December 2008 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:17411] Wimax/BPL - lessons unlearned
by Karl Bullock 26 Dec '08

26 Dec '08

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[arrl-odv:17410] FCC Information Sheet on Amateur Radio
by K8JE 25 Dec '08

25 Dec '08

Dave, A local friend was browsing the FCC web site and came across http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/services/amateur.html. I'm curious if you or others at HQ may have contributed to it? In a general sense, quoting from or copying this sheet might be another useful item to include in selected requests by local clubs for funding or recognition by local governments and agencies. 73, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je(a)arrl.net; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is!

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[arrl-odv:17409] RE: HAPPY Holidays!!
by Henry R. Leggette 24 Dec '08

24 Dec '08

Hello ALL: My thoughts and prayers are with you all as we approach this Holiday Season and some bad weather is in many parts of the country. Thanks to all on the Board to help make my tenure a successful one! I wish each of you all and family a Very Peaceful Christmas and Happy New Year! 73, Henry R. Leggette Henry R. Leggette, WD4Q

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[arrl-odv:17408] Happy Holidays
by K8JE 23 Dec '08

23 Dec '08

All, Family issues have prevented Janice and me from mailing greeting cards to each of you (as well as to our families and other friends) this year. For this we apologize. To help make up for the absence of the usual card, I have decided to revert to e-mail to extend our best wishes to you during this festive period. May each of you and your loved ones have a very joyful and renewing Christmas, Chanukah or other form of celebrating the Season. May you also have health and prosperity in 2009. 73, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je(a)arrl.net; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is!

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[arrl-odv:17407] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 23 Dec '08

