April 2019 WVDXA Meeting

This Post is a "tad" late but still I wanted to report a bit on our April 20, 2019, meeting.  The meeting was held at Golden Corral in Cross Lanes, WV.  I made arrangements with Golden Corral a couple of weeks before the meeting to secure their "Meeting Room" and told them we expected about 20 to 25 people to attend.  Well, it seems that a week before our meeting date, another group asked for (and received) permission to use the same room for a birthday party for a 90-year old gentleman!  So, we "shared" the meeting room for both events.  I think the WVDXA behaved admirably under these circumstances although there was some grumbling overheard from the other group who apparently expected to have the venue all to themselves.

We actually had 22 persons attending: W8TN, W8TN's XYL (Evelyn Stewart), K8JQ, WB8CQV, WB8CQV's XYL (Janice Jones), WB8CQV's son (Jonathan Jones), WV8RC, WV8FV, WA8WV, W8JA, W8JA's mom (Oleta Aeiker), Oleta's Caretaker (Brenda Thornton), N8RR, KD8VNN, K4JWA, W8OI, WW8RT, W8HC, K8RRT, KE8LSK, WA8ZDL and W8OP.

W8TN gave a PowerPoint presentation on "QSL'ing Tips & Tricks." And the new WVDXA.com web page was presented "live" on the Internet.  Also, from the Internet, W8TN presented a brief view and description of the ARRL's Logbook of the World (LoTW) web site and how that system can be used to confirm QSO's without the need for a physical QSL card.  Finally, a brief view of the WVDXA's new Chat Page on Slack.com was presented.  Note: you can click on any photo here to see a larger image.

W8JA's mom, Oleta, and W8JA

Since we were "sharing" the Meeting Room, the Birthday Group asked for us to be quiet for a bit as they recognized their family member on his 90th birthday.  Everyone (including the WVDXA members) sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  The honoree was so thankful to the Lord for letting him live so long that he got up, asked for quiet in the room, made a few remarks and then unhurriedly sang two verses of a hymn of praise.  It was an unexpected special moment that we applauded. Of course, the WVDXA remained silent about the fact that W8JA's mom, Oleta, who was in our group, will celebrate her 95th birthday in just 5 months!

Steve, WW8RT, collected donations for the upcoming T3ØGC - West Kiribati DX'pedition.  Then W8TN noted that the WVDXA has supplied $20,556 to 32 various DX'peditions plus $498 to ClubLog.

Great fellowship and camaraderie were had by all and the joining of our meeting with the Birthday Party made our gathering truly memorable!