In-Newsletter
Vol. 25, No. 20
May 21, 2002
Upcoming Meetings
June 8th in St. Louis, MO at 8:00am
Volunteer Resources Committee
Development
Development hosted the first ARRL Donor Recognition event at the Dayton
Hamvention on Friday Evening. Forty-two attendees were transported to the
Officers' Club at Wright Patterson AFB as guests of ARRL to thank major
donors ($500+) for their support and to cultivate prospects. The event was
held in the rooms where the Dayton Peace Accord was signed, adding a
historical perspective to the event. Remarks by Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, and Jim
Haynie, W5JBP included the presentation of Education & Technology Fund
clocks to Kay (WT3P) and Carter (N3AO) Craigie and David Brandenberg, K5RQ,
to honor their vision and generosity for the "Big Project". Remarks by
Guest of Honor Joe Taylor, K1JT, were the highlight of the event, adding his
personal memories of his first years as a ham with his brother in New Jersey
to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Physics. My deep gratitude goes to
Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ who artfully arranged the details of the evening and
did such a wonderful job of managing the event on Friday evening....we
couldn't have done it without her! The evening was a success and will
certainly be repeated next year and perhaps at other venues during the year.
The direct mail campaign for the Education and Technology Fun continues to
generate revenue to fund next year's work. To date the campaign has
produced about $113,000 from more than 2100 members with an average
contribution of more than $51 -- higher than the average for the 2002
Defense Fund. Followup letters to five segments of the ARRL donor base are
in the mail, and special requests are being prepared and mailed this week to
prior donors to the project and major donors to other ARRL funds.
The core proposal for foundation and corporation funding for the Education
and Technology Program is complete. A planning grid of foundation
submission deadlines will be complete this week. Submissions will be mailed
throughout the balance of the year.
The second Planned Giving mailing of 15,000 letters is being mailed this
week.
A new ad promoting wills and bequests will run in the July QST.
The grant proposal for ARECC program expansion has been submitted to the
Corporation for National and Community Service requesting $571,000 to fund a
national initiative to train 5000 hams. Grant awards will be made June 28,
2002.
A grant proposal to United Technologies for national ARECC program expansion
will be submitted this week. The proposal will be reviewed in Fall 2002
with a decision in January 2003.
Media Relations
Jennifer met with three members of the Public Relations Committee on
Saturday morning in Dayton for the annual PRC meeting. PRC liaison Vice
Director Johnson also attended the meeting. Unfortunately the rest of the
committee members were unable to make the meeting this year. After far too
long, the PIO Handbook project is back on track. PRC members Jeff Reinhardt
and Rich Moseson have agreed to take on the task of completing the final
editing. We hope to make this resource available to the members shortly.
High on the priority list was a discussion about Director Frenaye's Board
motion instructing the committee to provide input into what the League needs
in the way of handouts and other materials to present ham radio and the
League to the general public. With the handbook finally nearing completion,
the committee will be able to devote appropriate amount of time and energy
to that project.
The PR forum in Dayton was a success! Attendance was great (approximately
50 to 75 people), especially in light of the early Sunday morning time slot.
Forum speakers Diane Ortiz, K2DO, Rich Moseson, W2VU, Jim McDonald, KB9LEI
and Jack Sovik, KB8WPZ did a fantastic job covering the various PR issues
that arise when emergencies strike. Forum moderator Jeff Reinhart, AA6JR,
was his usual organized, animated self and did an equally fantastic job
during the program.
As previously reported, Jennifer has been working with the UTC PR folks on
ways to promote our partnership on behalf of the Connecticut grant to train
local hams using the online emergency communications course. We now have
word that CT Lt. Governor M. Jodi Rell is interested in attending our press
conference at W1AW. The event has been scheduled for Tuesday June 18th at 3
PM. The press conference was scheduled to coincide with Amateur Radio week
and the upcoming Field Day activities. The public announcement will be made
via a media advisory which will be distributed on or around June 4th. UTC
and ARRL leadership will be in attendance, along with several Connecticut
field appointees. Jennifer will be working on the event details with UTC in
the coming weeks.
