Club Correspondence & Meeting Minutes

In order to keep members in touch this page contains the most recent meeting minutes, birthdays and important club correspondence. Meeting minutes are also published each month in the club newsletter.

Most Recent Club Meeting Minutes - John, WØNZG

MVDX/CC Meeting Minutes for January, 2012

MVDX/CC Meeting Minutes

Mississippi Valley DX/Contest Club (MVDX/CC)

Meeting Minutes – January 12, 2012

The January 2012 MVDX/CC meeting was called to order by President Eric Zust-WØTT at 7:01 PM.

Eric-W0TT asked for visitors to introduce themselves. There were 3 visitors in attendance: Jeff -KC0ZIX, George-KD0PMW, and John-KD0MJJ.

Eric asked that members introduce themselves with their name and call. We had 18 HOGS present including WØTT, K2VV, ABØRX, W0NFS, K2DP, N5TN, N0AX, KD0BXU, WO0C, K0HHB, N0HIO, K0JFI, K0JPL, KD0LIB, W0NZG, NV0R, WB0SND, and W0VM. Unfortunately the weather and road conditions held the attendance down for this month.

Announcements and Old Business:

  • Treasurer’s Report: Club Treasurer, George-ABØRX announced that we had $447.90 of expenses for the month which included a donation to the Northern California DX Foundation. The club has a funds balance of $3,634.69

  • QSL Bureau Report: It was mentioned that the W0 QSL bureau is currently looking for a sorter to the handle the letter ‘H’. If you are interesting in volunteering to become a sorter or for more information, contact Rich, K0GSV at G@zeroburo.org

  • Health and Welfare: Steve-W0SJS sister-in-law passed away. The entire MVDX/CC expressed our condolences to Steve and his family. Greg Wilson-N4CC, who lives in both Florida and Idaho fell due to a charley horse leading to a second fall that resulting in having a broken neck. Dwight-NI0F is very sick and not doing well. Our prayers are will all members and their families.

  • Birthday Report: Tom-K0HHB gave the report of members with December birthdays: NS0M, NO0C, N0DIA, AC0N, NV0R, KC0PP, K0ARY, and WA0IDS

  • DX Contest Report: Malpelo lead party is there now and working QSO’s. George worked the RTTY round-up working single op, 2 radios and worked 1820 QSO’s. The 160 meter contest in about 3 weeks. Eric-W0TT worked South Korea on 160. XU7 was worked earlier in the morning as well by a club member.

  • DXCC List: The club member DX totals are on the website by band and mode and maintained by John-K2VV. 90% is from the ARRL website, which is not easily searchable; therefore, it will not be updated from that source too frequently. John encouraged club members to send their DXCC data directly to him – both with deleted countries and without deleted countries. John will work with Steve about putting a form on the website to be filled in and sent to John. The ARRL website only includes accredited entities and not LOTW confirmed contacts that have not been accredited for a DXCC.

  • DXpedition Support: A discussion was held establishing a budget for 2012. The 2011 level budget was $1000 excluding the NCDXF donation. The actual amount of support provided was $1150. It was discussed that the committee that recommends the donations for individual DXpeditions using the following criteria: Location is on the top 100 list to qualify, goals of the DXpedition, and recognition of donations on their website. An example was giving of request that was declined since one of the goals was to concentrate on Europe.

It was mentioned that some DXpeditions provide contributors cards first of does select loading or initial loading to LOTW (practice is frowned upon by the ARRL).

There was also a discussion on the club budget and the affordability of setting a $1000 budget for this expense.

MOTION: Don-W0VM moved and Ward-N0AX seconded a motion that a 2012 budget be set at $1000 excluding the NCDXF donation. MOTION PASSED unanimously.

Eric mentioned the club received a DVD and Letter from the ST0R South Sudan DXpedition as thanks for the club’s support. The DVD will likely be shown at a future meeting.

  • Winterfest – Reminder that the Winterfest is on January 28 as the same location as last year.

  • DUES: 2012 dues are currently due. If you have not paid, you can may George-AB0RX at the meeting for by mailing the dues to him

  • Club License: The club has received it club license. The next step it research vanity calls and to apply for a vanity call. The call in not contest friendly and the decision has been made not to use the call but to wait until we have a vanity call. Once we get a vanity call, then all the websites like QRZ.com and W5YI will be updated. There was a discussion on looking for a vanity call that either has DX or HOG as part of the call. It was pointed out that vanityhq.com is a good source for researching available calls. Recommendations will be made at the next meeting.

New Business:

  • Eric-W0TT mentioned that our webmaster, Steve-W0SJS received very little input for the club newsletter. As a result, the newsletter was not published this month. He encouraged members to send input to Steve for future newsletters.

  • Eric-W0TT presented a President’s Award to John-W0NZG for his 5 years of service as the secretary to the club. Congratulations John!!!

  • NEXT MEETING: Thursday, February 9, at the Thornhill Library at 7 PM.

  • The business portion of the meeting was adjourned at 8:05 PM.

Presentation:

Eric introduced the speaker for the presentation, Ward Silver, N0AX. Ward gave a very interesting presentation on this recent Sweepstakes operation from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. In addition to operating and winning the sweepstakes with a clean sweep, Ward also discussed his side trip to the famous Arecibo observatory.

73,

Rick Barron, W0NFS, Club Secretary

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