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IN-Newsletter
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Vol. 31, No. 19
May 7, 2008 -- Covers the period April 27-May 3.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Programs & Services Committee
May 31 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT
Regulatory Information
Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND
On Tuesday April 28th I represented the ARRL at the FEMA Region 1 Citizens Corp conference in Boston, MA. Also I represented HQ at the BirmingHamfest for the Alabama State Convention May 2-5. At the forum I shared thoughts on the status of amateur radio and issues facing us. The PowerPoint prepared for use at the forum could not be used due to the failure of the projection system.
There was the usual correspondence and phone calls during the week centered around reciprocal operating and traveling with radio equipment on airlines. There were also several telephone conversations regarding repeater issues and questions. In addition I reviewed several local ARES MOUs for Steve Ewald to check for potential problems.
Current groups registered with the Field Day site locator bring the totals to all 50 states, several Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico and 730 sites included in the database.
Media & Public Relations
Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP
The final touches are being completed for the unveiling of the Technology campaign at Dayton. All is set except for one problem we are hitting with the website computer codes in which some unwanted advertising can pop up at times. Fathom is working on it as quickly as possible to get it out of there. Otherwise, things look good to go.
My meeting with RAC VP John Bartlett went well and ideas, materials and suggestions were shared on May 6th.
Production/Editorial
Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE
The new editions of The Extra Class License Manual and The Extra Class Q&A have been released to the printer.
With Hamvention travel on the horizon, Joel Hallas has turned in nearly all of the technical material for the August 2008 issue of QST.
Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 27, No. 17, for May 2, 2008. It went out to 69,511 subscribers. She also voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for May 2.
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Product Sales Update
April product sales were $279,557, exceeding the sales forecast of $247,677. April notables include strong returns from recent direct mail, a successful rollout of the new edition ARRL Repeater Directory, and brisk sales of top sellers and new products such as the ARRL Handbook, VHF Digital Handbook, Antenna Book, Operating Manual and HF Digital Handbook. The 2008 ARRL Field Day product line (shirts, pins, water bottles) began shipping in April. These sales contributed over $14k-and an earlier product introduction than 2006 and 2007.
Hamfest and Convention Program
Effective immediately, the responsibilities for organizing and supporting hamfests and conventions was moved into the Sales and Marketing Department--and under the direction of Katie Breen. Katie has spent the last two years traveling on behalf of ARRL to hamfests, conventions and other ham-related activities. She has also been a member of the team that managed our national convention in Huntsville and, this year she is responsible for our exhibit planning at Dayton Hamvention. She is developing a local, field based, membership recruitment program that will launch nationally this summer. Gail Iannone will continue to provide hamfest and convention program administration, and has relocated to the Sales and Marketing Department. She'll provide the same outstanding support and services for this program. Gail can be reached at her current phone extension and email address.
The Warehouse crew fulfilled 949 packages for publication and product orders, shipped 389 free book membership premiums, and sent QST mailing supplements for April and May issues. Our Dayton consignment has shipped.
Membership & Volunteer Programs
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
Awards Branch
Category March 2008 April 2008 Year-to-Date
WAS Certificates (Manual) 30 43 134
WAS Certificates (LoTW) 14 17 59
A-1 Op Nominations 19 21 70
A-1 Op Certificates 13 17 62
Extra Class Certificates 9 6 30
WAC Certificates 9 17 66
VUCC New / Grids 12 / 1,279 7 / 943 37 / 3,497
VUCC Endorsement / Grids 20 / 1,180 11 / 685 40 / 2,390
Processing Time Current Current Current
DXCC Branch
To reflect better accuracy and clarity , we are updating our reporting measurements.
Contest Branch
We're experiencing the pre-Dayton lull, so there's not much to report. This week will be focused on getting the January VHF results and the RTTY Roundup results articles edited and submitted to Editorial for inclusion in QST.
