January 2005 Minutes

SPOKANE DX ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Jan. 06, 05 Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 7 PM by President Randy Foltz K7TQ, Jan 06 2005 at the Spokane County Library at Argonne and Upriver Drive. There were 13 members and no guests present. The attendance record was circulated.

COMMENTS
*K7TQ-F-Randy said that in looking back over his logs, he has documented 4144 QRP-CW QSO’S. I believe I also heard him say he has also logged 186 countries, all QRP on CW. (Wonder what kind of supergobslopscious antenna farm he’s got? Must be a beaut!).

*K7OX-F-Gary said he had no radio-activity to report, what with the Holidays and company etc. Gary’s going to copy a tape of the Tango 33 Dxpedition from K6GMV for club use.

*W3AS-F-Doug has been busy installing a new program in his computer. Doug reminds us to please get our contest scores to him promptly, if possible, so he can forward them for club credit.

*K7EKM-A-Kirk has gotten his 3 ele. Hi-Gain Yagi mounted and operating. He will put up his tower in the spring and get the antenna up higher. He got his MMTTY (I hope that’s correct) hooked up so now he’s on RTTY and PSK 31; He says it works great and tuning is a piece of cake. Good show Kirk!

*WU7X-F-Dale QSO’ed a VU4(India) in December. He’s been working to make his station more user friendly. He still needs to get an MMTTY for RTTY and PSK-31. His linear and antenna are working great and he’s been having a lot of fun on the bands. He likes getting on between about 1530Z and 1800Z and talking to folks in the U.K.

*N7ER-F-Earl was inactive in December but did a lot of listening around the bands.

*WA7LT-F-Lamar worked the ARRL 160m contest, Dec.3-5, and got a WAS all in one weekend (not a first for Lamar). He also worked the ARRL Sweepstakes, Nov.20-22, and got about 1350 US and Canadian contacts on SSB, about the same number (1364) as their GREAT WEEKEND TEAM EFFORT in the Oct. CQ WW SSB contest. Good going Lamar!

*K7AWB-F-Steve got his DXCC on CW last month. Steve’s been using “Logbook of the World”, and says it works great. Steve’s stil working with the power Co. to resolve power line interference. He also had a computer problem with his Rigblaster interface and finally resolved it by installing a new bios in the computer. Steve’s also been working a lot of 6m meteor scatter and will do a presentation to the club at the Feb. meeting. He’s also wiring the shack with a new 220 line to power up his “new” L4B amp.

*NE7F worked VU4RBI on the Andaman I. Dxpedition. He also worked W6B, a “Battle of the Bulge” station while mobile in an Ore. Canyon, (pretty good mobile, Jim). He’s got his anchors in for his new tower, and now waiting for better weather. Jim mentioned he’s put a good “useful link” on our www.sdxa.org. website, which I find very useful, as well as other improvements.

*AC7MV-A-Dave had no activity to report due to lots of Holiday “doings”.

*W7JJL-A-John likewise, had no activity to report due to Holiday “doings”

*N5AR-F-Dan has been in repeated contact with the VU4 Dxpedition on Andaman I. and “clued-in” the rest of us by e-mail on their activity and operation times and frequencies. Dan also reported they suffered no serious problems as a result of the terrible Tsunami not far from their location. Dan’s been busy preparing the 2nd half of his Amplifier presentation for tonights meeting.

*KD7OCT-A-Loren didn”t have a lot of activity other than working 3 or 4 South Americans and 1 Italian in Bologna while checking into a local evening net.

TREASURER’S REPORT-Dan N5AR
Bank Account 01 Jan. 05 $ 108.95
Cash on Hand $ 123.20
Check from KBARA $ 417.18
Dues payments $ 40.00
Balance $ 689.18

Dan reminds us that 2005 Dues ( $20 ) are now due and payable.

OLD BUSINESS
The Nov. 04 minutes and report of Dec. Banquet were accepted as published.

NEW BUSINESS
Gary K7OX made a motion to make Glenn N7VBW an honorary member. It was seconded.

