IN-Newsletter
Vol. 28, No. 14
April 6, 2005
Upcoming Meeting
April 9th in Denver, CO at 8:30am
Executive Committee Meeting
EVP
Harold Kramer traveled to the headquarters of Icom America with Dennis
to discuss future cooperative issues and business opportunities. He
also participated in the TOPOFF3 emergency drills. Dave Patton compiled
comments sent to HQ regarding the proposed spectrum subbanding by
bandwidth. There have been over 1000 comments received. He also
wrapped up Amateur Radio World for June.
PR & Media
Interviews were set up for next month with Australian media interested
in American hams' experiences with BPL. Efforts are also being made to
establish relations with Backpacking Light and its parent publishers for
articles regarding adjunct uses of Amateur Radio in outdoor activities.
Materials were printed and made up for use in Topoff-3 and arrangements
made to be at the Media Center hotel in New London. While the hams are
not the story, we hope to get some local coverage and also make contacts
with the national press as possible which may produce future benefits.
In addition, the Field Day information package was put on the website
with CONTACT!, and announcements released via the PR reflector.
Production/Editorial
Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 13, distributed to
66,186 members on April 1. Rick prepared/edited stories on these
topics: Texas utility pulls plug on BPL pilot, ARRL withdraws complaint;
ARRL takes issue with BPL proponents' reconsideration petitions; ARRL
charges Ambient and FCC with being non-responsive to interference
complaints; Amateur Radio response to Indonesian earthquake; ARRL
Education & Technology Program update (to coincide with fundraiser), and
several announcements and news briefs. Rick also edited the youth Web
column, and he voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for April 1.
Sales & Marketing
A preliminary look at March publication revenue indicates sales of
nearly $207,000. This is about $6,000 shy of the sales forecast,
entirely due to printing delays associated with the delivery of the
second printing of the 2005 Handbook. Nearly $25K worth of Handbook
sales has accumulated during the month, and will likely ship in early
April.
Amateur Electronic Supply hosted their in-store SuperFest in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, April 1-2. Bob organized an ARRL exhibit, and ran the booth
with SM Don Michalski, W9IXG, Director Dick Isely, W9GIG, and OO Richard
Polivka, N6NKO. 55 memberships were written. Dues and subscriptions
totaled $2,422. The revenue was slightly higher than 2004, due in part
to multi-year sign-ups. The new edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory
proved to be a good premium offer to entice renewals and some new
memberships at the event.
Members of our group participated in an intradepartmental meeting with a
representative from the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium. CTDLC
administers ARRL's suite of online courses. Of particular interest to
both parties is growing ARRL course offerings and student registrations.
The Repeater Directory 2005-2006 Edition has arrived at the warehouse.
3,485 backorders are currently being released.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS QSL Cards Checked 350
WAC Certs. (84 QSLs F/C) 14
5BWAC Certs. (90 QSLs F/C) 3
Replacement Awards 6
A-1 Op. Noms. 6
LTMA Inquiries 2
VUCC Certs. Processed 5
Awards Mailed 31
Also, worked on some LTMA projects (on-going), ordered the latest batch
of 5BWAS plates, and submitted a "Stray" for June QST featuring the WAS
award. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks.
For the coming week- VUCC awards, Basic WAS awards for March, WAC QSL
card checking, ship the latest 5BWAS plaques, and compile the latest
list of VUCC award recipients for June QST.
Contest Branch
Working with the authors, several changes/additions were made to the
2004 ARRL EME Competition write-up PDF and posted. Certificates for the
2004 EME Competition were printed and will be mailed the week of April
4. Layout for the web version of the 2004 Phone Sweepstakes results was
done and we began editing. Data entry for paper logs for the 2005 DX
Contest continued. 2004 November Sweepstakes mugs arrived, and the data
was collated and sent to the Shipping Department to start the
distribution process. Work was done with the author of the 2004
160-Meter contest in preparing his write-up. The combined Logs Received
for the 2005 International DX CW contest was posted.
DXCC Branch
For the week of:
April 3, 2005
Beginning Credits 35,206
Credits Received 1,190
Credits Processed 13,390
Ending Credits 23,006
Applications Pending 286
Processing Time (Conventional) 3.4 Weeks
Processing Time (LoTW) 1 Working Day
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on March 10, 2005. DXCC
is currently entering credits received on March 10, 2005. One USA card
checker was appointed this week for North Dakota.
