MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING May 26, 2000

MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING, May 26, 2000

Location: Polytechnic University, Farmingdale, N.Y.

The LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of May 26 to order at 8:08 PM. Marty welcomed Mary, the XYL of N2JE; Ros, the XYL of K2ENT; Del, the XYL of NP4L; Lois, the XYL of KB2CB; and Dell, the XYL of KA2NRR. Marty also welcomed guests from the Great South Bay Amateur Radio Club, Tom, KA2D, and Phil, N2MUN to tonight's meeting.

In terms of DX, specific activities mentioned:

Several members commented that conditions on the HF bands have been very poor. This is unfortunate since we are approaching the top of the present sunspot cycle.
The A52A DXpedition is now over, with over 80,000 QSOs reportedly made from Bhutan. Jim Smith, operating as A52JS, has also just left the country. A new group of French amateurs are expected to re-activate Bhutan in the Fall. Marty mentioned that he had picked up his A52A card at the Dayton HamVention. One of the speakers at Dayton from the A52A group indicated that less than 40 hours of advance notice went into setting up this major DXpedition to Bhutan
It was reported that 4W6GH, operating from the new country of East Timor, has been heard most mornings around 14250 kHz or 18150 kHz.
The team of FW/G3SXW and FW/G3TXF has been very active on CW from Wallis Island. They have just closed down operations.
A group of German amateurs will be active from the Faeroe Islands shortly.

Marv brought up the subject of low check-in rate for the Sunday night net. Various items were brought up and evaluated. It was decided to abridge the time allotted to the reviews of the DX bulletins. Also brought up was the scheduled net time. Some members still felt that the net should be set to 0100Z year round. Although this motion was defeated several years ago, it was noted that it could be voted on again if there was enough interest. Concerned parties would have to submit the changes in writing as per the LIDXA Constitution.

OLD BUSINESS

The minutes of the April 28 meeting were prepared in advance by the LIDXA Secretary, Ed, K2MFY, and included in this month's mailing to the membership. In addition, thanks to the efforts of LIDXA Vice President, Pat, KE2LJ, these minutes also appear in the LIDXA Web site: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa. The April minutes were accepted after a couple of corrections were noted.

The LIDXA Treasurer, Russ, W2RL, was not at this meeting so no Treasurer's Report could be presented.

In terms of our noisy repeater, there was no new status. In the meantime the LIDXA has use of the Grumman repeater, on 146.745 MHz. It was hoped that when the Melville Fire Department brings a rigger to inspect some of the antennas on their tower, the LIDXA could arrange to use his services to inspect our present antenna. It was also anticipated that a temporary antenna could be placed up on the tower at that time. It was estimated that to call in a private rigger, the charges to the LIDXA would be about $1000. Marty added that an "un-named" member offered to put up the LIDXA repeater on his 75-foot tower in Levittown. The club would still however, need to purchase a new repeater antenna. Also it was felt that if the LIDXA ever moved from its ideal location at Jane's Hill, they would never be able to return to this site. Marty mentioned that this would be one of the Executive Board matters to be discussed over the summer.

NEW BUSINESS

Marty spoke about this year's Dayton HamVention, including the DX Forum with its notable guests. He indicated that this year's event featured record attendance - over 30,000 attendees. Several new pieces of equipment were mentioned, including the "soon-to-be-released" Kenwood all-band, all-mode transceiver, that covers the ham bands from 30 kHz to 1300 MHz. In particular the banquet featured Riley Hollingsworth, K4DZH, who heads up the FCC Special Council for Enforcement. The comedy team, The Smothers Brothers, presented entertainment at the banquet.

Guest, Phil, N2MUN spoke on success of the first "Ham Radio Forum," which was held in the Babylon Town Hall Annex in North Babylon on January 23. Over 19 clubs were represented at this initial forum. He is on the planning committee for another forum in the early part of 2001. This forum "HRU 2001" would feature additional seminars. It is expected that HRU 2001 would be held on Sunday, January 21, 2001. They expect that these seminars would be so popular that they could be extended to one hour, rather than the previous 45 minutes. Guest speakers on various aspects of amateur radio are being sought. Anyone interested in getting involved on this planning committee should contact Phil.

Also guest, Tom, KA2D talked about his operation from the Fire Island lighthouse. Tom was very active with the LIDXA in our past operations from the Montauk Point lighthouse. Tom expects to have three stations running from Fire Island over the August 19-20 weekend, which is the annual "International Lighthouse Weekend." Last year they made over 1100 contacts. If you would like to participate, or need additional information, contact Tom directly, or at his e-mail address: [email protected].

With the election of new officers for the 2000-2002 term to be determined at tonight's meeting, the final ballot was obtained at this time. The following names were entered as nominees:

President: Marty, NN2C
Vice President: Pat, KE2LJ; Marv, W2FGD
Secretary: Ed, K2MFY
Treasurer: Russ, W2RL
Directors: Lou, N2TU; Larry, K2LS; Dave, W2UQ; John, N2QW; Art, K2ENT

The club's constitution requires that at least two candidates be nominated for each executive position; however, the club could not get any additional volunteers for certain positions, so it was decided to go, as is, with the above slate.

An informal written ballot elected the new officers for the LIDXA over the next two-year term:

President: Marty, NN2C
Vice President: Pat, KE2LJ
Secretary: Ed, K2MFY
Treasurer: Russ, W2RL
Directors: Lou, N2TU; Larry, K2LS; John, N2QW

The membership warmly applauded the new officers of the club success over the next two years. Ed said he would forward the election results to some of the DX/amateur radio magazines.

Marty mentioned that the June 16 LIDXA meeting is scheduled to have a "Chinese Auction" or "Blind Auction." Members of the club will donate various items related to ham radio, computer software, electronics, test equipment, etc. to be "auctioned" off, sight unseen. Bids for these items would start 50 cents and higher. Since our past "auctioneer" Frank, N2FF, would not be able to make this meeting, Marty said he is looking for another volunteer to conduct the session.

This meeting concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled business had finished. Marty urged all members to look around for items that could be sold at next month's "Chinese Auction," and in turn, raise needed revenues for the club.

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Ed Whitman, K2MFY

LIDXA Secretary