[EIDXA] Minutes of Jan 17, 2014 meeting

[Richard Haendel]

Minutes of the EIDXA meeting Jan 17, 2014


Meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by our President Craig, K0CF.

34 hams answered the CQ call.

Rich, W3ACO read minutes of the Nov 1, 2013 meeting and provided a 
treasurers report. Both reports were approved by the club.

Jason, NR0X discussed W1AW/0 operation for the Iowa contingent beginning 
March 26. Period of operation will be for one week, 168 hours.  Operators 
can sign up with Jason. Modes will be either CW or SSB. Operations can be 
from the NR0X station or your own station.  Jason encourages others to 
notify their local clubs that they can participate as well. Contact Jason at 
jason at kd0mnd.com  for more information.



Jason also reported on the status of whether we should change our web 
service provider. After review, he determined that after the introductory 
discounts, the yearly costs would be about the same.  He suggested that we 
keep Iowa Solutions as the web service provider.





Jim, W0SR talked about the progress of the Tom Hise DX fund and how it 
should work. There was an earlier suggestion that the club turn over the DX 
funds to a non profit foundation.  Jim brought up several issues.  Jim found 
out that the foundation would distribute only the income and retain the 
principal.  That means the fund would have only 200-300 dollars available 
each year at best to distribute.  The foundation would distribute funds only 
to 501(c)3 charities.  DX expeditions would be required to qualify as 
charities under Internal Revenue Service laws.  There was no mechanism for 
distributing funds to international operations without spending thousands of 
dollars in fees.



The conclusion is that we will continue our effort by managing the funds 
within EIDXA.



The Tom Hise funds are held in the clubs checking account.  Rich, W3ACO, 
showed the modified financial spreadsheet to track separately the balance in 
the Tom Hise fund.



Craig, K0CF, presented proposed logos for the Tom Hise DX fund. One logo was 
selected with recommendations to remove the word "memorial". The revised 
logo will be presented our next meeting for club approval.



Tom, WB8ZRL provided an update of the by-law changes needed to accommodate 
management of the Tom Hise fund.  Status : work in progress.



Jerry, WW0E, our Vice President requested that any and all members who have 
early pictures of themselves in their ham shacks to forward these pictures 
to him for inclusion in our next newsletter.



There was a discussion of upcoming Dxpedition to Tromelin.  Tromelin is #10 
on the DX most wanted list. Craig, K0CF put up our DX evaluation spreadsheet 
comparing Tromelin to HK0NA.  Tromelin scored 115 points.    Terry, W0AWL, 
made a motion to donate $300 to this effort. The motion was approved by 
voice vote. Rich, W3ACO will make the transfer via his Paypal account.



On Jan 18, W3ACO sent a contribution of 220 ? ($305.78) to Tromelin.  Note 
that Paypal now charges a 2.5% fee for donations requiring currency 
conversion.



Craig, K0CF asked for suggestions regarding future programs. He noted that 
K9CT may be available for presentation of one of the DXpeditions he recently 
was on, Midway, but he is now an op in the FT5ZM expedition. Craig will send 
e-mails as needed to find out K9CTs status.

Rick N0YY provided a program about the PJ2 station. Rick gave strategies for 
planning, setting goals and increasing operator skills using several 
software programs. He provided comparison of PJ2T to two other contest 
stations, and described ongoing improvements to the station.  Thank you 
Rick, for a very interesting program.




Rich W3ACO