The April 2015 meeting of the Madison DX Club was held on Tuesday the 14th at Fitzgerald’s in Middleton.
The meeting was called to order by President Ted – K9IMM at 7:15 PM.
Fourteen members, and guests Kyle – KD9CNX and Bonnie – W9BJB attended.
Secretary’s Report: Minutes of the March 2015 meeting were read and approved.
Treasurer’s Report: Financial Statement of Account for the general fund as of March 17, 2015 was read and approved.
Committee Reports:
– DX Report… Ted – K9IMM reported recent propagation has been “not so good”.
– DX Report… Bill – N9CHN reported that ZL7E Chatham Is and FW5JJ – Wallis & Futuna are both QRV at this time.
– Repeater… Ed – N9MW: Repeater operating well, frequencies are 444.775 / 449.775 with 123 PL.
– DX Spotting Cluster… Ed – N9MW: W9BG is operating well.
– Website… Ed – N9MW: Website is operating well.
– Email… Ted – K9IMM: MDXC and SWAP e-mail reflectors are operating well.
– Scholarship… Ed – N9MW: The Scholarship committee hosted a scholarship table at the MARA Hamfest in Stoughton on April 11.
– Scholarship… Future committee work may include promotion of amateur radio to young people.
– Scholarship… The suggestion was made to contact the local Boy Scout office as they have a merit badge available for studying radio communications.
General and Member Information:
John – N9EM and Ted – K9IMM both had lightning visiting their QTHs during the recent spring thunderstorms.
Dan – K9IBM received his first DXCC award from the ARRL.
Doug – W9PN is refurbishing a Ten Tec Titan 425 legal limit amplifier that he acquired recently.
Dick – K9APW operated as 7QAA during the March 2015 Malawi DXpedition.
7QAA made 66,000 contacts on CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK. Four stations were active using hex-beams.
Old Business:
Lloyd – N9LB reported that the previously authorized donations for DXpeditions to TX3X – Chesterfield Is and to VK0EK – Heard Is have been made and our club logo is now displayed on the sponsor pages of both web sites.
It was decided to continue to table the requests for funding from the two proposed Bouvet DXpeditions until their plans are better defined and more definite.
New Business:
Nominations for President, Vice President, and Secretary/Treasurer club officers are being solicited for the May meeting.
Voting will take place during the June meeting. Please consider volunteering for one of these positions.
The business meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.
Following the business meeting, we participated in a webinar presented by Craig Thompson – K9CT about designing and building a DX-ing and contesting grade station including lessons learned from building his station.
The May meeting program will be a presentation about practical antenna design and construction by Ed – N9MW.
Submitted by Lloyd Berg – N9LB, MDXC Secretary/Treasurer
