Metro DX Club Meeting Minutes
October 18, 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, Mike K9AJ, Susan K9XYL, Mel NE9A, Mike K9LSH, John W9ILY, Lee WA9LEY
HEALTH AND WELFARE No serious issues reported.
OLD BUSINESS
The MINUTES of the June meeting were approved.
TREASURER’S REPORT John W9ILY reports the Club had a light month with no income and the only expense was a $14.85 Web charge. John distributes a detailed Treasurers report at each meeting with the details filed on our groups.io site.
WUST No recent awards
CONTESTS This is contest season with a few on tap this weekend including the Illinois QSO party, JARTS RTTY, Worked All Germany and Stew Perry. There’s something for everyone most every weekend. Next weekend is CQWW SSB. It’s a great time to have some fun picking up new countries, band countries and if you like, try to be competitive in the category of your choice. It’s also great for adding countries to your CQ DX Marathon totals and Metro Marathon totals before the end of the year. Be sure to report your contest scores to John W9ILY so they can be posted on the Metro website. Be sure to upload your scores to 3830.com too.
CLUB LOG We are reminded to upload our complete logs in ADIF form periodically, at least once per year, to stay active on their site. Lots of good info on Club Log to check out if you aren’t familiar already.
CONTESTONLINESCOREBOARD.COM Check out this score tracker to follow your progress during contests.
BRIDGE TEEN CENTER Bob K9CJ has been in contact with this group to investigate the possibility of doing a ham radio program for them. A group of Metro members will meet with them soon to plan the details. Related to this was a discussion of ideas the club might look into to get younger people interested in ham radio.
FIELD DAY We need to start looking for a new site for 2020. A possibility was getting back to our old site at the Tinley Mental Health Center but the chances may be “iffy”. Any ideas are welcome.
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. 7 members have submitted entries so far.
CQ DX MARATHON As mentioned earlier, the CQWW SSB contest is next weekend and is a great time to pick up new countries for the Marathon. Metro member John K9EL runs this program for CQ. 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. Elections will be at the November meeting.
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.
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. VP6 and 5K0 are on now. ZK3A and TO8 just finished up.
WINTERFEST Our Winterfest dinner in January was tentatively set for Friday, 1/17/20
The meeting was adjourned for refreshments.
PROGRAM Lee WA9LEY presented a slide show of this year’s club Field Day Event. Our antennas and operating positions were featured as well as a scoring wrap up. As a bonus this month, Mike K9LSH showed photos of his recent trip to Europe.
Submitted by Lee WA9LEY