HDXCCthe Hoosier DX and Contest Club
Minutes

Hoosier DX and Contest Club meeting minutes, 7 February 2002

ATTENDANCE:

  • Mike Goode/N9NS
  • Don Coulter/W9IU
  • Fred Kleber/K9VV
  • Jim Rinehart/K9RU
  • Mike O’Cull/WO9Z
  • Tim Gennett/K9WX
  • Mel Crichton/KJ9C
  • Steve Van Frank/W9TN
  • Tim Gardnetr/N9LF
  • Kevin McClure/WN9O
  • Mike Carper/WA9PIE
  • Chris Carper/KB9ZIG
  • Dave Zeph/W9ZRX
  • David Spoelstra/N9KT

The February meeting was held at the Yorkshire Rose Pub, Carmel. Members arrived at 6:30 PM and after dinner and the usual socializing the meeting was called to order by the President at 8:30. The January meeting minutes were read and approved. The Treasurer reported $434.78 is in the treasury with no expenditures expected in the near future.

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Tim/N9LF attended the South Bend Hamfest last month and reported it was “OK, but crowded”. He probably wouldn’t go next year.

2. Mike/WA9PIE reported the Great Lakes QSO Party info has been published for the Michigan sponsors on our website. They will post on their website info on the Indiana QSO Party.

3. Indiana QSO Party - Tim/K9WX and Steve/W9TN reported they have the rules firmed up. Steve commented there should be an official counties list as most other states do this. The list will have official abbreviations for the counties, usually 3 or 4 letters. Steve passed around a proposed list and all agreed to it. It will be posted on our club web site along with the rules. He will also contact various logging software authors to create a file that supports our QSO Party.. Tim/N9LF moves we accept Steve’s work, the motion is seconded and approved.

4. David/N9KT has had no success in meeting with Indpls. Motor Speedway officials about setting up a special event station. At this late date he is giving up on trying for the Indy 500 and will see if he can get something set up for the Brickyard 400. Fred/K9VV knows some racing people and will help out. It has been decided the club should try to acquire two new calls (W9IMS?) to use for these special events. N9NS will start the paperwork with assistance from N9KT.

5. Field Day was discussed with Mike/WA9PIE suggesting some locations near Westfield or Fortville might provide more public access, gaining us extra bonus points. Dave/W9ZRX says the club is welcome at his place this year as usual, and is unhappy he didn’t learn sooner there was a suggestion to change in locations. Mike/N9NS pointed out last year we made 1100 out of a possible 1300 bonus points. He suggested that gaining 100 or 200 more bonus points by moving could be more than offset by losses in QSO’s caused by our having to set up and operate in an unfamiliar location and having operators distracted by strangers wandering through the stations. After some discussion it was generally agreed that we should stick with a familiar location. WA9PIE motions we operate from W9ZRX’s QTH this year, the motion is seconded and passed.

There was some discussion on how to set up the stations this year. We concluded it might be better to have a 40/80 meter station plus a high band station. Kevin/WN9O set up planning committes for both stations. The chairmen will be WN9O for the 40/80 station and N9NS for the high-band station.

Mike/N9NS pointed out that Field Day rules may be changing this year and we may have to re-think our strategy. He will report at the next meeting.

6. DXCC card checking. In the past we have not been able to talk with our SCM about having someone appointed. Jim/K9RU has talked with Peggy about this and she understands what we want now. We will see if something can be done.

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Mike/WA9PIE brought an application to apply for SCM. He needs several signatures nominating him. It was passed around and everyone signed.

2. Dave/W9ZRX commented on Packetcluster saying the number of users connected to most nodes declines during contests due to heavy traffic. Many users never get “ACKed” back to the node and eventually are dropped. He points out that AR-Cluster supports non-ACKed spot distributions and this could eliminate the problem. Treasurer N9NS asked Dave to come up with a budget for a new KJ9D node computer that would support AR-Cluster and report at the next meeting.

3. Kevin/WN9O announced that at the March meeting the club was paying for Carl/K9LA to come down from Ft. Wayne and give a talk on propagation. Everyone should attempt to attend!

4. Mike/WN9O announced he will be in Jamacia for the upcoming ARRL SSB DX Contest. He finished 4th in World/low power last year from this location.

DX AWARD: N9NS for working 45 countries in January.

CONTEST AWARD: W9IU for 1400 QSO’s in the NAQP & 160 contests.

The next meeting will be 14 March 2002 at the Yorkshire Rose Pub, 6:30 PM.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 10:10 PM

73/DX/Mike/N9NS - Sec/Treas, HDXCC