February 2010 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:18602] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

<<022410.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 33, No. 8 February 24, 2010 -- Covers the period February 14-20. Upcoming Meetings and Events Executive Committee: March 13, 2010 @ 8:30am in Denver, CO Technical Relations Reported by Brennan Price, N4QX Brennan Price is working on a 135.7-137.8 kHz presentation to eventually be used in an effort to adopt the international allocation domestically. He is also engaged with the Coast Guard and NTIA on the United States position on 500 kHz. Jon Siverling is preparing for an up coming round of CITEL meetings. Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND State legislation and local ordinances appear to be on the front burner at this time. We worked with IL amateurs providing information for their state legislature's Speaker of the House concerning a proposed bill exempting amateur radio from cell phone legislation (IL HB 5761). Dubuque, IA passed a cell-phone bill that exempts PTT technology. Ann Arbor, MI has initially passed an ordinance that has some significant problems. It applies not only to motor vehicles but to bicycles as well. Among other things, the Ann Arbor ordinance prohibits devices that allow you to "talk or listen to another person" as well as use of GPS units, but does not address two-way radio use (though there is phraseology in the ordinance that could allow it to be used to include radios). We are also aware of ongoing cell phone legislation in MA, PA and VT. We have begun working with Ron, K5CFR, who has been denied a conditional use permit for a 60' tower in the town of Olive Branch, MS. We will continue to work with him as he appeals the decision. With the upcoming launch of the new website, we spent time reviewing and editing some migrated pages, as well as finalizing some database work in the VC/VCE areas. Field Day questions continue in on a regular basis as well. We also continue to work on finalizing the new web site content. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP The annual request for reports to be included in the Annual Report for 2009 has gone out amidst the work being done to finalize and polish content for the new website. The PR Committee held their monthly conference call on Feb 17 and began laying plans for 2010, including a Field Day webinar in April and looking at September's 75th anniversary of ARES. CONTACT! for March 1st is being written and should go out on time. It will include information on the new promotional materials for contacting schools about Amateur Radio programs. Crisis level Amateur Radio events in Haiti are almost over now. While the repeaters erected by the Dominican hams are still in heavy use, no significant new actions have occurred and the Univ. of Miami hospital teams are wrapping up deployment. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH The mailing to over 8000 diamond Club current and lapsed donors has produced a boost in revenue during February so far with responses $18,972 from 156 donors with an average contribution to the mailing of $121.62. The mailing promoted the monthly giving option to all Diamond Club participants and 10 donors took advantage of that option. So far in 2010 Diamond Club revenues have topped $42,000 from 290 donors with an average contribution of $145.42. The bound volumes of 2009 publications have been ordered for Maxim Society and Diamond Club Director Level donors. 15 sets have been requested and 36 sets of CDs of the publications. The biennial campaign for the W1AW Endowment is in the planning process. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE The March/April 2010 issues of QEX and NCJ have been released to the printer. Thanks to Steve Sant Andrea, Khrystyne Keane, Joel Hallas, Steve Ford - and the QST production staff - for pinch-hitting for me when I was out last week as the April issue of QST was being put to bed. That issue includes an article summarizing the ham radio involvement in the Haiti earthquake relief - thanks to Allen Pitts for pulling it together. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter for February 18, 2010. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut compiled and sent the monthly Official Observer summary to all OOs, OOCs, and Section Managers. In addition, the monthly ARRL Monitoring System report was sent to the IARU Region 2 coordinator. Intruder reports this week included an update on the 5 -letter coded groups that's has been heard on 3549.6 MHz, foreign broadcast stations on 7176 kHz and 7185 kHz, and a bubble jammer on 18091 kHz. An Ohio Official Observer was able to help the un-licensed family of a radio amateur who had just become a Silent Key the previous night. The operator's transmitter, apparently, was left in transmission mode on 10 meters SSB. The OO heard a random announcement on the air with voices saying that they were looking for friends of the radio amateur. Luckily, the Silent Key's call sign was mentioned during one of these conversations or announcements. The OO found the location of the station by looking up his call sign on the data base, and it was local to this Official Observer. The OO paid a visit to the family at the station location and turned off the radio equipment that had been left on. Illinois Section Manager Tom Ciciora, KA9QPN, has been nominated for a new term of office starting in July, 2010. Nominations for Section Manager Candidates for new terms starting in July are due at Headquarters by March 5. Leona Adams and the Field Organization Team are prepared to count the Virginia Section Manager election ballots on Tuesday, February 23. Steve Ewald and the Field Organization Team (among many others) are continuing to work toward the transition to the new ARRL Web site. