Subject: McHenry County Wireless Association – Regular Meeting minuets Tuesday April 1, 2008
The regular meeting of the MCWA was called to order at 19:30 hrs by club President Jack, W9MU at the Nunda Township Hall north of Crystal Lake.
Introductions
Club President Jack, W9MU opened by welcoming members and the many guests and visitors. Jack began the self introductions.
Of those attending, special recognition was given to Jay, from McHenry working on obtaining his ham license and to Jim, AF4MO visiting here from Herndon VA. The business portion of the meeting was limited because of the evenings special presentation from K9AJ.
Vice Presidents’ report – none to report
Secretary’s report – minutes were published in the March news letter
Treasures report – treasury amount was announced.
History of Amateur Radio –Rich, K9PK gave an account of how radio played an important role during the sinking of the Titanic. 1500 people died in the iceberg catastrophe Distress radio signals were received at Cape Race, Newfoundland. The tragedy was also the stimulus for the Radio act of 1912. Rich also showed copies of the Titanic’s radio equipment schematics and provided quite a bit of information about them.
Wendell, N9REP announced the Schaumberg Bike club would have their annual bike run at Union, IL at the American Legion Hall located in downtown Union. Usually about 500 to 600 bikes participate. To help out, all you need is a radio and a vehicle. The bike club will reimburse for gas. It begins at 7:00 AM at the Legion hall. They serve pancakes before the ride. It should be ending about 1:30 PM. The date is April 27th, Sunday. They will use K9ESV repeater on 146.35. Contact N9REP at arrldotnet.
Wendell, N9RAP ran the Raffle. Tickets $1 each or 7 for $5.
On the bands, Dave, KA9OZP discussed he has worked all the DX positions as others in the club have, 15 Meters has been good.
Marty, W9MLP asked if anyone would be interested in presenting future monthly programs. Next months program will be of a video tour of MFJ – tour and interview with Martin Jew.
VEC’s announced – had two people, one was a 12 year old boy from Madison, who passed.
Jack, W9MU introduced the evenings very special guest speaker Mike, K9AJ. Mike, along with 15 other worldly hams from nations all over the world participated in a very rare DXpedition to Scarborough Reef, Scarborough Reef is located between Vietnam, China and The Philippines. Mike told of the 2007 experience and the many obstacles in getting to this very remote and practically non-existent location in the South China Sea from Hong Kong. The reef is just below the water line with only a few “rocks” not bigger than a small car extending above the surface. It was on these rocks the team assembled their “shacks” and made over 45,000 QSOs, Mike showed those attending the MCWA meeting many very impressive pictures of the rocks and operating platforms built upon the rocks. The audience also saw what life was like on board “Deep Blue” – their eating/sleeping headquarters and the vessel that brought them to the reef.
The timing of Mike’s presentation was consistent with the most recent article in the April QST
Steve, KA9NPT brought some old copies of issues of the historic ham conical “200 meters and down”,
We recorded 33 people in attendance. 19 members and 14 visitors.
Respectfully submitted, January 8, 2008 – Kent, K9KMD