The annual report layout and cover design is complete and have been returned
to the PR department for final editing.
Sales and Marketing
Joe Bottiglieri on the Advertising team booked his first ad - welcome to the
world of sales, Joe!
A 40,000 members-only email solicitation sent Monday introduced five new
ARRL publications debuting in Dayton. We were delighted to see many
customers carried copies of the email to Dayton, using it as their "shopping
list."
The Dayton Report
Our crew enjoyed the ARRL exhibit at Hamvention with Bob, Deb, and Danny
Sayad driving the effort. We would like to extend special thanks to the
following individuals that assisted them: President Jim Haynie, Evelyn
Gauzens, Jennifer Hagy, Jerry Hill, Mary Hobart, Joel Kleinman, Lisa
Kustosik, Dan Miller, and Linda Sumner, amongst others. Hearty thanks to
Danny for assisting Bob with set up and teardown of the large, crated booth.
A combination of marketing efforts for the new edition of TravelPlus for
Repeaters CD-ROM paid off. Inventory shipped to Dayton sold out!
Contributing to its success was QST advertising, email solicitations, signs
and posters, and the placement of the TravelPlus demonstration exhibit at
Dayton. The authors of the software were on hand to clinch each purchase.
Bob assisted Hanan with her efforts to produce a special Dayton edition of
"Advertising Matters." The flyer contains key ARRL advertising information
and content for current and prospective advertisers. It was distributed by
Hanan and Joe throughout the event as the worked the floor. Thanks to their
efforts, we added new clients to our advertiser base.
The Sales & Marketing Team saw the use of new adverting strategies result in
additional bookings and increased client satisfaction at Dayton. One such
unique effort that involved the use of creative talent from many of the
departments at HQ brought an advertising commitment for new two page ad
spreads in both the July QST and July/Aug NCJ. The taste of victory was
particularly satisfying because other publications were aggressively trying
to beat us out for this client's advertising budget dollars.
Bob and Dennis had meetings with the commercial manager of the Radio Society
of Great Britain. They discussed the current distribution of products and
publications among the two organizations, and formulated ideas and
strategies for more cooperative efforts involving new products and sales
arrangements. Dennis held similar talks with representatives from DARC and
LABRE (Brazil.)
Production/Editorial
Rick Lindquist, Joel Kleinman and Steve Ford attended the Dayton Hamvention.
Rick was in news-gathering mode for most of the event, taking photos and
conducting interviews. Joel worked the ARRL booth extensively and made
author contacts. Steve Ford attended many forums, promoting League
publications and recruiting authors. He also spoke at a PSK31 forum that
drew a crowd of 300.
We're pleased to announce that Brennan Price, N4QX, will be moving to the
Editorium June 3 to take over responsibility for the Product Review column
in QST. Brennan will also be involved with in-house photography and will
prepare manuscripts for the National Contest Journal.
Printer's proofs for the DXCC Yearbook are being reviewed.
Lab
Ed Hare attended the ANSI/IEEE C63 "RFI committee" meetings held May 7
through 9 in Chicago, IL. This committee sets US standards for RFI testing,
emissions and immunity. Ed is happy to report that after more than 10 years
in the works, the committee approved a standard for immunity test methods.
Although there is still one more round after some editorial changes, the
standard is expected to be released later this year. It does not set
mandatory limits, but will help increase awareness of the need for immunity
with manufacturers. Subcommittee 5, Immunity, is working on a separate
standard to use handheld transmitters to test the immunity of electronic
equipment "in situ."
Ed is also a member of the power-line-carrier working group. Ken Hall, from
Hewlett Packard, gave a presentation on some of the measurements he made of
PLC-type devices. He measured them using the current FCC standards, which
permit measurements to be made at a distance of 3 meters and extrapolated to
the 30-meter distance specified in the rules using a 40dB/decade function.
