August 2003 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[ARRL-ODV:9330] Re: BPL 2003 Campaign Reports
by Jim Weaver 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

Sure, Mary, we in the GLD know the real reason you deleted the $25K donation from our totals on the "per division" listing. Its simply that my colleagues, N2FF, N1FI and N3EFN, couldn't take the blow to their East Coast pride! HI! 73, Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division k8je(a)arrl.org - Tel. 513-459-0142 ARRL -- The reason Amateur Radio is! GREAT LAKES DIVISION CONVENTION, September 6, 2003: See http://greatlakes.arrl.org

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[ARRL-ODV:9329] Re: BPL 2003 Campaign Reports
by Hobart, Mary K1MMH 27 Aug '03

27 Aug '03

Good mroning! Development has been asked to prepare a report on responses to the current special Spectrum Defense Campaign against BPL. John Proctor and Debra Johnson have prepared the two attached reports for your information. The first is a summary report by Division that indicates both responses and revenue from each division and relates the response to the total membership in each division. The summary also shows the % of members donating in each division and what percent of the total responses come from each division. In the Great Lakes Division, a single contribution of $25,000 has been delted from the total so as not to skew the results. A second report provides response detail by section. We intend to prepare reports in these formate for future campaigns to give you a sense of how we are donig across the country. 73, Mary K1MMH

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[ARRL-ODV:9328] Re: Ham PAC
by W3KD＠aol.com 27 Aug '03

27 Aug '03

In a message dated 8/26/2003 10:00:03 AM Eastern Standard Time, jbellows(a)skypoint.com writes: > “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That Can She.” Ms. Ivins quotes an old time Texas > politician as saying “If we can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, fool > around with their “wimmen” and still vote against them we don’t belong in > the Leg.” > > > > A great book, by the way, a copy of which I was given byJay, for which I am most grateful. Chris

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[ARRL-ODV:9327] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 27 Aug '03

