Meeting Minutes – March 22,2025

Round Table Pizza, Jackson
Meeting was called to order at 12:19 p.m. by Treasurer Sue Allred, K6SZQ. There were 12 attending in person, with 2 more attending via zoom. Of these there was one guest. Sue welcomed everyone. Each member and guest introduced themselves.

Old Business:

• The January minutes were published in the February Newsletter. Rick Casey, W6RKC, moved to accept the report as published. Dave Sanders, K6TQ, seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
• The November and December treasurer’s reports were published in the February newsletter. Rich Hill, NU6T, moved to accept the reports as published. Stefan Nicov, AF6SA, seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

New Business: None.

Member Achievements:

• Rick Samoian, W6SR, worked VK9DX Norfolk Island on 6 meters.
• Jeff Stai, WK6I, got the banquet organized for the Visalia International DX Convention

Announcements/Discussion:

• The upcoming International DX Convention was discussed, along with the uncertainty with future events.
• Bob Hess, W1RH, while managing the livestream, showed photos of Stefan Nicov’s Solid State HF amplifiers and discussed the possibility of him doing a presentation on them.
• Bob Hess also passed around a list of equipment for sale from Tony Dowler, K6BV.

Next Meeting: Proposed date to be May 10, the location is Habanero Hots in Lodi.

Adjournment: Rick Samoian, W6SR, moved to adjourn the business meeting and move to the presentation. Jeff Stai, WK6I seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.

Presentation: John Stanley, K4ERO, gave a fascinating presentation on Antipodal Focusing and its effect on ionospheric propagation near the opposite side of the earth from the transmitter. You can also get further information from his article in the March, 2025 QST.

Respectfully Submitted,
G. “Skip” Chraft, N6NFB

Treasurer’s Report

Sue K6SZQ reported that, given the low level of activity, she’s going to switch to quarterly reporting. Look for the first quarter report in the next issue of The Nugget.

President’s Corner

Hi MLDXCC’ers,

Well, here I am as President of this club again.  I swore it would never happen but Steve, NC6R, termed out.  In an attempt to keep the club healthy, I made the suggestion that I’d take over as President and Steve will be VP… with one condition… Steve will keep running the meetings and I’ll continue to arrange the meetings and speakers.  So, nothing has really changed other than a “loophole” in the Bylaws that allows us to continue as we have over the past three years.

I want to thank John Stanley, K4ERO, for a terrific presentation at last month’s meeting on the subject of Antipodal Focusing, meaning propagation from your QTH to the opposite side of the earth.  We did record the meeting and, hopefully, Jeff will find a way to post the link on the all-new MLDXCC website.

I can’t thank Norm, N6JV, enough for what he has done for our website and newsletter.  Without Norm’s constant “nagging” for content, we would not have had a newsletter and website with the great content we have had over the years.  Alas, Norm has finally found someone to take over the website and Nugget.  We all thank Jeff, WK6I, for taking on the challenge of filling Norm’s big shoes.  Keep doing those great tube articles, Norm!

We have some really good speakers lined up for the upcoming months.  Our May speaker will be Chuck, NA6XX, who will give a presentation on 6-meter DX’ing and propagation.  Chuck, who lives in San Jose, will be driving to Habanero Hots, in Lodi, to give us his presentation in person.  I also plan to stream this meeting.  The date is May 10^th.

A few others have agreed to do upcoming presentations.  Stu, K6TU, will give a talk on his K6TU.net HF propagation site   Craig, K9CT, will give us a presentation on his super contest station.  Gary, NA6O, has also offered to give another one of his very entertaining talks.  Other presentation for future months are in the works.

Both Steve and I have resisted streaming our meetings in the past for various reasons.  We will be streaming more of our upcoming meetings.  I do hope we can get more of our members from outside the core area to attend.  Maybe even Will, from down south who often participates in our reflector conversation, will show us what he looks like!

In our February meeting, I did a contesting and DX’ing quiz, which seemed to get rave reviews, so we may do another one of those in the upcoming months.  The February quiz, and the answers, are in this month’s nugget.

Last, and certainly not least, several of our members participated in the CQ WPX SSB contest last weekend at WC6H’s contest station.  Besides Rich, the operators included Jeff (WK6I), Steve (NC6R), Gary (VA7RR), Tim (NU6S), and Barry (K6ST).  The team did a whopping 14,097,405 claimed score to support NCCC’s effort.

For those headed to Visalia, travel safe and have a great time! – Bob W1RH

Articles

Norm N6JV’s Tube of the Month

Gary NA6O reminds us how to properly Rotate Your Yagi (no, not that way!)

The Questions and the Answers to the quiz that Bob W1RH presented at the February 2025 meeting.

The Deleted Country of the Month, courtesy of the SCDXC.

2025 RTTY Roundup Final Results

Classifieds

Tony K6BV has the following items for sale, please contact him at dxer@k6bv.net.

ClubLog DXCC Standings

As of 31 March 2025. You can see complete MLDXCC standings on ClubLog here.

Overall

1	NK7I	211
2	W1SRD	200
3	W6DE	181
4	K6YK	164
5	K6OK	154

CW

1	K6YK	136
2	NO5Z	113
3	N6WM	103
4	NA6O	102
5	W1SRD	95

Phone

1	W1SRD	112
2	N6WM	111
3	NO5Z	106
4	K6YK	101
5	K6TQ	81

Data

1	NK7I	200
2	W1SRD	168
3	W6DE	161
4	K7QDX	149
5	K6OK	128

Resources

Check out the Resources menu up there at the top of every web page for useful DX and contest info.

Prepared for the MLDXCC by Editor and Webmaster Jeff WK6I. Please do send me any corrections, omissions, or material for future issues of The Nugget. It is much appreciated!