MINUTES OF LIDXA INC.
MEETING—April 20, 2001
Location:
Polytechnic University, Farmingdale, N.Y.
The
LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of April 20 to order at 8:15
PM. Marty welcomed guest speakers Dan,
N1FF and his XYL to this meeting, along with guests Dave, KB2SQP; Howie, W2QUV;
Hank, W2ZZE; Zac, WB2PUE; Emil, KD1F; and Hank, W2HAP. Members present at tonight’s meeting (per
sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, KA2NRR, KB2HK, KE2LJ, N2DXJ (and
XYL), N2FF, N2JE (and XYL), N2KA, N2TU, NN2C, W2FGD, W2VZQ, WA2NDP, and
NP4L. Since a quorum of club members
were easily present at this meeting, Marty said we would conduct a short
business meeting prior to bring on our guest speaker.
Marty mentioned that, although he was pleased with tonight’s membership (and guest) turnout, he was still disappointed in the low number of check-ins to the weekly Sunday night net. He reminded members that at the end of the season (either prior to the summer break or end of the calendar year) the member, or members, who obtain the highest attendance tally for net and/or meeting attendance, will be awarded a gift from the club.
Since
last month’s LIDXA meeting did not have a quorum of members, no club business
could be transacted. At tonight’s
meeting the membership approved the last official club minutes, which were of
the meeting on February 25th. These
minutes were prepared by the club’s secretary, Ed, K2MFY and sent out to the
membership with the club’s March meeting notice. 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 LIDXA Treasurer, Russ, W2RL, was not present at tonight’s meeting so a Treasurer’s report was unavailable.
Marty commented that there was no new information
concerning the Millennium Tower
Corporation’s application for a tower construction permit with the Town of
Babylon. In the meantime the LIDXA has
use of the Grumman repeater, on
146.745 MHz.
Ed, K2MFY, mentioned that he had received several
acknowledgements from local politicians regarding the letters he had written in
February concerning New York State Bill A-1565. In this regards, Frank, N2FF, our ARRL Hudson Division Director,
urged all members to write local NYS officials regarding Assembly Bill A-1565,
entitled “Amateur Radio Preemption.”
The passage of this bill will enable amateur radio operators to put up
effective antennas without long, costly battles with their local governments to
get a building permit. Additional data
is available on the ARRL Hudson Division web site http://www.arrlhudson.org/.
Frank also added that he and several other local amateurs went up to
Albany recently to discuss this bill’s contents with political personnel. One of Frank's associates did speak with
Governor Pataki concerning these issues.
Governor Pataki was licensed many years ago, but his ham license has
subsequently expired.
As a follow-up to last month’s report, Ed indicated
that he checked into the web site www.eqsl.cc/qslcard/,
which acts as a bureau to forward and receive incoming “e-QSL” (electronic QSL)
cards, and found over 250 e-QSL cards on file for him. The dates on contacts of these e-QSLs ranged
from QSOs of a few days ago to those made in the late 1980s. Several members also said that they had
received numerous e-QSL cards from this unique bureau. This site also permits registered users to
forward outgoing e-QSLs. There is no
fee for this service—just an optional donation. As of the present time the ARRL does not recognize e-QSLs as
valid proof of contact.
Frank
added that the League is looking into the feasibility of using DXpedition
on-line logs as verification of contacts for new DXCC credit for an
applicant. In this manner the DXCC
applicant would not have to wait for the QSL card to arrive from the DXpedition
before requesting credit. The ARRL is
“beta-testing” a “Log Book of the World” concept. Their main concern is to maintain authenticity and security.
Lenny, KB2HK, mentioned that he recently returned from a cruise in the Pacific Ocean area and had stopped by Pitcairn Island. Tom Christian, VP6TC, and a few of the other inhabitants of this tiny Pacific Island came on board the ship. On the way back, Lenny stopped by Easter Island and found that although there is much amateur activity from this island, there are no longer any permanent resident hams.
It was reported that the annual ARRL “DXCC Yearbook” had been mailed out to all active DXCC members. One copy was passed around and members were busy verifying their present DXCC totals per year 2000.
Several
club members indicated that they will be attending the annual Dayton HamVention in mid-May. Since a number of club members will be at
the Dayton HamVention, the May meeting
of the LIDXA will be held on the fourth Friday of May, which is May
25. Marty said he will try to bring
back “goodies” to hand out at this meeting, in addition to relaying the latest
news from the ham community.
Due to the special guest that was appearing tonight, the business portion of this meeting concluded at 8:40 PM.
Tonight’s
meeting featured Dan, N1FF, who represented West
Mountain Radio in Norfolk, Connecticut.
This company manufactures and distributes the product “RIGblaster.” This module connects your radio to the sound
card of your computer, and is the easy and modern way to operate packet, CW,
RTTY, PSK31, AMTOR, and all the new modes of digital communication. Your computer and a RIGblaster unit take the
place of the current TNC units.
Dan illustrated many of the unique transmit/receive
aspects of various digital modes using a RIGblaster unit and demonstration
software. At the conclusion of the
presentation the membership warmly thanked the Dan for this informative
demonstration. Various models of this
product were then made available for sale to members and guests at reduced
prices.
This
meeting concluded at around 9:45 PM after all the scheduled business and
entertainment had finished. The next
meeting of the LIDXA will be held on Friday night, May 25 at 8 PM.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary