September 2019

Metro DX Club Meeting Minutes

September 20, 2019

The meeting was called to order by President Jim N9TK with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. In attendance, besides Jim were Bob K9CJ, John K9DRS, Jerry K9PY, Mel NE9A, Steve W9KXT, John W9ILY, Lee WA9LEY

HEALTH AND WELFARE No serious issues reported.

OLD BUSINESS

The MINUTES of the June meeting were approved. This was our first regular meeting since June. Our picnic was in July and our joint meeting with NIDXA was in August.

TREASURER’S REPORT John W9ILY reports the Club had the following recent expenses. $200 for our club’s yearly general liability insurance, $67.05 for picnic food, $115.28 for Field Day food and fuel, $14.85 for quarterly web cost. We had $25 income from a dues payment and a picnic donation from K9GA.

WUST No recent awards

CONTESTS John W9ILY had plenty of contest reports. We had 13 members participate in CQWW and 9 participate in the 10 meter contest. We had teams compete in NAQP and had members participate in WPX RTTY, ARRL CW and RTTY Roundup. Special mention goes out to Bob K9CJ for winning the 7 Mhz category in the 9th district and John W9ILY who won his category on 14 Mhz in the CQ WPX SSB contest. DOUBLE SPECIAL MENTION goes out to the team at NV9L placing #1 IN THE USA in the Multi Single High Power category.

FIELD DAY Another successful operation with 5550 points in the 2A category. 1186 CW Q’s, 56 Phone Q’s and 56 Digital Q’s. We had 13 participants. Thanks to Jim N9TK who provided our site this year.

METRO MARATHON Members are urged to submit their progress to John W9ILY monthly. The results will be announced at Winterfest in January. The rules can be found in previous posts.

CQ DX MARATHON Metro member John K9EL runs this program for CQ Magazine and made an interesting presentation at W9DXCC. It’s a fun activity even for those who have “worked them all”. It’s pretty easy to participate. Just work DX throughout the year and submit your results at the end of the year. Details can be found at http://www.dxmarathon.com

LOCAL REPEATER NC9T 442.025 tone is 100hz, up 5 Mhz. Many members hang out here.

NEW BUSINESS

CLUB ELECTIONS Looking for members who might be interested in becoming a Club officer.

SHACK TOURS We would like to occasionally have programs highlighting member ham shacks. Nothing fancy, just a few photos of your station/antennas. You can include videos if you like. Ideas of showing your “early days” station and highlighting awards earned can be included. We hope to get member participation on this. If you don’t have a way to get them in a form to present, you can email them to Lee WA9LEY who can put them in a Power Point format to view at a meeting.

W9DXCC Many members attended and reported having a great time. Thanks to Paul K9NU who was Chairman of W9DXCC this year.

METRO PICNIC and W9C SPECIAL EVENT We are combining our picnic next year with a special event operation. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of a major train derailment in Crescent City. If you Google Crescent City Fireball you’ll find details. We will be using the call W9C. Jerry WB9Z and Val NV9L will be hosting the picnic again next year and are allowing us to use their superstation for our special event. More details will follow.

DX There has been lots of DX available to work lately including C21, 6O7, T6, 7Q. Watch your favorite DX spotting network and listen on the 440 repeater where members call in DX.

NEXT WEEKEND HRO Superfest in Milwaukee and CFMC hamfest.

The meeting was adjourned for refreshments.

PROGRAM We watched several videos produced by K4UEE. They showed some of what goes into a successful DXpedition. Very interesting and a couple of Metro members were participants in some of the videos we watched.

Submitted by Lee WA9LEY