27 Aug '03

IN-Newsletter Vol. 26, No. 34 August 27, 2003 Development The special Spectrum Defense campaign against BPL has reached $252,749 from 4768 donors. The average donation has reached $53.01. A special letter has been emailed to more than 2100 clubs nationwide to encourage their consideration of a club contribution to the fund at their next meeting. Initial response to the letter has been positive. The Education & Technology Fun has reached $81,461 from 1467 donors. The Historic Preservation Fund test mailing has raised $2665 from 73 donors. The Diamond Club continues to attract donors daily. Participation is now up to 791 members contributing $108,012. Two new planned gift commitments were received during the past week. The announcement on year two funding of the CNCS Emergency Communications grant is expected on Friday, August 29. Production/Editorial The October issue of QST has been released to the printer. Rick Lindquist reports that The ARRL Letter circulation continues to creep upward: The Aug 22 edition (Vol 22, No 33) distributed to a record 67,532 members--about 44 percent of our membership. In addition to compiling the "Happenings" column for October QST, Rick wrote/edited news stories on ARRL's reply comments and NTIA's late-hour comments in the BPL proceeding, the completion of the 880-mile charity marathon of pianist Martin Berkofsky, KC3RE (who also put in an appearance on ARRL Audio News for Aug 22--take a listen <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/>), and a followup story on the passing of Roy Neal, K6DUE. He also wrote/edited several Web briefs including items on the UO-14 shutdown, ARRL Contest Committee decision on the Timor-Leste petition, hams injured in the Baghdad explosion, spam not coming from ARRL HQ, and additional countries deleting their Morse exam requirement for HF access. Rick produced the weekly edition of ARRL Audio News with voiceover assistance from Brennan Price, N4QX, and Jennifer Hagy, N1TDY. We checked printer's proofs for The 2004 ARRL Handbook and ordered a new printing of Experimental Methods in RF Design. In addition, the 22nd TAPR/ARRL Digital Conference Proceedings has been released to the printer. Dean Straw, N6BV, is working at HQ this week, wrapping up work on the new 20th edition of The ARRL Antenna Book. Stu Cohen, N1SC, attended the Eastern VHF/UHF Conference in Enfield, Connecticut. Sales & Marketing Product Fulfillment Supervisor, Zoe Belliveau, reports that Rhode Island Section Manager, Bob Beaudet, W1YRC, will be stopping by ARRL later this week to pick up a number of titles he will be donating to the RI FM Repeater group. Bob will also be picking up eight library sets to donate to affiliated clubs who will then donate these titles to their local school or library. October QST will include a new ad from RSGB offering subscriptions to RadCom magazine (and including RSGB membership). New subscribers can contact ARRL to sign-up. The new rate of $69 USD reflects RSGB's July 1st dues increase. Diane Szlachetka is finalizing a new membership certificate to replace the present print-it-yourself certificate on the ARRLWeb. Along with preparing advertising for October QST, Di supported a number of other graphic design projects this month including a membership solicitation, applications and signs for a test membership program, and a revised membership brochure. She also continues to support the graphic designer at MFJ as their catalog is readied for printing and to ride-along with November QST. Di attended a free seminar sponsored by Adobe. Among the products featured was a demonstration of Adobe InDesign. InDesign provides new ways to manage graphic design and layout, including pre-media (pre-press) support -- subjects quite important to our group. Bob Inderbitzen worked with Sue Fagan to complete a draft of the ARRL Antenna Book cover. The design will be finalized during editor Dean Straw's visit at the end of the month. Bob provided new product information and images to Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) and Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) supporting their upcoming Fall/Winter catalogs. Thanks to all HQ hams who completed the draft version of the National Amateur Radio Survey. Janet Rocco compiled all of the feedback and write-in responses. The exercise helped identify some areas requiring additional revision. The solicitation and leads were finalized for the large Fall Membership mailing campaign. It will mail in early September. The new editions of The ARRL Handbook and The ARRL Antenna Book will debut in October QST. The Advertising staff worked to track down straggler advertisers for October QST. Work also continues on "inside page" advertising for the Antenna Book. Although flyers, emails, and faxes were sent, final follow-up calls continue. Finishing touches were put on our latest membership Recruitment Pilot Program, which commences on Monday August 24. For a limited time, HRO's Anaheim store will offer visitors a special ARRL membership application that entitles any brand new or returning (after a lapse of 1 year) ARRL member a $5 gift coupon that may be redeemed with their next purchase at any HRO location. The new member receives the HRO coupon from ARRL with their membership package. Custom membership applications and store promotion signs were prepared for this promotion. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 450 WAS Certs. (700 QSLs F/C) 14 WAS Certs. (250 QSLs ES/C) 5 WAC QSL Cards Checked 84 A-1 Operator Noms. 8 A-1 Operator Certs. 6 25-Year Member Awards 45 40-Year Member Awards 12 50-Year Member Award 1 RCC Awards 8 OTC Awards 3 Friendship Awards 6 Awards Mailed 25 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS Specialty, U.S. WAC, and VUCC awards, Extra Class certificates, mail out all awards processed this week, and work on budget matters. DXCC Branch For the week of: August 24, 2003 Beginning Cards 100,019 Cards Received 15,780 Cards Processed 6,593 Ending Cards 109,206 Applications Pending 811 Processing Time 5.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 393,935 Cards Returned 492,740 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on July 16, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on July 21, 2003. One (1) DXCC card checker was appointed this week. Wayne Mills, N7NG, attended the Tokyo Hamfair this past weekend. He reports about 228 applications checked. Contest Branch We finished data entry for all paper logs for Field Day and began the process of dealing with the over 1000 Field Day emails (some are duplicate submissions). The final work on the DX Phone article was completed and the web results opened to the membership. A full day was spent Tuesday with W3ZZ, who was visiting HQ. Gene has been working with us on the VHF contest write-ups and we spent the day looking at additional options that might be included in the write-ups, working out ways to coordinate with additional authors, and discussing ways to get some of the write-ups on to a more regional basis. Problem logs for the IARU HF Championships continued to come in and be manually processed by HQ Staff. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 08/24/003: 1,001,475. Cards mailed on 08/22/2003: 85,750. Heather Dzamba spent 4 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Members of the New England QRP Club were on hand over the weekend to operate W1AW during their meeting at HQ. They made about 20 QSOs on 30 and 20 meters. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of August and early September. He handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot and completed work on the Elecraft K2 QRP transceiver in time for a debut during the meeting of the NE QRP Club. Joe processed regular W1AW QSL card requests and installed repaired equipment returned from Harris Corporation. He also made a few repairs to the Harris keying matrix. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2003): $19,217. Field & Educational Services Rosalie gave comments to Mary Hobart about a BPL solicitation for clubs, interviewed possible candidates for retiring SMs, and looked in to how to memorialize Roy Neal's call sign at the request of his family. She reviewed business cards from First Responders collected after her talk at the APCO international conference -- some wanted further information. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs in Roper, NC (KF4OTN) and Paulding County, GA (W3CH) with questions on local government zoning, and an amateur in Hesston, KS (KD5HGS) with a covenant inquiry. He heard from an amateur in Pennsylvania (N3NBT) on a possible PRB-1 statute, and the ham was referred to the SMs. LGLs have been invited to subscribe to the SGL Reflector. Steve sent a message to 116 LGLs inviting them to subscribe and John is implementing this. He reports 20 responses thus far, after less than a day. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald received additional reports on Amateur Radio support of served agencies in the power-outage areas. The outage sparked post-event discussions on the SEC Reflector, and several SECs shared their Section Emergency Plans with one another. Steve is staying in touch with Montana Section officials who are reporting on ARES response to fires there. Chuck Skolaut represented HQ at the ARRL Kansas State Convention, which had a better turnout than last year, and forums were well attended. Upon receiving documentation and reports from IARU Region 2 monitoring coordinator Martin Potter, Chuck contacted Jim Ballis of the FCC International Bureau requesting their assistance on a continuing interference problem to Amateur beacons on 14100 kHz. Leona Adams is working on an increased number of Field Organization appointment changes, cancellations and data updates from SMs. This, likely, is in response to the new format for the monthly appointment files that were sent to SMs earlier this month. William Voedisch, W1UD, incumbent Western Massachusetts SM, has been nominated for another term of office. CCE Howard Robins says the new Antenna Design and Construction on-line course is positioned to beta test as soon as it is posted in September. We strongly recommend that students also have a copy of Simple and Fun Antennas for Hams for reference and will offer a special bundled price for those who do not have a copy. Jerry Ellis keeps up with student fulfillment -- printing ARECC graduate certificates and ID cards, and mailing these with reimbursement checks, and now surveys, sew-on patches, and decals. He opened Level 1 and Antenna Modeling classes this week, and made mentor-student assignments for other classes that start next week. Field & Education Support Team Margie Bourgoin processed one new SSC, one club renewal, and sent one new club application off for Director approval. Margie thanks Jean Wolfgang and Mark Spencer for their assistance with software and equipment for her convention presentation. Linda Mullally updated 30 club records and did 2 reactivations, registered 6 Volunteer Instructors and 1 Schoolteacher. She sent out 1 Exhibit kit and 2 JOTA Kits, and also 12 initial supply packages for new appointments. Gail Iannone sent 7 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 2 label requests, 17 door prize orders and sent 19 handout packages for upcoming hamfests. She sent Wouff Hong supplies for the Southwestern Division Convention, and coordinated travel for Wayne Mills as HQ rep at the W0DXCC Convention in October in Bloomington, MN. Jean Wolfgang worked on fine tuning two short slide shows on the Harmonics web site under Ham-ster Adventures. She continues to learn more about graphic programs and the possibilities. She also suggested some new goals pertaining to her responsibilities in F&ES. Mary Lau forwarded a Big Project proposal to the ARRL Foundation's Proposal Committee and continued work on budget research. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Project Mark Spencer has had increased contact with schools and interested hams, which shows building enthusiasm for the Project as the opening of school approaches. When the activity is serious enough, he involves appropriate SMs, Directors and Vice Directors in the correspondence. For hams who want to give a talk to school administrators, Mark provides PowerPoint presentations targeted to administration for the ham to plagiarize, plus the first sections of the curriculum, which the administration needs to formulate a program. EmComm Grants Dan Miller prepared materials for, and then traveled to the ARRL Missouri State Convention where he was to present his seminars on emcomm grants. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 9/1 Holiday Dave Sumner 8/26-8/29 Vacation 9/4pm-9/9 Amsterdam, Administrative Council meeting 9/12 St Louis, strategic planning meeting 9/15 Washington DC donor reception 9/19-9/21 W9DXCC Convention Mark Wilson 8/28-29 & 9/2 Vacation 9/12 St Louis, strategic planning meeting Barry Shelley 9/12 St Louis, strategic planning meeting Mary Hobart 9/12 St Louis, strategic planning meeting Jennifer Hagy 8/25-8/29 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 9/6-9/9 WPA Section Convention 9/9-9/16 Vacation 9/19-9/21 W9DXCC Convention - personal 9/23-9/26 MFJ/ArraySol/TXTwr sales calls 10/2-10/6 Ten Tec Hamfest 10/10-10/12 NNY Section Convention 10/15-10/19 HRO, Pacificon Convention 11/6-11/7 Training Perry Williams 7/26-9/2 Vacation Wayne Mills 8/26-9/4 Vacation 9/19-9/21 W9DXCC Convention Heather Dzamba 8/25-8/27 Vacation Dan Henderson 8/28-8/29 Shelby Convention Margie Bourgoin 9/5 Vacation Mary Lau 9/4-9/5 Vacation `` 9/8pm & 9/9pm Vacation Joe Carcia 8/29pm Vacation `` 9/5 Vacation Joe Bottigieri 8/25-8/29 Vacation Deb Jahnke 8/27 Vacation Mark Dzamba 8/25-8/29 Vacation Pam Dzamba 8/25-8/29 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 9/1-9/9 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 9/1-9/9 Vacation Rick Lindquist 10/30-11/7 Vacation