This function simply does not apply to large radiating structures on HF,
such as a building's electrical wiring system. It was the opinion of most
of the participants that such a radiator would more likely exhibit a
20dB/decade function -- the "inverse square" law for power density. Ed will
prepare an EZNEC study showing how electric and magnetic fields vary with
distance from small and large sources and, if conclusive, present it at the
next meeting in October.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS QSL Cards Checked 700
WAC QSL Cards Checked 54
A-1 Operator Nominations 4
A-1 Operator Certificates 7
Long Term Member Inquiries 2
Extra Class Certificates 8
VUCC Initial Awards 2
Grids (Data Entry) 279
VUCC Endorsements 1
Grids (Data Entry) 59
VUCC Initial Awards mailed 6
VUCC Endorsements mailed 6
Backlog Status
A-1 Operator Awards Current
Basic WAS 2 weeks
Specialty WAS 2 weeks
WAS QSLs Current
WAC QSLs Current
CP Awards 1 week
RCC Awards 2 weeks
OTC Awards 2 weeks
Friendship Awards 2 weeks
Extra Class Awards Current
VUCC Awards Current
U.S. WAC Awards 2 weeks
Foreign WAC Awards 2 weeks
For the coming week-RCC, OTC, Friendship, and U.S. WAC awards, and enter the
latest long-term member awards recipient records into TASS membership
records.
DXCC Branch
Weekly Report May 19, 2002
Beginning Cards 37,309
Cards Received 7,780
Cards Processed 10,251
Ending Cards 34,838
Applications Pending 238
Backlog Time 1 Week
Year-to-date
Cards Received 216,773
Cards Returned 292,991
QRP Issued this week 3
QRP YTD 199
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on May 7, 2002. DXCC is
currently entering cards received on May 14, 2002. To date, we have
processed 2,984 Millennium awards.
Contest Branch
Automated retrieval of Log Checking Reports (LCRs) was opened to the public
May 13. Data processing for DX Contest pins was done, with shipment begun.
August UHF certificates were printed and shipped. Preliminary score tables
and boxes were prepared for the January VHF Sweepstakes and sent to W2FU,
who is writing the web and QST article for the event. Member queries for
several contests were handled. November Phone SS article was proofed for
production Several updates to on-line results tables were handled.
QSL Branch
QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 05/19/2002 -
870,325. Cards mailed on 05/17/2002 - 60,200. Janet Rocco spent 2 hours
conducting tours around HQ. Martin Cook filled in at W1AW for the Morning
shifts on Thursday and Friday, while Scott Gee was on vacation. We are
starting to see a slow down in the amount of cards coming in for processing
from our members. This is normal for this time of year.
W1AW
Workers from XX Towers Inc. (W1AW's antenna contractor) were on hand Monday
to perform some antenna installations. A 4-element yagi for 2-meters was
installed on the Satellite antenna tower. (This antenna is pointed at
another 2-meter Packet Cluster node in Connecticut). The Driven element on
the 30-meter visitor antenna was removed for repair, and another 160-meter
dipole was installed. Thanks to Greg Kwasowski, KB1GJF, for his assisting
Joe Carcia, NJ1Q with the 160-meter dipole and 30-meter element. Joe Carcia
spent much of the day outside (in the rain!) working with the antenna
contractor to not only install the antennas, but also "prune" the 160-meter
antenna, and run new tie-off lines for this antenna. He also began
experimenting with a donated GPS receiver/Frequency Standard. Joe also
processed additional W1AW QSL card requests and worked the Thursday and
Friday late afternoon/night shifts for a vacationing Scott Gee. W1AW
telephone sales year to date (2002): $4,138.
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie took part in a VRC teleconference meeting, summarizing the ARES
apparel recommendation, and prepared the meeting Minutes. ARISS had a good
presence at Dayton, including Owen Garriott and Tony England as honorees at
the banquet, and ARISS talks given in the AMSAT Forum, Education Forum, and
Kenwood Webcast. An Australian school had a successful ARISS QSO; the NASA
Human Spaceflight Web pages again highlighted ARISS activity.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Ballots for the Oregon Section Manger election were due at HQ Friday, May
17, and will be counted Tuesday, May 21. Leona received nomination forms
for 5 SMs for the next terms beginning October 1. She also sent reminders
to the 5 incumbent SMs who would still need to return their nomination forms
if they plan to run again. Of 15 initial supply packages shipped this week,
EC/DEC appointments accounted for over half.
