Location: Town of Oyster Ice Skating Center, Community Room 1, Bethpage, N.Y.
John, W2GW, the LIDXA President, called to order the meeting of April 20th shortly at 8:10PM. Members present included Karen, W2ABK; Bob, N2DXJ and XYL Tanis; Louise, K2MAU; Mike, N2YBB; Tom, KA2D; Art; N2KA; Steve, N2AJ; Andy, W2VZQ and XYL Marilyn; John, W2GW; Bob, W2PNJ; and Marv, W2FGD.
John thanked Karen for taking notes since LIDXA Secretary, Ed, K2MFY was away on vacation.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
With the aid of his laptop, Steve, N2AJ, who had visited Malaysia, showed a picture of the station and antenna on top of the hotel.
It was reported that 17 meters had a lot of African (Kenya), and Central African stations.
Several members mentioned that despite a drop off in conditions in the last few weeks there are many active DX stations on the air.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the March 16 meeting minutes. These minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance by LIDXA Secretary, Ed, K2MFY and sent out to the membership with the April 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, indicated that most members have submitted their 2010 dues. The club has a total of fifteen full members on its 2010 roster. Members not paying their 2010 dues will be dropped from the club roster/e-mail list.
A donation of $100 was given to the South Orkney Dxpedition scheduled for early 2011. The LIDXA logo appears on the VP8O DXpedition website: http://www.vp8o.com/. Also John purchased a DVD of the October 2009 Midway Dxpedition.
John mentioned that the LIDXA
will be holding full elections for all officers and Board of Directors for the
club (years 2010-2012) in the May meeting. After a brief discussion, the
following slate (all incumbents) was decided on by the attendees:
· President: John, W2GW
· Vice President: Marv, W2FGD
· Secretary: Ed, K2MFY
· Treasurer: John, W2GW
· Directors: Steve, N2AJ; Andy, W2VZQ; Frank, N2FF.
This list would be presented to the membership to vote on at the May 18 meeting. If new candidates appear before the election, their names would be added to the ballot. As done in the last few years, members who cannot make the May meeting may submit their vote to Ed by e-mail. Officers selected will begin their term at the June meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
Tom, KA2D, suggested that the club create a user group or bulletin board on Yahoo, so that the members can keep in touch most conveniently. He volunteered to set it up. Tom wrote a description of the club's purpose in connection with this, and would send it to a few members shortly for their review.
Steve, N2AJ, had his laptop with him with him at tonight’s meeting and discovered that the skating rink provides wireless internet connectivity or Wi-Fi. We may find some use for this capability in the future.
Marv, W2FGD, reminded the membership to check-in at the LIDXA weekly nets on Sunday night at 9PM 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 October 2009 DXpedition to Midway Island.
It was noted that Midway Island is the second oldest of the Hawaiian Islands. The team shipped two tons of equipment on a barge to get to the island. Midway is claimed by the U.S. The U.S. Cable Company placed the first settlers on Midway back in 1903. The islands permanent population is 60 people from the wild life service, volunteers and emergency airfield maintenance.
The DXpedition team had to make sure to protect the wild life. There are over 500 different species of birds and ducks that inhabit Midway and the DX operators were careful not to disrupt any wild life sites.
Vertical antennas worked the best. This highly successful DXpedition made over 60, 000 QSOs in 152 countries. The DXpedition web site is http://www.midway2009.com/. The LIDXA logo was on the credits at the end of the DVD.
This meeting concluded at around 10PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished. The next LIDXA will be held on Tuesday May 18 at 8PM. Elections will be taking place at this meeting along with a special guest speaker.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary
(Prepared with the notes from W2ABK and W2GW)