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[ARRL-ODV:9326] July 2003 VEC Conference Minutes
by Wilson, Mark K1RO 27 Aug '03

27 Aug '03

Bart Jahnke asked me to distribute this final version of the minutes for last month's VEC conference, released yesterday. 73, Mark K1RO

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[ARRL-ODV:9325] Re: Ham PAC
by R. B. Vallio 26 Aug '03

26 Aug '03

Thank you for your insight, Jay. I believe that you and Ms. Ivins have clarified my understanding of what position we should take on the PAC issue! 73, Bob W6RGG

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[ARRL-ODV:9324] Re: BPL letter to clubs
by Hobart, Mary K1MMH 26 Aug '03

26 Aug '03

Good morning! As you may have read in last week's In-News, Development has received a number of contributions and comments from clubs regarding the campaign against BPL. After conferring with staff, we decided to email a solicitation to clubs to enlist their help to reach our fund raising goal. Yesterday we emailed the attached letter to more than 2100 clubs nationwide. I apologize for not sending this to you in advance of that distirbution. We have already received some positive comments about the letter so we are hopeful that it will have the desired effect. Please let me know if you hear any comments about this latest campaign tactic. 73, Mary K1MMH

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[ARRL-ODV:9323] Re: Ham PAC
by John Bellows 26 Aug '03

26 Aug '03

The idea of a Ham PAC is intriguing. It suggests a new way to open doors for our message. On the other hand, there are only a limited number of balls that we as an organization can juggle successfully. Before we commit to juggling another ball we need to either be sure we are up to the task or drop one of the existing balls. At the very least, creation and operation of a separate entity to form a PAC to support the interests of ARRL members will present an additional administrative burden replete with rule upon rule that must be followed to maintain PAC status and protect ARRL as a 501c(3) organization. I dont have any direct experience in creating or operating a PAC. I do have a bit of familiarity with the manner in which LAWPAC operates in Minnesota and I have about 15 years experience as Treasurer of the campaign committees of a person who was successively a long time Minnesota State Representative, Speaker of the MN House of Representatives and a Judge of the MN Court of Appeals. For the record, the Judicial Campaign Committee didnt accept PAC funds. Back to my point. An amazing amount of money flows through these campaigns, even at the state level. The amounts escalate rapidly for Committee Chairman and are near obscene for the Speaker. Unless you are talking significant amounts of cash the seat at the table can be so far down from the candidate that you need a telescope to see him. With 435 Members of the House and 100 Senators to consider I wonder if $25,000 or $50,000 would have much impact. Even at $50,000 it averages less than $100 a member. If our goal is to get a chance to present our message it seems to me that we may be a whole lot better off trying to identify and enlist Amateurs (preferably of the dyed in the wool variety) who are already have some entrée or relationship with various Representatives and Senators. Finally, while cash may help open the door in politics it is no assurance of success. With apologies to W5JBP and K5RAV Ill pass along something Molly Ivins , a veteran observer of the Texas Legislature (the Leg) relates in her book Molly Ivins Cant Say That Can She. Ms. Ivins quotes an old time Texas politician as saying If we cant take their money, drink their whiskey, fool around with their wimmen and still vote against them we dont belong in the Leg. Jay, KØQB