Steve Ewald was appointed as the ARRL rep to the IARU Region 2 Emergency
Communications Advisory Group; this will soon be announced and continues
until the next Region 2 Conference in 2004. Section News and July QST
preparations were top priorities for Steve this week. In response to June
QST's article about Section News Web pages, Virgin Islands SM John Ellis
commented: "Good article in June QST. I guess we can all see the
handwriting on the wall about section news in QST. But [it's] good access
to the web from the SM's viewpoint." Sections with e-messages relayed by
Mary this week included: 4 from Mississippi; 3 from Kentucky; 2 from San
Diego and Southern Florida; and 1 from Nebraska, Georgia, Arkansas,
Minnesota, Ohio and Colorado.
The Big Project
Jerry Hill went to Hamvention on vacation, but first he spoke with 3 more of
the new Pilot Schools to work out equipment orders. He completed two more
lesson plans for Basic Electronic Theory, and will mail another unit to his
team of teachers for comment.
C-CE
Steven Blair completed his projects today and is returning to school this
summer instead of working in F&ES.
Dan Miller says 100 new students enrolled last week in the EmComm Level 1
on-line course, and began studies this week For Level ll, 24 have enrolled
in the class opening this week. Announcements were made that registration
opens next week for an HF Digital Communications on-line course. For the
Antenna Modelling on-line course, 10 students enrolled thus far this week.
Dan represented ARRL at Dayton, and met for dinner with several C-CE Mentor
and Instructors.
Regulatory Team
John Hennessee worked with Bob Hopkins, WB2UDC, an ARRL schoolteacher at
Cooper Union School. Bob is encouraging a Cooper Union Alum, Russell Hulse,
ex-WB2LAV, to get re-licensed. Russell was speaking to Cooper students
about his Nobel Prize for the binary pulsar, and beforehand, spent two hours
with Bob recalling his ham radio days in the 70s. John advised Bob on how
Russell can show proof to get a CSCE, and what test Element will need to be
passed.
Upon returning from vacation on Thursday, Brennan Price reviewed the
Activities chapter of the ARRL Handbook. He sent the FCC material in a new
case. He brought an unfavorable decision in the Gordetzer appeal to the
attention of the Antenna Defense Committee. F&ES wishes Brennan Price good
luck in his new job with Product Review.
Field & Educational Support Team
Jean Wolfgang prepared the index and most of the remaining articles for Ham
Radio...Planning for the Future. The page count is currently 131. She made
copies of EXAMWIN, exam software for our volunteer instructors, and reviewed
its instruction sheet.
Mary Lau welcomed returning dynamo Jo-Ann Arel as the newest member of the
Field & Educational Support Team. Jo-Ann is handling materials fulfillment,
affiliated club updates, volunteer instructor registrations, and inventory.
All C-CE queries should be directed to Dan Miller at ext 340, exclusively.
Margie Bourgoin sent four sets of paperwork for new club affiliations to the
appropriate Directors and SMs for their approvals. She has been busy
training Jo-Ann in the duties of the F&ES assistant job and reports Jo-Ann
is re-learning the duties quickly!
Gail Iannone wrote 45 hamfest announcements and 10 convention announcements
for the July issue of QST. She dealt with several last-minute Dayton issues
this week.
Jo-Ann Arel sent out her first batch of videolibrary orders and educational
supplies, registered instructors, and got re-acquainted with TASS and
ARRLWeb. Jo-Ann's extension is 292.
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW:lk
Staff Absentee List
Name Date(s) Reason
All Staff 5/27 Holiday
Lisa Kustosik 5/24 & 5/28 Vacation
Rosalie White 5/23-5/24 Wyoming State Convention
Steve Ewald 5/28 Seminar
Dan Miller 6/8 EPA Section Convention
Dave Mello 5/23-5/24 Vacation
Joe Carcia 5/23-5/24 Vacation
Kathy Allison 5/24 Vacation
Bev Fernandez 5/24-5/28 Vacation
Mark Wilson 5/24 Vacation
