MINUTES
OF LIDXA INC. MEETING— April 25, 2003
Location:
Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
The LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of March 21 to order at 8:10 PM. Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, W2GW (and XYL), NN2C, KE2LJ, W2FGD, KE2LJ, and guests Mark, WB2QJ (and YL), and John, NX2C. After an absence of a couple of years, Marty welcomed back ex-member WB2QJ to tonight’s meeting.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
·
Activity is winding
down on a DXpedition to SØ5X in the Western Sahara. One of the on-line Search
sites for this DXpedition is http://193.207.106.231/s05x/log/default.asp. QSL to EA5URE.
·
A number of US
military stations have been heard operating portable from Iraq. According to the ARRL, these military
operators only need supply documentation from their Commanding Officer in order
to count for DXCC. Also a number of
well-known amateurs from the UN World Food Program (e.g. 4L4FN, ON6TT, ON4WW,
etc.) may be ready to go to Iraq shortly.
·
A station from
Spitsbergen (in Svalbard) signing JW/F8DVD is reported to be very active on 20
meters SSB. QSL via F8DVD.
Starting the business portion of tonight’s meeting
was the approval of the March 21, 2003 meeting minutes. These minutes were accepted as
presented. In addition, these minutes
were prepared in advance by the club’s secretary, Ed, K2MFY, and sent out to
the membership with the April meeting notice.
In addition to Ed’s e-mail mailing of these minutes to the members,
thanks to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, they also appear (unapproved) in the LIDXA
web site: http://www.qsl.net/lidxa.
Club treasurer, John, W2GW gave a Treasurer’s report. Present dues for club membership, in the amount of $25, are now overdue for the year 2003. A new LIDXA membership list, with members’ phone numbers, e-mail and home addresses, was completed through the efforts of W2GW and K2MFY. This list was e-mailed to all paid-up members. In future mailings only members on this list would be recipients of the monthly e-mail meeting notices/minutes. For the few members who do not have e-mail addresses, John said he would mail out the monthly information.
John also mentioned that he would like to move the club’s checking account over to a local bank that does not have monthly service charges. He would need a copy of the club’s incorporation papers for the new bank to make this change. John suggested that the past LIDXA Treasurer, Russ, W2RL, might have these papers. Ed said he would check his records and send John a copy if a set is found.
As a result of a suggestion at the February meeting, Pat indicated that the LIDXA Web site was updated to include a blank LIDXA membership application (as a .pdf file). In this manner, prospective members could download the application and submit it with their check at a meeting, or by mail to W2GW. Pat will update the application to indicate the $25 dues requirement.
Marty commented that he had not heard anything new
on the status of 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 for its Sunday night at 9PM local time. This frequency is back to 146.745 MHz (with
136.5 Hz PL) now that the Grumman Bethpage operational. The club thanked Pat for his present and
past efforts in maintaining this repeater for LIDXA usage during the nets.
Pat brought to the meeting the
club’s repeater transceiver unit, recently removed from the shack for
servicing. The unit was in dire need of
maintenance (if salvageable). It was
covered with rat droppings, spider webs, and other repulsive debris. Pat indicated that this unit may not be
repairable and inquired if service costs would be covered under the club’s
repeater liability insurance. Ed
suggested that Pat get an estimate on repair or replacement charges, and then
he would send the information off to the insurance company for resolution. This was done a number of years ago, with a
favorable outcome, when the repeater unit was damaged by a local lightning
stroke.
Ed passed around a couple of
QSL cards he had just received from the April 2001 DXpedition to the “Russian
Lost Islands” up in the Russian central arctic. A video on this trip was shown in the February LIDXA
meeting. The QSLs were from stations,
RIØB–Ushakova Is.–AS156 and RSØB–Srednij Is.–ASØ42.
Marty mentioned that the Board of Directors would be
voting shortly for the twelfth annual “N2DTW Award.” It was recalled that past member Lenny Albergo, N2DTW, met an
untimely death in an accident in 1990.
Out of memory for this active DXer, a plaque was purchased by Lenny’s
friends and has provisions for about two-dozen small-engraved entries. It was decided that the plaque would be
awarded yearly on a revolving basis to one member of the club who best promotes
the purposes of the LIDXA as mentioned in the club’s constitution. The present plaque holder is K2MFY, who was
given the 2001 award in April of last year.
It was mentioned that LIMARC would be having their annual “brown bag auction” in Levittown on May 14. Also Marty indicated that N2MUN inquired if the club could be a host for the Hudson Convention in the Fall. Marty said he would inform N2MUN that the club did not have the resources or manpower to take on this responsibility.
At least six members of the LIDXA will be attending the annual HamVention at Dayton this year over the May 16th weekend. Pat urged any LIDXA member who would be attending the HamVention, to obtain tickets to the DX banquet dinner in advance so that we could all be sitting together. In this regards, it was decided that the LIDXA meeting in May would be postponed one week to May 23, so that attendees could report on the HamVention.
The
business portion of the meeting then concluded at 9:00 PM.
At this time, a video was shown on the February 1994 DXpedition to Peter 1 island down in the Antarctic by an international team of Norwegian, Belgian, Swiss, and American amateurs. Over 70,000 QSOs were made from this remote island down under.
This meeting concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled business and entertainment had finished. Marty reminded the membership that the next meeting would be held on the fourth Friday in May, the 23rd of the month. He said that the May meeting would feature the latest happenings from the Dayton HamVention.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary