Metro DX Club Meeting Minutes

June 21, 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, Zig KM9M, Mel NE9A, Jim NV9X, Mike K9LSH John W9ILY, Lee WA9LEY

HEALTH AND WELFARE George W9OA is recuperating at home and he has been heard back on the air.

OLD BUSINESS

The MINUTES of the May meeting were approved with the following correction. The Metro picnic will be hosted by Jerry WB9Z and Val NV9L with the assistance of Mark K9TP. Historical meeting minutes with any corrections can be found posted on the Club web site.

TREASURER'S REPORT John W9ILY reports the Club had $16.35 income and no expenses.

WUST Congratulations to the latest recipient of the WUST award, W6KGP.

CONTESTS No contest results to report but there are plenty of contests and DXpeditions coming up to keep members busy.

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

OUTGOING QSL BUREAU Reminder from last month: The ARRL dropped their service fee for outbound cards beginning 5/16. There is no longer an advantage to have the Club forward QSL's for our members. Thanks to Jerry K9PY for his previous efforts forwarding cards.

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. John has received a few updates but we are hoping this club activity picks up. Standings can be found on the Metro web site.

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.

FIELD DAY IS TOMORROW Jim N9TK volunteered his work site in Alsip as an alternate location to our Tinley site which is not available. His site includes a flag pole and trees for stringing antennas and we have the use of air conditioned office space inside for operating. There's a covered port outside for the generator. Our plan is to enter as 2A with a VHF/UHF station. Our FD chairman Bob K9CJ says we are ready to go. All items needed from his circulated checklist have been filled. Jerry K9PY has purchased the food for lunch and the plan is to order out pizza for dinner. We will be using 2 K3's for HF and a Flex on VHF. Tentative antennas are a Zepp and vertical on HF and a rotatable dipole for 6 meters.

METRO PICNIC July 27th--The Metro picnic will be hosted by Jerry WB9Z and Val NV9L with help from Mark K9TP. There will be no regular meeting in July. More details to come.

AUGUST MEETING We will have our annual joint meeting with NIDXA on August 9th. More details will follow.

The meeting was adjourned for refreshments.

PROGRAM John W9ILY and Lee WA9LEY presented some great sites for DXing and general operating. Some were familiar and others were new to many of the members in attendance. Rather than list them all here, John W9ILY will post them on the Metro website. It will be worth a look.

Submitted by Lee WA9LEY