Lamar suggested we consider joining the IEVHF club individually and send in dues as per their invitational letter sent out, in support of our use of their repeater.

Steve K7AWB volunteered to attend the IEVHF Jan. meeting to discuss our continued use of their Mt. Spokane Repeater.

PRESIDENT’S JANUARY LETTER
President Randy K7TQ attached a letter to the January meeting notice reviewing SDXA’s activities and accomplishments since the first club meeting on April 11, 2002. Randy then invited the members present to contribute any ideas and thoughts relating to the direction we would like to see the club take for the future. He then brought up several ideas, previously mentioned in his letter, that he felt should be discussed.

First Item: The DX cluster had some problems during Nov. contesting periods. These problems have been hopefully solved with the changing of some software, and the system is reported to be working fine at this time.

There was some discussion about coordinating more closely with the IEVHF club since it is their repeater we are using on Mt. Spokane. Steve K7AWB was to attend their Jan. meeting on the 2nd Thursday of Jan. to look into that coordination issue.

Second Item: President Randy proposed that we consider publishing a Newsletter as some clubs do, and he brought some sample newsletters to share. The merits such the good publicity among the Ham fraternity; as well as the problems, such as the man-hours and expertise required to assemble the letter and the cost of printing and mailing were discussed. The subject was left open to further discussion at a future meeting.

Third Item: President Randy said he would like to see us expand into an in-person club Presence in the Salmon Run. He felt that we could get some club members together and operate using the club call, similar to Field Day. He felt that counties in Eastern Wash. Are always underrepresented in this event.
He thought that we might run one or more “Salmon Run Mobiles” around to the rarer counties, as they do in Western Wash. I think we have several volunteers for that. After some discussion, the majority agreed we could be more active in this event. The subject was left open to further future discussion.

Addendum from Pres. Randy 01-28-05 (This just in from Randy)

Dear SDXA Members,

The week after our January meeting I received an e-mail from John Lally, W7JJL, that had a suggestion for increased SDXA exposure. Part of what John said was ” I have some thought pertaining to the issue of boosting new membership. In order to get new membership, I think that we need some way of showing perspective members what we do and what we are about…. One of the strongest characteristics of our group is the knowledge base of our members…. I believe that we can expand our exposure to the local ham population by having an informal net on one of the local repeaters…. It could be a net which meets one night a week and would be a simple general discussion format among the members.”

Think about this suggestion and we can discuss it at the February meeting. Also continue to think about the ideas Loren has summarized quite well in the January meeting minutes.

Randy, K7TQ

PROGRAM
“What to Look for in an Amplifier- Part 2”

Dan N5AR briefly reviewed Part 1, which he gave in Nov., showing charts listing various amplifiers, old and new, with power ratings, tube types and prices, for those who missed the Part 1. He also reviewed the various common power amplifier tubes. Then in Part 2, we took a look inside a number of amplifiers with the aid of pictures and He discussed some of the good and not so good points of construction and layout as well as parts quality. Dan then discussed design problems in all band amplifiers and transceiver interfacing. He also discussed “soft start circuits” to prevent voltage spikes or shock during turn-on. Dan then demonstrated his recently built 9kv.“hi-pot” tester, used to check for leakage between elements of vacuum tubes, vacuum relays and capacitors. Both parts of Dan’s program were very informative and interesting and of great value, particularly to anyone considering purchasing an amplifier. Thank You for an excellent presentation Dan!

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Vice. Pres.Steve K7AWB wants to update our DX Scores on our website. He sent out an e-mail on the subject on Jan. 27th. Please give him your statistics as soon as you can so he can complete this project.

Peter 1 Island- Dale WU7X just informed me that a Peter 1 Dxpedition will be on in mid-Febuary-DON’T MISS IT; IT’S A RARE ONE!

The Next Meeting will be at the North County Library just North of the Y off North Division on Hawthorne. Steve will present a program on “An introduction to 6m and Meteor Scatter”. I’ll send out an announcement very shortly.

Please visit our web site at www.sdxa.org its full of good information and useful links.

73’s and Happy Dxing
Loren KD7OCT, Sec. Spokane DX Association
[email protected]