Logbook of the World
Category March 2008 April 2008
QSO Records Entered Into System 165,436,766 169,037,119
QSL Record Matches 12,843,494 13,314,089
Logs Processed 569,614 588,822
Active Certificates 30,477 31,179
Registered Users in System 19,995 20,410
Logbook (Email Only) Inquiries March 2008 April 2008 Year-to-Date
Lost Certificate 177 121 652
DXCC Status Inquiries 90 80 305
Data Not Shown 28 33 138
No TQ6 File Received from LoTW 20 20 58
Additional Certificate Requests 43 69 270
Cannot Log on to LoTW User Page 23 15 96
Can't Upload Log to LoTW User Page 29 22 90
No TQ5 File Received by LoTW 21 20 118
Incorrect Date Range 32 20 161
Lost Personal Password 12 12 56
User Email Problems 42 54 135
WAS Status Inquiries 30 50 135
Club Inquiries 27 23 92
New Callsign Changes 9 12 46
Cannot Understand Error Messages 7 6 24
Logbook Startup Inquiries 43 43 183
Cannot Activate/Load TQ6 Certificate 5 15 61
Logbook Suggestions 3 5 20
QSO Downloaded 4 4 20
Additional Documents Needed 22 13 64
Need Postcard 18 5 35
Directions Not Followed 72 74 240
Duplicate Email Inquiries 46 33 120
Cannot Sign Logs 15 14 47
Other Inquiries 57 56 239
Total Inquiries 875 819 3,405
QSL Branch
March 2008 April 2008 Year-to-Date
Cards Received 60,750 86,550 264,750
Cards Mailed 0 55,800 131,300
W1AW
Thanks to members of the Candlewood ARA for their operating W1AW in the New England QSO Party. They made 600 QSOs (all on 20 meters SSB) for an initial claimed score of 31,800.
Work has begun inside W1AW in preparation for a fresh coat of paint on the walls, trim and ceiling. So far the walls have been stripped of all certificates and plaques. And, the small holes in the walls have been filled and the small cracks along the ceiling trim have been caulked. The fill-in work was performed by Greg Kwasowski.
Joe processed the last of the W1AW/Ø QSL cards in addition to preparing the station for painting. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the first part of the month of May.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Amateur Radio operators in Colorado, New Mexico, and Western Washington have completed their required certification training to become Official Observers. Chuck Skolaut received a monitoring request from the FCC regarding an operation on 75 meters, and he forwarded it onto OOs in the western United States. Question were handled about repeater sub bands, operating overseas in several different countries, identification, Echolink, and SKYWARN nets. A report of interference and jamming on a Western Massachusetts repeater was received, and the local OOs are following up.
ARRL Field Organization Leaders in Virginia were in touch with HQ staff following the tornadoes that struck Suffolk and Norfolk on April 28. Steve Ewald is working on the Public Service column for July QST, and the results of the 2007 ARRL Simulated Emergency Test will be featured.
Incumbent Section Managers John Ellis, NP2B (Virgin Islands) and Skip Jackson, KSØJ (Minnesota) have been nominated for new terms of office beginning October 1. Leona Adams has been working with Section Managers to update their Field Organization appointee records in the HQ data base. Several dozen of new Field appointee information packages have also been sent out.
Education Services
Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ
In addition to supporting the day to day operations of the Continuing Education Program, Kim Mancuso has been getting involved with some of the administrative functions related to the Teachers Institute and will be assuming more responsibility in that area. She is also taking on the responsibility to coordinate the production of the Basic Electronics kits. Grant Warner continues to faithfully supply the sweat equity to assemble the kits. He assembled another 100 kits that will fulfill dealer orders and go to teachers attending the Teachers Institutes.
Nancy Hallas is taking on responsibilities to support licensing instructors while catching up on processing of ARECC field exams. We have processed 208 field exams so far this year.
I've been working with Steve Ford and Dennis Dura to review and coordinate updates and corrections to the Level 1 and Level 3 Emergency Communications course books for reprint.