23 Dec '08

<<122408.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 31, No. 52 December 24, 2008 -- Covers the period December 14-20. Upcoming Meetings and Events Administration &Finance Committee January 15 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee January 15 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT Annual Board Meeting January 16-17, 2009 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT CEO Reported by Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Just a quick note reminding you all that the ARRL will be closed Thursday December 25 and also on Thursday January 1. Happy Holidays to all of you and a Healthy and Happy New Year! Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH The Spectrum Defense Fund has reached $263,257. One large contributions of $25,000 came in late last week. Thanks to John Proctor, Jon Bloom and Bob Inderbitzen for their help in sending our an email message from Dave Sumner to Defense donors in 2006 and 2007 who had not contributed to the 2008 campaign. A total of 111 contributions totaling $8430 came in from that effort with a healthy average contribution of $75.95. In addition, messages were forwarded to clubs and advertisers through Norm Fusaro and with cooperation by Deb Jahnke. A contribution of $25,000 was received for the Teachers Institutes in 2009. Two IRA contributions are in the works and are expected to come in before December 31. Year end contributions of $25 or more to any Development Fund are receiving a $10 coupon good on ARRL publication orders before April 2009. A fourth distribution of $2703 was received from the Stoner Estate, bringing the contributions to the ARRL Endowment in 2008 to $736,925. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE The February 2009 issue of QST has been released to the printer. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 27, No. 50, for December 19, 2008. Distribution has reached 73,526, an increase of almost 11 percent during 2008. She also produced and voiced ARRL Audio News for December 19. There will be no ARRL Letter or ARRL Audio News on December 26 or January 2. Both will return on Friday, January 9, 2009. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Product sales have neared $250,000 so far this month, nearing the forecast amount of $282,771 with 7 business days to go. All renewal forms and membership applications have been updated, discontinuing the senior discount rate. As of January 1, 2009 all mailings will reflect the update. A Membership direct mail solicitation is scheduled to drop on 12/29 to 50,000 lapsed and never members. A new design for the "5-pillars" banner stand has been finalized. The banners feature new graphics for each of the 5 ARRL pillars: public service, advocacy, education, technology and membership. Once manufactured, the banner stands will be available for ordering via www.arrl.org/brochures. Diane Petrilli has updated the resources for ARRL tour guides. She'll also be attending the February meeting of the Newington Amateur Radio League to help recruit new ARRL volunteers. Members of our department continue to participate in small groups assigned to the web site redesign. Most of our current work involves assembling content for the new site. Customer Service continues to be very busy through the holiday season with orders and renewals. Processing orders is currently within 2-3 working days (maintaining our service standard). We are receiving orders from a handful of recent direct mailings, including an international "new products" flyer (ride-along with QST), a 140,000 piece "new products" mailing (to members and previous customers), and a TravelPlus upgrade mailing. Email solicitations were completed for publication sales and contributions. ARRL will begin carrying a new softcover edition of Geoffrey Pidgeon's "The Secret Wireless War" early next year. The popular title in softcover will be available to customers at a somewhat lower retail price from the current $59.95 hardcover edition. Now Shipping: "International Microwave Handbook" 2nd edition (published by RSGB and ARRL). The Warehouse crew fulfilled 1,283 packages for publication and product orders, shipped 250 free book membership premiums, and processed QST mailing supplements for January. Financial reforecasts were completed for each of the department's branches for the December period: marketing, membership, fulfillment, product sales, and warehouse. Business Services Reported by Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ Staff continued to solicit advertising for February QST until the minute we uploaded to the printer and we were able to exceed our QST advertising goal by a small margin. We have already gotten off to a positive start for March QST and will welcome aboard two new advertisers, Scorpion Antennas and Luso Tower. In addition, solicitations are underway for advertising in the new edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N W1AW Joe updated the web code practice files and their archives. He processed three Qualifying Run certificates. Joe also made a repair to the Harris Audio Matrix power supply. He processed additional regular QSL card requests. Joe also installed the Flex Radio Systems Flex-5000A SDR in Studio Two. This included him building a simple CW keying interface to work with the various logging programs that interface with the Flex-5000A. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of December and early January. Field Organization/Public Service Team J.M. Rowe, N5XFW, has been appointed as the new ARRL Arkansas Section Manager starting on December 22, 2008. Rowe is taking the Section Manager reins from David Norris, K5UZ, who, in November, was elected the new Vice Director of the ARRL Delta Division starting in January. Steve Ewald has been in touch with J.M., N5XFW, to help him get started as Section Manager. When David Norris announced that he was stepping down from the Section Manager post, he recommended Arkansas SEC J.M. Rowe to the position. J.M was already scheduled to become Arkansas Section Manager on April 1, 2009, since he was the only nominee for the next term of office when the petition deadline passed on December 5. Before making the appointment, Dave Patton, NN1N, Manager of the Membership and Volunteer Programs consulted with outgoing Delta Division Director Henry Leggette, WD4Q, and with Mickey Cox, K5MC, the Delta Division Director-Elect. Leona Adams continued to prepare the Arizona and North Texas Section Manager election ballots and candidate statements. After the documents are printed, plans are underway to send out the ballots from Headquarters by January 2, 2009. The Indiana Section has a new Official Observer on its Field Organization roster, and a new operator from Oregon has joined the ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch. The FCC informed Chuck Skolaut that several reports of unidentified signals on 75 meters were legitimate users in Region 1. Documentation from a North Carolina Official Observer was received regarding a recent jamming case on 75 meters. Chuck continues to assist with Regulatory information questions. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ The RF Propagation course revisions written by Terry Dettmann are in review with Joel Hallas. The HF Digital Communications course has been retired from the Continuing Education Program roster of online courses. China Chaney is training to provide general back-up for CEP program and other Education Services functions as well as to continue support for CEP field exams. ARECC Field Instructors and Field Examiners were informed of the ARECC field exam increase to $15 that will be effective January 1. Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer reports that he is 20% complete with the building of the 5-building blocks of radio activity boards for next year's Teachers Institutes. He has completed the build and testing of a seismometer project that has been requested by one of the ETP schools. This equipment has been mailed to the requesting school. There has been an up-tick in requests for help and information from ETP schools of late, which could be due to the approaching holiday season and teachers having more time to plan for next year's activities. Nathan McCray is drafting a report demonstrating alignment of math curriculum with amateur radio and has been mentoring other teachers within his local district who are building an HF receiver. He is supporting other ETP teachers asking for guidance on setting up radio clubs and recruiting teachers for Teachers Institutes next summer. ARISS There has been a lot of activity with school contacts this month. Astronaut Sandy Magnus KE5FYE and Commander Mike Fincke KE5AIT have talked to schools in India, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, two in the US (in Belleville, Illinois and Richmond, Texas) and two in Italy. Four of the contacts were conducted during one week! Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, will participate in 25th anniversary ham-radio-in-space commemorative activities events during the rest of December and into January. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List All Staff 12/25 Holiday `` 1/1 Holiday Leona Adams 12/24-12/26 Vacation Kathy Allison 12/26 Vacation `` 1/2 Vacation Bob Allison 12/26 Vacation `` 1/2 Vacation `` 1/2 Vacation Joe Carcia 1/2 Vacation Dennis Dura 12/24-12/26 Vacation Steve Ford 12/22-1/5 Vacation Norm Fusaro 12/23-12/31 Vacation Scott Gee 12/24-12/26 Vacation Joel Hallas 12/24-12/31 Vacation `` 1/16-1/17 Southern Florida Section Convention, Ft Myers, FL Ed Hare 1/2 Vacation `` 1/5-1/9 Vacation Dan Henderson 12/18-1/6 Vacation Mary Hobart 1/15-1/17 Committee Meeting/BOD Meeting Amy Hurtado 12/24-12/26 Vacation `` 12/29 Vacation `` 1/2 Vacation Gail Iannone 12/23-12/31 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 1/2-1/5 Vacation Debra Jahnke 12/24 Vacation Debra Johnson 12/24 Vacation Khrystyne Keane 12/26-1/2 Vacation Harold Kramer 12/29-1/2 Vacation `` 1/15-1/17 Committee Meeting/BOD Meeting Lisa Kustosik 1/2 Vacation `` 1/15-1/17 BOD Meeting Sean Kutzko 12/29-12/31 Vacation Zack Lau 12/22 Vacation `` 12/29 Vacation Kim Mancuso 12/26 Vacation Bill Moore 12/26-1/2 Vacation Dave Patton 12/22-12/31 Vacation `` 1/15-1/17 Committee Meeting/BOD Meeting Diane Petrilli 12/26 Vacation Allen Pitts 12/26-1/4 Vacation Brennan Price 12/29-12/31 Washington `` 1/12-1/15 Washington `` 1/15-1/17 BOD Meeting Janet Rocco 12/26 Vacation Steve Sant Andrea 1/2-1/5 Vacation Barry Shelley 1/15-1/17 Committee Meeting/BOD Meeting Dave Sumner 12/24-12/26 Vacation `` 1/15-1/17 Committee Meeting/BOD Meeting Diane Szlachetka 12/26-12/31 Vacation Alex Tara 1/2 Vacation Sharon Taratula 12/23pm-12/24 Vacation Lisa Tardette 12/26-12/31 Vacation Perry Williams 12/17-12/31 Vacation