Logbook of the World
QSO records entered into the system 68,222,429
QSL records have resulted 2,958,330
Logs Processed 111,510
Active Certificates 14,022
Users registered in the system 9,420
Hybrids Pending Mail 44
QSL Bureau
Processing time is 8 days from receipt. This week, 192 pounds of cards
were received from members. Cards mailed as of 04/03/05: 268,450.
Cards mailed on 03/31/05: 61,950.
W1AW
Joe updated the web code practice files. He created the April W1AW
Qualifying Run texts. He also upgraded the PC used for SSTV operations
to a Windows XP machine.
With assistance from Steve Ford, Joe installed (and began experimenting
with) SCAMP. SCAMP--which stands for Sound Card Amateur Messaging
Protocol--is a sound-card based program that in time should augment the
Winlink 2000 (WL2K) program.
Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the first part of
the month of April. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in
the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots.
W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2005): $8,332
W1AW Telephone Sales (since taking on the task in late 1998): $244,565
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie presented several reports she'd prepared at the PSC meeting.
She wrote a small item for the Web about astronaut Leroy Chiao deciding
to do two school QSOs during each of his last two weeks in space. She
and Jean prepared numbers and compiled historical files on our online
courses. Rosalie attended a meeting with University of Hartford
professors, and another meeting with CTDLC, our Web host. She updated
info about ARRL for a Disaster Guide Web site
Field Education Team
Jean Wolfgang has seen a response to her placement of ARRL's technical
course information on a Web site that lists online courses. Due to
students and servers using spam filters that reject our messages
containing details about how to get started taking our courses, Jean
sometimes has to resort to calling students. A result is higher phone
expenses. Jean was also trying to track down some email problems with
her mentors. After reviewing the statistics for all the Technical
courses, Jean reports there are an average 55.5% of students that
complete the course.
Norm Fusaro corresponded with many members who had questions about
upgrading their license and learning CW; it appears this was a result of
people seeing his Web story on the subject, who then got motivated to
try to learn CW and upgrade. Norm communicated with clubs about Field
Day, hamfests and a 50th anniversary, for which he prepared a
certificate for Director Butler to present at their banquet. Norm
drafted a letter of gratitude for Dave Sumner to sign and send to TS
Kelso for his work on Celestrak (satellite tracking). Norm took part in
the ARISS telecon.
Margie Bourgoin processed 73 club updates, and 7 Special Service Club
renewals. She reactivated 5 clubs and registered 4 new Volunteer
Instructors. Margie did the monthly revenue report and the total for
the month of March is $1542.78 -- this is mostly from being repaid for
the cost of shipping exhibit kits and other hand-out materials. Margie
also conducted inventory of all the supplies used in F&ES, checked the
levels of videotape selections, and entered data for 17 new clubs into
Siebel.
Gail Iannone sent 14 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval
letter to sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's
approval of events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 6 handout and door
prize orders, and 2 label requests for upcoming events. She sent 2
convention apps to the EC for their approval and sent a Wouff Hong
supply package for the ceremony to be performed at the Maryland State
Convention. She sent 8 letters to club officials stating the EC's
approval of their clubs as ARRL-affiliated, plus 9 Charter of
Affiliation certificates to newly-affiliated clubs.
Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program
Mark Spencer completed the Basic Electronics Course revision he now
calls version 1A, and is distributing it. He received an IC-R7000
receiver donated from the FBI club, and is coordinating with Mr. Haynie
about the best place for this donation. Mark went to Dallas to exhibit
at the; part of the expense is covered by NASA. He will also visit a
nearby project school.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Leona Adams has been updating the Field Organization database with new
appointment information, cancellations and needed changes. Twenty new
appointment packages were sent including 4 OO test packages to those
newly recommended. Leona and Steve Ewald assisted the three new SMs who
took office April 1
Steve Ewald prepared for his trip to represent HQ at the Maryland State
Convention, April 1-3. After the March 28th earthquake in Southeast
Asia, we heard from hams and ARES leaders who asked their teams to be on
alert in case of a tsunami. Steve was in touch with Paul Gaskell,
G4MWO, National Coordinator of the RSGB Radio Communications Voluntary
Services, to confirm the March 29 ARRL news release that the FCC plans
to update the third-party traffic list to include all UK stations.
Chuck Skolaut received and is reviewing documentation on possible
infractions on 40 and 75 meters. Additional monitoring has been
requested by the FCC to concentrate on an interference problem to a
20-meter net in the Midwest. Chuck also notes that Official Observers
are investigating a reported business use of a New York City repeater.
Community Education Program
Bill Barrett spent time doing the first real analysis of his pre- and
post-meeting surveys from his first three show locations-- Saco, ME,
Phoenix, AZ, and Butler, MO. Surveys show that attendees' (non-hams)
many misconceptions about ham radio are reduced or eliminated, and that
they gain a better understanding of how many hams are in the operational
areas to be called upon. Bill is preparing for the Silver City, New
Mexico, show, and will be on the road April 5-7. The Birmingham,
Alabama, Citizen Corps folks are reviewing three new dates; the show
date had to be changed because of a large hamfest at the same time.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee reports that he is still receiving questions about Topoff
as it relates to Part 97. He assisted amateurs with questions on local
government zoning in North River, ND (AI0Q) and Wyoming County, PA
(N3KAE), and with a covenant concern in Banning, CA (N7XN). John
reviewed the constitutions of six clubs whose members applied for ARRL
affiliation.
EmComm Grants
Dan Miller reports that the ham radio forum at the National Hurricane
Conference had more than 37 attendees, hams and non-hams alike, from
diversified organizations. Surveys were circulated at the forum and at
the exhibit booth, and will be tallied next week. Dan got pictures of
William Lokey, FEMA Region X Director, and Gene Arters, director of the
Norwich (CT) Office of Emergency Management. It was appropriate what
with William a key player for TopOff II, and Gene a key player for the
upcoming TopOff III.
Sincerely,
Dave Patton, NN1N
Special Assistant to the
Chief Executive Officer
DCP: lk
Staff Absentee List
Dave Sumner 4/9 ARRL Executive Committee
Meeting, Denver, CO
`` 4/13-4/18 IARU Reg. 1 Conference
Preparatory Meeting, Croatia
5/19-5/22 Dayton
Mary Hobart 4/13-4/18 International DX Convention,
Visalia, CA
`` 5/18-5/23 Dayton Hamvention
Debra Johnson 5/19-5/23 Dayton Hamvention
`` 5/24 Vacation
Dennis Motschenbacher 4/7-4/8 Int'l Wireless Conference
5/19-5/23 Dayton
Bob Inderbitzen 4/13 Vendor visit-Barker Specialty,
Cheshire, CT
5/18-5/23 Dayton
Kathy Capodicasa 4/14-4/18 Vacation
`` 5/9-5/13 Vacation
5/18-5/23 Dayton
Zoe Belliveau 5/19-5/22 Dayton
Joe Bottiglieri 5/19-5/23 Dayton
Cathy Stepina 4/4-4/15 Vacation
Rose-Ann Lawrence 4/4-4/8 Topoff3
Zak Lau 4/4-4/8 Vacation
Ed Hare 4/6-4/8 IEEE Group Meeting, Vancouver,
WA
`` 4/18-4/20 IEEE Chapter Meeting, Chicago,
IL
`` 4/21-4/22 Vacation
`` 4/25-4/29 ANSI Committee Meeting,
Piscataway, NJ
`` 5/18-5/22 Vacation
Mike Tracy 5/18-5/23 Dayton
Wayne Mills 4/14-4/29 International DX Convention,
Visalia, CA & Vacation
6/22-6/27 Friedrichshafen
Bill Moore 4/16-4/18 Section Convention, Raleigh, NC
`` 4/28-5/1 State Convention,
Birmingham, AL & Vacation
Dave Patton 5/18-5/23 Dayton
5/23-5/27 Vacation
6/21-6/27 Friedrichshafen
Janet Rocco 4/13 Vendor visit-Barker Specialty,
Cheshire, CT
Stu Cohen 4/8-4/12 Vacation
Rosalie White 4/15-4/17 South Dakota Section Convention
Dan Miller 4/6-4/8 CPTV Science Fair & Vacation
`` 4/18-4/21 OH Homeland Security
Symposium, Columbus, OH
`` 4/22-4/23 National Capitol ARES
Council, Baltimore, MD
`` 4/29-5/4 National
Disaster Medical System Conference, Orlando FL
LouAnn Campanello 4/18-4/22 Vacation
Steve Ford 4/18-4/19 Vacation
Eileen Sapko 4/08 Vacation
Joe Carcia 4/21-4/22 Vacation
5/27 Vacation
Scott Gee 5/2 Vacation