Education & Technology Program
Mark Spencer reports that he has four progress and five station equipment grant applications in hand for the May application period. He also reports that all of the remaining Teachers Institute slots have been filled.
ARISS
Rosalie White met with a ham from Indiana who works with several hundred girls and boys who are part of the Civil Air Patrol in Indiana and Illinois. The ham will submit an ARISS application and hope to have an ARISS QSO next summer.
ARISS team member John Spasojevich, AG9D, is presenting a Hamvention forum about ARISS and ham radio in school. A video of the ARISS contact with Boulder Hill School will also be available for public viewing in the ARRL Expo movie theater. And also at the Hamvention, Russ Hummell, WB4PGT, an ARISS fan from Virginia, will be wearing a replica of an Apollo space suit that he wears when he goes to schools to talk to kids about space and ham radio.
Long-time AMSAT veteran Tom Clark, K3IO, will be providing SuitSat-2 leadership and coordination working with Lou McFadin, W5DID, to help ensure all facets of the SuitSat-2 system are tested and delivered for launch to the ISS. Another AMSAT veteran Gould Smith, WA4SXM, will provide Technical Support to Tom, Lou and the rest of the SuitSat-2 team.
Web/Software Development
Reported by Jon Bloom, KE3Z
We removed Radios On-Line from the Web site.
Thanks to ISD, we now have space available on the backup servers at W1AW. Hugh Brower and Jon Bloom spent some time putting together automated scripts that will back up the Web data, Logbook data and various internal data to these off-site servers.
Sincerely Compiled by,
Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ
Assistant to the CEO
Staff Absentee List
All Staff 5/26 Holiday
Kathy Allison 6/30-7/7 Vacation
Jon Bloom 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Katie Breen 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
`` 5/30-5/31 Atlantic Division Convention, Rochester, NY
`` 7/10-7/14 Rocky Mt. Division Convention, Bryce Canyon, UT
Steve Capodicasa 5/12-5/16 Vacation
Joe Carcia 5/23 Vacation
`` 7/7-7/11 Vacation
`` 7/18 Vacation
`` 7/21 Vacation
Steve Coffey 5/19-5/23 Vacation
Jackie Cornell 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Dennis Dura 5/10-5/15 Florida Hurricane Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
`` 5/15-5/19 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Steve Ford 5/15-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
`` 5/19-5/20 Vacation
Norm Fusaro 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Scott Gee 5/15-5/16 Vacation
`` 6/30 Vacation
`` 7/1-7/3 Vacation
Amanda Grimaldi 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Mike Gruber 5/15-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Joel Hallas 5/13-5/19 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH/Vacation
Nancy Hallas 5/13-5/20 Vacation
Penny Harts 5/15-5/19 Vacation
Ed Hare 5/14-5/16 Vacation (Dayton, OH)
`` 5/29-5/30 IEEE SDCom meeting, Salt Lake City, UT
`` 6/2-6/9 Vacation
Dan Henderson 6/21-7/7 Friedrichshafen, Germany/Vacation
Mary Hobart 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Amy Hurtado 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Gail Iannone 5/27-29am Vacation
Bob Inderbitzen 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Karen Isakson 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Deb Jahnke 5/15-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
`` 5/19-5/20 Vacation
`` 6/27-7/6 Vacation
Debra Johnson 5/15-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
`` 5/19-5/20 Vacation
`` 6/27-7/6 Vacation
Khrystyne Keane 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Lisa Kustosik 6/20-6/30 Vacation
Sean Kutzko 5/13-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Zack Lau 6/19-6/20 Vacation
Rose-Ann Lawrence 5/14-5/21 Vacation
Maryann Macdonald 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Carol Michaud 5/30 Vacation
Micah Murray 5/27 Vacation
Dave Patton 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Frankie Perez 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Allen Pitts 5/15-5/19 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Maria Somma 5/14-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
Dave Sumner 5/15-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
`` 6/23-7/1 IARU AC Meeting/Friedrichshafen, Germany
Larry Wolfgang 5/15-5/18 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH