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[arrl-odv:17406] RE: [arrl-odv:17405] Strategic planning membership input
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 22 Dec '08

22 Dec '08

Oh, I meant to include a reminder of how to view the comments. Make sure you're logged in as a member and go to www.arrl.org/members-only/stratplan/ Dave From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 2:42 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:17405] Strategic planning membership input If you haven't looked at the membership input on strategic planning recently, after a quiet period that ran from late September until early December a new batch of comments has been posted in recent days. According to the schedule for strategic plan development that the Board adopted in July, there will be an opportunity for discussion of the membership input at the January 2009 meeting. The purpose of the discussion is to provide the Executive Committee with some guidance in preparing a "straw man" revision of the strategic plan to serve as a starting point for our work in July. Dave K1ZZ

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[arrl-odv:17405] Strategic planning membership input
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 22 Dec '08

22 Dec '08

If you haven't looked at the membership input on strategic planning recently, after a quiet period that ran from late September until early December a new batch of comments has been posted in recent days. According to the schedule for strategic plan development that the Board adopted in July, there will be an opportunity for discussion of the membership input at the January 2009 meeting. The purpose of the discussion is to provide the Executive Committee with some guidance in preparing a "straw man" revision of the strategic plan to serve as a starting point for our work in July. Dave K1ZZ

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[arrl-odv:17404] FW: The abandoned giant Duga-3 system antenna near Prypiat
by Andy Oppel 21 Dec '08

21 Dec '08

> > >..Remember the Russion woodpecker? Some photos of the antenna. >http://www.artificialowl.net/2008/12/abandoned-giant-duga-3-system-antenna.… > >Thanks Barry K6ST and others for sending! 73, Andy Oppel, N6AJO Vice Director, Pacific Division American Radio Relay League (ARRL) The National Association for Amateur Radio n6ajo(a)arrl.org home: (510) 864-2299 cell: (510) 912-0985

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[arrl-odv:17403] Proposed Bylaw
by Kay Craigie 19 Dec '08

19 Dec '08

At the Executive Committee meeting in Chicago, the EC voted to approve a list of Standing Orders to be added to the existing ones in the Directors Workbook. ARRL Standing Orders are Board actions that have lasting effect, and are not otherwise incorporated into the working documents of the organization. The ones added by the EC reflect Board actions since the 2005 Annual Meeting. The new SO's have been added to Section 4.3 of the Directors Workbook posted in the ODV section of the web site. During the review of the items to be added, the EC noted that one item (Standing Order 06-1.31) really should be in the Bylaws if it is to continue in effect. This item has to do with members who are on active military deployment outside the ARRL's operating territory as described in Bylaw 30. Here is the background information. In January, 2006, the Board voted at Minute 31 on the recommendation of the EC: "RESOLVED, that the Bylaws with regard to dues payment and delivery of QST are temporarily suspended to the extent necessary to permit the Executive Vice President, upon request, to maintain membership privileges without charge for the duration of a member's active military deployment outside the ARRL operating territory, with or without the delivery of QST at the member's option." This "temporary" suspension of the Bylaws has gone on for three years now, with no end in sight -- stretching the definition of "temporary" way beyond common-sense limits -- and no doubt there will be future military actions when the subject will arise again. Consequently, the EC is recommending that this previous Board action be incorporated into the Bylaws and not be left dangling about indefinitely as "temporary." There have been few, if any, members taking advantage of this option under the 2006 Board action, so we are not looking at much of a revenue loss. If people drop their memberships while on deployment, we've lost the revenue anyway. Because Bylaw 5 is going away as of January 1, Dave has suggested that the new Bylaw could be put in its place. The proposed language of the new Bylaw 5 is as follows: "Upon request, the Executive Vice President is authorized to maintain membership privileges without charge for the duration of a member's active military deployment outside the ARRL operating territory as described in Bylaw 30, with or without the delivery of QST at the member's option." It would be appreciated if any Director who has reservations about voting for this new Bylaw would make this known prior to the meeting. To avoid a PR disaster, we want to be certain before introducing it that the motion will pass. Thanks for your consideration. 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:17402] Office closing at 2:30
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 19 Dec '08

19 Dec '08

It's been snowing here for an hour. We are closing the office at 2:30 so the staff can get home safely before dark. Dave K1ZZ

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