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[ARRL-ODV:9322] Re: Ham Radio PAC?
by Dr. David Woolweaver 25 Aug '03

25 Aug '03

Jim: I agree. The ARRL should create a PAC using the 501c4 pathway. That would mean creating two organizations as I understand Dave's messages, but one organization would be a "paper" organization. Andy, the new Vice Director from California, was concerned about being too political. I E-Mailed him about how DENPAC handles such things. "Good dental health is not political." If a politician supports the fact that amateur radio is great asset to national security and is concerned about the possibility of spectrum pollution by BPL since that technology has not been properly studied, then it is not important to which party the politician belongs. It is important that he supports the interests of amateur radio as it applies to the national as a whole.. DENPAC is strictly non partisan. A HAMPAC would have to be same. I think that a HAMPAC could easily raise $25,000 a year and that would be enough to be a "player" at the congressional level. Contributing as little as $300 gets you a seat at the table and opens the door for conversation. You never "buy" a politician, but you can encourage him to listen to your position. You are just "buying" a few minutes of time. When you review Dave's recent message, the idea of "buying" a politician becomes a real interesting subject after you see that some politicos receive as much as $1,000,000! Yipes! I have two DENPAC checks in my hands now that are intended for delivery to state reps in my area. The checks are $1,000 each. State senators normally receive $5,000 each. A HAMPAC has no reason to spread money around like that, but "Communicating" with the Congressmen and Senators who serve on the Telecommunications Committees is important. Those are my comments for today, Jim. I am enjoying our conversations. David Jim Weaver wrote: >Dave, > >Thanks for the discussion. I believe we need this information and more >if we are to continue considering establishing a PAC. I agree with much >of what you said; however, (you know, there is always a however or a but >or something!) some of it is predicated upon attempting to be a PAC-like >operation while remaining 501(c)(3). It seems apparent to me that we >would need to establish the PAC under a suitable tax category and leave >ARRL as it is. I think if we looked more deeply in the list of PAC >sponsors we would find any number of 501(c)(3) organizations have >established PACs under other categories. > >The point about the huge donations made to politicos by some PACs is >well taken, of course. We could not dream of approaching these amounts. >On the other hand, is it worth being shown on the records in politicians >offices that the Amateur Radio PAC had made a modest donation? How much >would this get us? It may not guarantee us anything, but would it make >certain the door was open to us at least? > >One of us raised a concern over getting involved in partisan politics. >I'm sorry for forgetting who this was. Many donors to political >campaigns handle this very neatly. They contribute to each of the >viable candidates. Can't loose this way and it handles the partisanship >issue even though it seems weird to people such as me. > >73, > >Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division >k8je(a)arrl.org - Tel. 513-459-0142 > >ARRL -- The reason Amateur Radio is! > >GREAT LAKES DIVISION CONVENTION, September 6, 2003: See >http://greatlakes.arrl.org > > > > > >

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[ARRL-ODV:9321] Re: Ham Radio PAC?
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 25 Aug '03

25 Aug '03

The Sierra Club is not 501(c)(3). Unions are not 501(c)(3) by definition. The Wilderness Society and the Nature Conservancy are both 501(c)(3). I have not been able to locate a related PAC for either one. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Isely, Dick (Dir, Central) Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 3:29 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9318] Re: Ham Radio PAC? 25 AUG, 2003 - 1415 CDT I am familiar with two of the organizations on Tom Frenyae's list: Allied Pilots' Association (APA) -- I'm a life member of this organization: the union for American Airlines pilots. It is a separate entity from the Airline Pilots' Association (ALPA) that is frequently in the press. APA does have a PAC and I think it's called the American Pilots' Association Political Action Committee. It was set up shortly before I retired in 1995. ALPA also has a PAC. Sierra Club Political Committee -- Many years ago, I was a dues-paying member of the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. But now I give my support to the Nature Conservancy which, rather than confronting government and industry, works with the establishment and has subsequently become the largest private conservator of open space outside of government - both domestic and foreign. I think both of these organizations have been able to retain their original tax-exempt status in spite of having some sort of a relationship with a PAC. 73 - Dick, W9GIG

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