at Briarcliffe College. Further details can be found at http://www.hamradiouniversity.org/. This year the LIDXA has been allotted about
1-½ hours for our “DX
Program”–from 10:00 to 11:50 AM in Room C.
Members W2GW, W2FGD, and N2AJ said they would
be available to do presentations. Ed,
K2MFY, indicated that he would not be able to participate this year since he
will be on vacation. John said he really
needs additional club presenters for this year’s program.
Ed mentioned that Tony, N2MFT, who is President of the Mid Florida DX Association, W4FDX, (our “sister” club in Florida), had obtained a number of new IRCs (Nairobi-type with an expiration date of Dec. 2013) from his local Tampa post office (by special order). Ed purchased a couple of dozen from Tony at the list price of $2.10. Tony also indicated that if other LIDXA members would like to purchase these new IRCs from him, they should contact him at his callbook address or send him an e-mail regarding their requests. Members were reminded that the current IRCs expire at the end of 2009 and must be redeemed at the local 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.
With the business portion of the membership concluded, a
DVD was then shown on the on the February 2009 operation from Desecheo Island
(as K5D). This DVD was shown using the
state-of-the-art audio/video installation in the room.
This meeting concluded at around 10 PM after all the scheduled business
and entertainment had finished. Since
the Holiday party is scheduled for December 10, the next LIDXA meeting would be
held on Tuesday, January 19, 2010. Also John
reminded the membership about HRU 2010 and to contact him if they would like to
participate in the club’s DX session presentation.
John wished the membership a good and happy holiday season.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary