Metro DX Club March Meeting Minutes 3/19/21
The Metro DX Club’s March meeting was held on 3/19 via ZOOM. Thanks to John K9EL who arranged checking members in.
The meeting was called to order by Metro President Jim N9TK. Those attending besides Jim were:
W0GJ, KL7YL, W9PDS, K9EL, W9ILY, K9CJ, WA9LEY, AB9YC, K9AJ, K9XYL, WT2P, K9NU, W9ZJ, K9GY, W9GJY, W0XXX, KC9EOQ,
N9LAH, K9ARZ, WB9FMC, L9LSH, WB8BZK, WA9GQK, NE9A, N2BJ, K9GA, K9KE, K9NB, WO9S.
HEALTH AND WELFARE Several members spoke of their 1st or 2nd Covid vaccine shots.
FEBRUARY MINUTES Approved
TREASURER’S REPORT John W9ILY reports our Club had income of $40 from dues and a donation. The Club paid out donations totaling $301.23 to INDXA, NCDXF and Club Log that were approved at our last meeting.
DUES Most members were paid up for 2021. Our paid up roster can be viewed on our groups.io site.
WUST AWARD John W9ILY has been in contact with KI4KWR who is the new Awards column editor of CQ Magazine informing him of our Club’s WUST award. John submitted an article and pictures have have been told that it will be featured in the Awards column in the May issue of CQ Magazine. Nice job John.
KING OF THE HILL Reminder: there has been a rule change for 2021. A member can only win the King of the Hill once during the year but can still accumulate points throughout the year toward the end of the year King of the Mountain award. Our February winner was Barry N2BJ (ARRL FEB CW) and the March winner was Mike W9MK (ARRL MARCH SSB). Super scores achieved by both. Congratulations.
CONTESTS John W9ILY reports that we fielded 2 teams for both the NAQP CW and NAQP SSB, not winners but it was fun.
WPX SSB is coming up at the end of the month.
DX There has been some good DX stations active lately including VK9 and A25. Lots of FT8 activity.
W9DXCC Paul K9NU reports that he has been in contact with the event venue and is proceeding as if it will happen. Updates will follow.
IN PERSON MEETINGS Jim N9TK has been in contact with Pat Carr at Tinley Park who said we could resume in person meetings with restrictions. A private vote was taken from those members present who would be interested in getting together, possibly at an April meeting. Baileys, our usual pre meeting dinner spot, is open for business. Announcements will be made as this progresses.
After some additional discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
PROGRAM We were very happy to have a well known and experienced DXpeditioner as our guest this month. Glenn Johnson W0GJ has been a participant and leader of many top DXpeditions over the years. After talking about some of his early years as a ham, he went on to go through his top 11 DXpeditions. VK0IR Heard Island. World record QSO’s at the time. A52A Bhutan. Was awarded honorary citizenship for his work with the local people. VU4AN/ local call Andaman Islands. VU7RG Lakshadweep Island. K5D Desecheo Island. HK0NA Malpelo Island. K1N Navassa Island. K5P Palmyra. Glenn says this is paradise. Bouvet. Made it to the island but were not able to make it on shore. VP6R Pitcairn. Fascinating place, lots of history and friendly people. The last on his list was C0VID. We all have stories to tell about this one. Some of Glenn’s favorites were Palmyra, Pitcairn and Bhutan. Most challenging were Bovet and Malpelo.
Glenn talked about looking into different ways of activating rare entities including some US entities controlled by the Fish and Wildlife Department. He mentioned that the NCDXF has funded Rigs in a Box (RIB) which are being tested and deployed now. If you work C6AGU, you are probably hearing a RIB. The idea is to deploy a RIB which would be minimally invasive to the environment and operate it from off shore or some other remote arrangement. All transmitters, receivers and antennas would be on the island.
A Q&A session followed.
To learn more about Glenn, view his web page at QRZ.com.
Also, for more detail on his presentation, check the recording of the March 19th meeting provided by John K9EL.
http://www.k9el.com/MetroDX/MetroDX-19Mar2021.mp4
Submitted by Lee WA9LEY
Metro Secy.