Metro DX Club Meeting Minutes
April 19, 2019
The meeting was called to order by Vice President Bob K9CJ with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
In attendance, besides Bob were Mel NE9A, Jerry K9PY, Matt K9BBQ, Barb KA9BAG, Bob N9ORD, Zig KM9M, Ed K9EGS, Mike K9ACM, Mike K9LSH John W9ILY, Lee WA9LEY
HEALTH AND WELFARE George W9OA is recovering from two back surgeries and is at Victorian Village in Lemont undergoing rehab. His contact info can be found on previous posts on the reflector.
ANNOUNCEMENTS Mike K9LSH reports he has 7 days of employment left until he joins the retired ranks.
OLD BUSINESS
The MINUTES of the March meeting were approved.
TREASURER’S REPORT John W9ILY reports the following expenses in March. Web costs $14.85, Bob K9CJ $70 for yearly meeting refreshments, Jim N9TK $70 for yearly meeting refreshments, $100 to INDEXA, $100 to NCDXF, $104.22 to Club Log. The club still has significant funds available to donate to DXpeditions.
WUST No new WUST awards issued this past month.
CONTESTS We had 4 members enter the CQ RTTY contest and our group scored about 168,00 points but that only put us at 31 of 34 clubs in our category. Still looking for more member participation in contests even if only making a few contacts. Make sure you report your results to John W9ILY who posts them on the “Members Contesting” tab on the Metro Website. A big state QSO Party weekend is coming up on May 4-5 with several states hosting their events on the same weekend. Plenty of opportunity to make some contacts.
LOCAL REPEATER NC9T 442.025 tone is 100hz, up 5 Mhz. Many members hang out here.
OUTGOING QSL BUREAU Jerry K9PY reports that the ARRL is dropping their service fee for outbound cards beginning 5/16. After that date, there will no longer be an advantage to have the Club forward QSL’s for our members. Thanks to Jerry for his previous efforts forwarding cards.
METRO ROSTER John W9ILY reports that our members are now 100% paid for 2019 dues.
NEW BUSINESS
2019 CLUB COMPETITION The Metro Marathon is underway to work the most DXCC countries in 2019 after 3/1. To even the playing field we are limiting power at 100 watts. Logging is on the honor system and you might need to use some kind of checklist if your normal logging program contains contacts at other power levels. Please forward your progress to John W9ILY at the beginning of each month. Your score is DXCC countries worked plus Zones worked. Confirmations are not required. There are a possible 340 DXCC counties and 40 zones out there to contact.
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.
PITCAIRN Jim N9TK and Jerry WB9Z will be members of the Pitcairn DXpedition in October. The club discussed making a donation. $200 was voted on and approved.
FIELD DAY The Club was looking for a new FD chairman but after having no one come forward, Bob K9CJ agreed to be chairman for another year. Jerry K9LOT is on board with letting us use his motor home again this year. Our previous site in Tinley is tentatively still available. We should know for sure the first week of May.
CLUB LOG We talked about members uploading their ADIF log to Club Log. There is a lot of info available on Club Log and it is worth a look for those that are not current users.
K9AJ Mike along with KD6WW will be on a IOTA expedition activating a new IOTA entity, NA-250 Alaska. They will be there 5/9 – 5/13 using the call K7Y. Lets give them some contacts from Metro members.
MAY MEETING DATE It was decided that our May meeting would be held on the 3rd Friday as usual. We had considered moving it to avoid a conflict with Dayton but most members present were not going so we will keep the date as usual.
The meeting was adjourned for refreshments.
PROGRAM John W9ILY gave the Club an update on FT8 operation especially how to set it up for both regular FT8 and for FT8 Fox and Hound operation. A question and answer period followed. He also mentioned that K1JT will be rolling out FT4 soon. Details on that program should be available within the next few weeks.
Submitted by Lee WA9LEY