Location:
Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y.
The LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the
meeting of April 16 to order at 8:07 PM.
Members present (per sign-in on the blackboard) included K2MFY, NN2C,
KE2LJ, W2FGD, KD1F, AB2NT, NX2F, WA2RB, WA2AAW, W2VZQ, KB2HK, W2GW and XYL
KC2MAU. The club also welcomed guest
Neil, KC2KY, Vice President of the Radio Central Club.
In terms of DX, specific activities were
highlighted:
Starting
the business portion of tonight’s meeting was the approval of the March 19
meeting minutes. These minutes were accepted as presented. In addition, the minutes were prepared in advance
by the club’s secretary, Ed, K2MFY, and sent out to the membership with the
club’s January meeting notice. Thanks
to the efforts of KE2LJ, Pat, the minutes appear in the LIDXA web site at: 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 2004. Members currently on the LIDXA roster who have not paid up will
be dropped from the membership roles.
It was agreed to keep the un-paid members on the mailing list until
June.
Marty again suggested since much of our previous expenses (especially
those concerning the repeater) were now eliminated, it should be possible to
reduce the annual dues for the year 2005 by $5 per member. Based upon current expenses and membership
numbers, Treasurer W2GW agreed with Marty’s recommendation. Since this matter was brought up to the
membership in the January meeting, it was felt a vote should be in order. The club then voted unanimously to reduce
the dues to $20 for the calendar year 2005.
At
least six to eight LIDXA members have made plans to attend the Dayton HamVention
this year. Since the HamVention
occurs before the May meeting (over the May 14–16 weekend), it was decided that
the May 21 meeting would be a summary of Dayton events and a distribution of
various handouts picked up at the show.
Marv,
W2FGD, mentioned that he has been having SWR problems with his antennas and
requested some information from the membership on personnel who would be able
to get up to the antenna structure, 55 feet above ground, and do some
trouble-shooting and repairs. Several
recommendations were given to Marv.
Ed commented that the popular Web site for electronic or
“e-QSLs,” http://www.eqsl.cc/qslcard/,
recently issued him an “eDX 100” walnut plaque for achieving DXCC with 100 “Authenticity Guaranteed” countries.
Ed passed around this plaque, which was sent to him at no cost. Several members mentioned that this plaque
looked better than the ones sent out (for a fee) by the ARRL and other
organizations. Ed commented that after the
recent ARRL DX Contest, he uploaded and “sent out” almost 1000 e-QSLs in about
one minute!
On
the subject of awards, Emil, KD1F, also passed around his new “5-Band DXCC
Award,” which was now endorsed for eight (8) bands.
Ed, K2MFY, reported that for “real QSLing” he has gotten very good results with direct QSL card returns, using the special airmail return envelopes and foreign mint stamps obtained from William J. Plum in New Jersey.
The club’s Constitution states
that elections for all officers of the club (even years—years 2004–2006) must
occur at the May meeting, and that nominations for all positions must take
place during the April meeting (or before).
Due to next month’s HamVention it was felt that nominations would
be postponed until the May meeting. The
new officers of the club would then be elected at the June 18th meeting, and
their terms would then become effective at this meeting. All members were asked to think about
eligible candidates for LIDXA President, Vice President, Treasurer, and
Secretary. In addition, at least three
Directors must also be nominated during the May meeting. The current slate of LIDXA officers are:
·
President: Marty, NN2C
·
Vice President: Pat, KE2LJ
·
Secretary: Ed, K2MFY
·
Treasurer: John, W2GW
·
Directors: Lou, N2TU; John, N2QW; and Lew, W2BIE
With the business portion of this meeting brought to a conclusion at
9:00 PM, a video was then shown on the January 1999 multi-national DXpedition
to the uninhabited Campbell Island as ZL9CI.
This excellent video detailed the history of this remote island up to the
present time. It also highlighted the
diversified mammal life (sea lions) that resides on this island.
This
meeting then concluded at around 9:50 PM after all the scheduled business had
finished. The next regularly scheduled
meeting for the LIDXA is on Friday, May 21, 2004. All members are urged to attend the May meeting to find out about
the latest DX information from the HamVention, and enter their
nominations for election of LIDXA officers in June.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary