March 2002 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[ARRL-ODV:7079] ARRL and the Question Pool Committ
by sysop＠bfdin.com 25 Mar '02

25 Mar '02

Mark and Bart, AR>The document from Fred Maia that Jim forwarded to ODV last week was Fred's AR>proposed revision to the Technician syllabus. ARRL staff submitted its AR>comments to the committee on Friday. We expect the QPC to deliberate on and AR>then release the new Technician syllabus in the next ten days. Our position AR>is that the current Technician syllabus has served us well since the early AR>1990s. Although some revision is always needed to reflect changes in Amateur AR>Radio, wholesale changes to the subject matter are not required. We do not AR>support Fred Maia's proposal to remove all math from the syllabus and are AR>comfortable with the level of math required by the present syllabus. As AR>someone noted, the high pass rate for the current exams contradicts the AR>"it's too tough" viewpoint. Thank you. As an amateur radio instructor and a VE, I think the level of the Technician syllabus is appropriate as it stands right now. We don't see many people failing the Technician exam at VE sessions. We don't need to make it any easier. If anything should be changed, perhaps the need to demonstrate proper operation and proper operating etiquette. - Bill N3LLR

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ARRL and the Question Pool Committee
by Wilson, Mark K1RO 25 Mar '02

25 Mar '02

Jim Haynie asked us to review how the Question Pool Committee (QPC) works. The QPC is a committee of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiners (NCVEC). The committee is charged with developing the syllabus (broad topics) and question pools (specific questions, along with answers and distractors) for each amateur license class. Although technically each VEC could develop its own question pool, all of the VECs use question pools developed by the QPC to the benefit of examiners and examinees. So it's important that everyone involved in the process cooperate and work positively, and that the end result is something that everyone can support. There are currently four QPC members: Bart Jahnke/ARRL VEC, Fred Maia/W5YI VEC, Scotty Neustadter, W4WW/Central America VEC and John Johnston, W3BE/Laurel VEC. Scotty is the Chairman. The QPC members are appointed by the individual VECs (only four VECs currently have appointed a participant to the QPC), and at NCVEC annual meetings the QPC typically gets an annual vote of confidence from the whole. The syllabus and question pool for each test element comes up for review periodically. Currently that's every 4 years. QPC members first discuss syllabus topics internally and ask for public input on the syllabus. Once the syllabus is finalized, they develop questions and answers for each of the syllabus topics. (Again based on internal discussions and external suggestions.) The entire process runs for about a year for each exam element. The new Extra pool was finalized last December for use July 1, 2002. The new Technician question pool is scheduled for completion in December 2002 for use beginning July 1, 2003 and the new General pool will be completed for use July 1, 2004. ARRL HQ staff including Bart Jahnke, Wayne Irwin and Larry Wolfgang spend a considerable amount of time developing our input to the process. Bart heads up that effort and handles interaction with the QPC. They involve other staffers as necessary to consult on specialized topics. For example, Lab staff may contribute to the technical aspects. Membership Services staff may help with operating topics. The document from Fred Maia that Jim forwarded to ODV last week was Fred's proposed revision to the Technician syllabus. ARRL staff submitted its comments to the committee on Friday. We expect the QPC to deliberate on and then release the new Technician syllabus in the next ten days. Our position is that the current Technician syllabus has served us well since the early 1990s. Although some revision is always needed to reflect changes in Amateur Radio, wholesale changes to the subject matter are not required. We do not support Fred Maia's proposal to remove all math from the syllabus and are comfortable with the level of math required by the present syllabus. As someone noted, the high pass rate for the current exams contradicts the "it's too tough" viewpoint. Although we are only one of four committee members working in a consensus environment, our input is generally given great weight. Bart and crew have been through this process a number of times and are adept at promoting ARRL's position in a constructive way. 73, Mark K1RO and Bart, W9JJ

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PORN
by Tuck Miller NZ6T ARRL SWD Vice Director 25 Mar '02

25 Mar '02

Did anyone else just receive a porn message from Yahoo? It came to my arrl.org address. Hope they did not just pin point me out................ 73, Tuck NZ6T -- ************************************************ Remember, Helping Others....Always Worthwhile!! Southwestern Division Vice Director American Radio Relay League (ARRL) The national association for AMATEUR RADIO Are you a member yet? If not, visit http://www.arrl.org/join.html 2002 SWD Convention, Aug 16-18 For Registration forms, click on http://sd2002.hamcon.net/mainpage.html?registration.html Tuck's Personal Web Page: http://www.qsl.net/nz6t

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[ARRL-ODV:7076] Re: Postal Rate Hike Announced
by sysop＠bfdin.com 22 Mar '02

22 Mar '02

Dick, You've hit the nail right on the head.... And we don't have a spam mailer on the mailbox right outside the door. <grin> - Bill N3LLR AR>22 MAR, 2002 - 1545 CST AR>It's too bad the Postal Rate Commission does not have the brains and/or AR>the guts to put the postage increase where it belongs; on the 3rd class AR>bulk rate (junk mail addressed to "occupant") users. Yes, the anthrax AR>scare after 9/11 caused a sharp drop in mailings - particularly in the AR>already over-priced 1st class mail. AR>But personal 1st class mail was dwindling long before then due to a AR>combination of ever higher rates, slower delivery service, and the AR>explosive increase in email use. Our 1st class postage consumption, AR>exclusive of our Christmas Newsletter - which may go electronic this AR>year - has dropped from 350-400 stamps a year to about 100. We may be AR>ahead of the mob on this, but this is why 1st class mail is vanishing. AR>The coming 1st class increase will accelerate this process. AR>My worry is that the PRC may start asking for federal subsidies rather AR>than finally requiring junk mail users to pick up their fair share of AR>the cost. AR>73 - Dick, W9GIG

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Re: Postal Rate Hike Announced
by dick＠pobox.com 22 Mar '02

22 Mar '02

22 MAR, 2002 - 1545 CST It's too bad the Postal Rate Commission does not have the brains and/or the guts to put the postage increase where it belongs; on the 3rd class bulk rate (junk mail addressed to "occupant") users. Yes, the anthrax scare after 9/11 caused a sharp drop in mailings - particularly in the already over-priced 1st class mail. But personal 1st class mail was dwindling long before then due to a combination of ever higher rates, slower delivery service, and the explosive increase in email use. Our 1st class postage consumption, exclusive of our Christmas Newsletter - which may go electronic this year - has dropped from 350-400 stamps a year to about 100. We may be ahead of the mob on this, but this is why 1st class mail is vanishing. The coming 1st class increase will accelerate this process. My worry is that the PRC may start asking for federal subsidies rather than finally requiring junk mail users to pick up their fair share of the cost. 73 - Dick, W9GIG

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Postal Rate Hike announced
by sysop＠bfdin.com 22 Mar '02

22 Mar '02

WASHINGTON (AP) - From birthday cards to bank statements, charitable appeals to newspapers and magazines, it'll cost more to send mail starting in midsummer. The increase - including a 3-cent boost to 37 cents for first-class mail - could come as soon as June 30, giving the cash-strapped postal service a boost as it tries to cope with declining business and hundreds of millions of dollars in costs from the terror attacks last fall. All that remains is for the Postal Service's governing board to set the date. Postal Rate Commission Chairman George A. Omas announced approval of the rate agreement, which was worked out by the post office and nearly 60 organizations and businesses. That agreement allowed the commission to avoid the months of legal wrangling that usually accompany rate cases. "I cannot overemphasize how extraordinary today's decision is," Omas said. He said the increases would give the post office "breathing room" to deal with its financial problems, "an immediate influx of revenue while holding rate increases to a reasonable percentage for postal customers." Commission member Danny Covington said the board realizes no one likes rate increases but also recognizes that the terrorist attacks last fall have had a profound impact on the nation and the Postal Service. Robert F. Rider, chairman of the postal board of governors, said the board will take up the increases at its April meeting. The post office announced Sept. 11 - just before the airliner attacks - that it was seeking new rates to take effect in the fall of this year because of falling business in the slow economy. The agency had a loss of $1.68 billion last year and anticipated one of $1.35 billion this year, despite freezing new construction and cutting 12,000 jobs. Then came the attacks in New York and Washington, followed by the anthrax-by-mail contamination, slapping the agency with hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for repairs, decontamination and health care. Knowing that would plunge the post office into even worse financial problems, Omas suggested the agency and mailers sit down and work out an agreement for speedy consideration of the rate case - an action that would cost mailers as much as $1.5 billion because the increases would take effect months before originally planned. "I believe mailers cooperated in this effort because they felt that their short-term financial sacrifice would help keep the nation's Postal Service strong. This selfless attitude is a credit to the entire mailing industry." Omas said. Many that normally oppose rate increases accepted this one, though not always cheerfully. One group of businesses commented that if the case had been fully argued, its members would have fought for different rates. "The settlement agreement represents, we believe, the best result that is possible to achieve under current circumstances," said the group, which included the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, AOL Time Warner, Coalition of Religious Associations, Magazine Publishers of America and the National Newspaper Association. "However," the group added, "the circumstances themselves - the need for so much additional revenue so soon after the last two rate increases, based on estimates developed prior to Sept. 11, 2001 - reflect poorly on the Postal Service." The only opposition came from the American Postal Workers Union, which represents workers who sort mail. The union argued that the rate increases offered giant mailers discounts for presorting mail that exceed the amount the Postal Service would save by not doing that work itself. The post office denied that argument, saying it was "based on speculation regarding postal revenues, finances and capital investment plans." And organizations that would benefit from the discounts defended them. "The settlement rates are well within lawful limits," argued a group including the Association for Postal Commerce, the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association and the Recording Industry Association of America.

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Ex Parte Filing in SAVI RFID tag proceeding filed electronically today.
by W3KD＠aol.com 22 Mar '02

22 Mar '02

Attached is a written ex parte filing we made in the SAVI proceeding. This is a purely technical exhibit explaining why SAVI has been wrong (by 30 dB) in its calculations to date regarding interference potential of their devices to Amateurs. In essence, we are rebutting the SAVI reply comments, but this is a comprehensive explanation of why we are right and they are not right. This was prepared by Ed Hare and Zak Lau, and revised by Paul Rinaldo. It was filed this morning in the ECFS. It should be available later today for review. Chris

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ARRL Novice Refarming Petition filed today.
by W3KD＠aol.com 22 Mar '02

22 Mar '02

Greetings. Attached is an as-filed (sans exhibits, cover page, summary and table of contents) copy of the ARRL Novice Refarming Petition. It is being tendered to FCC on paper today. Special thanks for editing assistance from Tom Frenaye, Dave Patton, Jay Bellows, Bruce Frahm, Paul Rinaldo and Mark Wilson. An open issue that Tom brought up, however: The petition does NOT address Novice/Tech Plus digital privileges at 80, 40 and 15 meters. The Committee report and the Board motion were silent on this subject. If the Board or the EC wishes to address this, we can pick it up in comments on our petition or on the inevitable NPRM on this subject. Please give some thought to that, as Tom had mentioned it in his edits to the filing. 73, Chris W3KD

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Financial Reports
by Shelley, Barry, N1VXY 22 Mar '02

22 Mar '02

The monthly internal financial reports for February are now available in the ODV section of the Web page. They are in the 2002 Results folder under ODV files. 73, Barry, N1VXY

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Re: [ARRL-ODV:7069] Re: QPC
by Wade Walstrom 21 Mar '02

21 Mar '02

I had received an e-mail from a Section Manager several weeks ago about a proposal to "dumb" down the question pool and was quite concerned about it. At that time I told the SM I was not aware of any such proposal. Perhaps the proposed question pool is what was referred to. I have complete confidence in Bart and company on this, but we as a board may want to keep a closer eye on the direction of the overall QPC. Wade W0EJ Tom Frenaye wrote: > At 12:21 PM 3/21/2002 -0500, W5JBP(a)aol.com wrote: > >We (ARRL) only have a 25% input as there are three other members of the QPC. For as long as I can remember, we (as a board) have not had much interest in what the QPC does or how it does it. I feel it is time that we DO take an interest, and once the "official" pool is released, be active in participation and submission of questions. I know Bart will be, but I feel it is also in our interest to review and have the opportunity to participate in the process as individuals. > > I thought the QPC had three members. > > In any case, as long as I've been involved with the Board the handling of the QPC has worked pretty much flawlessly. Most of the work has always been done by ARRL, with Bart managing it, and several other staff members also doing the hard stuff. > > For the most part everything we've done has been accepted by the rest of the QPC - Bart has always been a QPC member. Maia's attempt to dumb down things (if that's what it is) is interesting (thought he "retired"...). I don't see any need for the Board to get more involved until Bart or his management ask for it. Of course, both Bart and Dave have encouraged any ham to get involved - and it is better to get in early and submit questions than at the end when the draft is written. > > -- Tom > > ===== > e-mail: k1ki(a)arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ > Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

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