The meeting was called to order by President Boyd Garrett, N5CTI, at 8:35am with 32 members present. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

 

Boyd called our business meeting to order. The minutes were read by LARG Secretary Randy Sly, W4XJ, and were approved. Gary Quinn, NC4S, our treasurer, was not present so no treasurer's report was given.

 

 

Committee Reports

 

Training - Denny, KF4TJI, reported that the class was over but no license upgrades have been reported as yet. He thanked all those who helped teach the class.

 

Randy, W4XJ, reported that Dave Manning, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the Sterling National Weather Service Office, had passed his Technician class license at a special examining session give for forecasters at the NWS office. (Secretary's note: Dave's license was issued on November 27. His call is KI4SHL.)

 

Contests - John, W4AU gave a final report on the club's operation for the Pennsylvania QSO party. The team logged 2230 contacts, all counties, 76 sections, and received the DX multiplier. It looks like they will have posed the high overall score as well as the high multi-multi score.

 

The ARRL Sweepstakes Contest begins today at 4pm. Club members were reminded of the unique exchange used in the Sweepstakes and newer operators were encouraged to listen for awhile and then jump in.

 

Interference - Mark, W3ZI, said that BPL is still the hot topic in Virginia. Discussion was given to interference caused by Plasma TV's.

 

Emergency/Public Service - Tom, WB3AKD, reported that the everything was ready for the Fox Hunt after the meeting. The signal could be heard from the church parking lot, so the hunt could begin from the meeting location.

 

Tom again reminded the club that our next public service event, First Night Leesburg, is coming soon and encouraged people to plan on participating.

 

 

Old Business

 

Holiday Dinner - Boyd reminded the club of our upcoming Holiday Dinner, Tuesday, December 5 at That's Amore Restaurant in Cascades. Money was due by December 1^st.

 

New Business

 

Nominating Committee - Boyd, N5CTI, announced the nominating committee for the new year. Denny, KF4TJI; John, W4AU; and Paul, N4PD were selected.

 

Newsletter - John, W4AU, brought up the issue of the Newsletter and whether we need to keep publishing it, since the website is so active. He said that he needed direction from the club as the newsletter does take a lot of work to put together and wanted to hear whether the club wanted to continue or discontinue it. Several ideas were brought up, including the reduction of the number of issues, more overlap between publication of email and website, etc. The club affirmed the need for a newsletter and it was recommended that we bring the issue back up for more discussion and evaluation at the January meeting.

 

 

Announcements

 

Dave, KE4S, announced a "tower party" at his house in about two weeks to move the tower onto its base.

 

Randy, W4XJ, announced that SKYWARN Recognition Day would be taking place at the National Weather Service Office from 7pm Friday, December 1^st until 7pm Saturday, December 2^nd. All club members were invited to come and operate during this special event.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30am.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Randy Sly, W4XJ

Secretary