MINUTES OF LIDXA INC. MEETING—
June 21, 2002
Location:
Sweet Hollow Diner, Melville, N.Y.
The LIDXA President, Marty, NN2C, called the meeting of June 21 to order at 8:50 PM. This meeting was held in the diner as the Polytechnic campus has, for all practical purposes, has been closed. Members present included K2MFY, KE2LJ, N2DXJ (and XYL), NN2C, W2UQ, N2TU, and W2FGD.
In terms of DX, specific activities were highlighted:
· With the approach of summer conditions propagation on the bands have gotten poorer. Presently the best DX bands are 20 and 17 meters. Ten and 12 meters are just about dead except for random openings to South America or Africa. Some members reported of good openings on 6 meters.
·
The only present
recognized operation from North Korea (officially known as the Democratic
Peoples’ Republic of Korea–or DPRK) is P5/4L4FN. The station is located in Pyongyang and the operator, Ed, works
for the UN World Food Program. His
station is presently closed until July 1 since Ed is visiting Beijing, where he
intends on picking up some antenna supplies.
Ed plans to be in North Korea until June 2003.
·
Several stations have
been reported operating from Afghanistan.
The main group is using the callsign YA5T. QSL this station via KU9C.
There were no
minutes published from our May 2002 meeting, as we didn't have a quorum. We met in the Polytechnic cafeteria, as the school was just about closed down.
Pat
gave the members some details on closure of the Polytechnic campus at Farmingdale.
The school has just shut down, but will be leasing space in the Melville
Corporate Center at 105 Maxess Road in Melville (just south of the Long Island
Expressway and Route 110). The LIDXA
was assured that we would still be able to hold our monthly meetings at this
new facility; however, Pat was told that the school might only have a room
available for us during Monday through Thursday evenings. As an alternative, Pat added that the club
is also looking into some other sites that would be convenient to all members,
both from geographical and schedule considerations. One suggested site was a room at the Briarcliffe College in Bethpage.
Details would be firmed up over the summer and announced to the
membership in time for the first meeting in September.
The new organization “MetroCor, Inc.” which has been formed to replace the defunct TSARC (TriState Amateur Radio Council), is to provide amateur frequency coordination for the NYC/LI, Northern NJ, and part of the downstate NY regions. Marty requested that Ed draft a general letter to MetroCor, stating that LIDXA welcomes this new group and also is submitting a check to them for the yearly organizational dues in the amount of $20.
There was some discussion on the FCC decision to go along with the ARRL’s request of last summer for a new domestic (US-only), secondary HF allocation at 5.25 to 5.4 MHz. The 60-meter band would be the first new HF allocations since the World Administrative Radio Conference in 1979 gave amateurs 30, 17 and 12 meters--the so-called “WARC Bands.” Assuming the 5-MHz band eventually is authorized, it could be a few years before it actually becomes available. In addition the FCC also is ready to adopt at least part of ARRL’s request for a low-frequency amateur allocation, by proposing to permit operation on a 136-kHz “sliver band.”
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, on 146.745 MHz.
During our Sunday night nets, the LIDXA also then switches over to our
own LIDXA frequency at 147.300 MHz.
With the election of new officers for the 2002-2004
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
·
Secretary: Ed, K2MFY
·
Treasurer: John, KB2CB
·
Directors: Lou, N2TU;
John, N2QW; and Lew, W2BIE
An informal ballot elected the above officers of the
LIDXA for the next two-year term.
The
membership warmly applauded the new officers of the club success over the next
two years. Marty said he would forward
the election results to some of the DX/amateur radio magazines.
This meeting
concluded at around 9:30 PM after all the scheduled business had finished. Marty wished the membership a good summer
and indicated that the next meeting would be held on September 20.
______________________________________
Ed Whitman, K2MFY
LIDXA Secretary