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ ARISS The Riley Avenue Elementary School, a rural school in Calverton, NY, has 600 students in grades K-4. The school science coordinator networks with the Brookhaven National Lab where many parents work, and the community heavily supports science education. Third and fourth graders did an ARISS interview with Astronaut T.J. Cramer on February 2, making ARISS part of their science unit on space and the solar system. ARISS touched all Riley Avenue students because of the school-wide program, "Parents as Reading Partners." This semester the program's theme was space, and the reading list contained non-fiction books about space. Teachers reported that the ARISS program piqued the interest of the students: they kept records of recent launches and showed great excitement in NASA science projects. The ARISS contact was a direct contact initiated by Jesse Greenberg, a fourth grader and newly licensed ham, W2EEO. Members of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club provided expertise, time, and radios for the contact, which was audible over the northeast part of the US. The school principal and the teacher, Rita Wright (KC9CDL), of Burbank School in Chicago that had the first-ever ARISS contact in 2000 were reminiscing recently about the learning activities and the impact of the event. The principal commented: "I continue to feel that the contact and the follow-up visit by Astronaut Bill Shepherd were, by far, my best experiences as an educator." Hams reported receiving SSTV images in early February from the Russian cosmonaut on board the ISS. Rosalie White K1STO reports that ARISS activity has recently been on standby while schedules have been in transition. Planning for the future, ARISS mentor, Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, has been holding ham radio training sessions for astronauts scheduled for flight this year. NASA now has a Do-It-Yourself Podcast website for students whose classrooms are learning to build podcasts and is suggesting ARISS contacts as a topic students can work into their podcasts. Continuing Education Program Howard Robins W1HSR and I completed the final review edits on the new advanced EmComm course (including 5 pages of URLs to update the course to refer to new website URLs) and forwarded them to the instructional designer. I also supplied a separate list of URLs to CTDLC to update the EmComm Level 1 course on the Webmentor platform. I prepared the exam question pool to send to the online exam developer that will be developing the final assessment for the new advanced EmComm course and negotiated the final details of the services to be provided. The contract has been signed and the work will begin this week. Two hospital groups, one in the Chicago area, the other in Wisconsin, are reviving their efforts to license hospital employees using our online Ham Radio License Course. They first contacted us about their intentions last fall. We are currently enrolling over 100 people from these groups for our March course session. Education & Technology Program TI applications are coming in for both the introductory TI and the advanced TI-2s. The first Teachers Institute of 2010 opened on February 13 in Tucson AZ. This is an in-district TI with 21 participating teachers that is being led by Miguel Enriquez KD7RPP. It will be held over a series of four Saturdays during February and March at Jefferson Park Elementary School. Miguel has made this TI into a 45-hour program to include much more ham radio than there is time for in the other TIs. The teachers attending the TI will have near complete band coverage, using the equipment from last year's TI-2, along with the addition of a TS-2000, a R5 multi-band vertical antenna and a G5RV antenna. You-Tube videos of day one and day two of their activities are at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeGFCQD9EQQ&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEaVSEgFVak&feature=related Nathan McCray K9CPO has been very busy helping other teachers with glitches in their weather system and giving advice about various TI subjects. In preparation for upcoming TIs, he also has been testing Windows 7 interoperability with TI software. He reports that all of our TI software works with the program without any surprises. The SumoBot he is using in his advanced robotics program has been fun and interesting to teach. The students have learned about QTI sensors (an infrared emitter/receiver that is able to differentiate between a dark surface (with low reflectivity) and a light surface (with high reflectivity) and got to test them out-a big thrill for the students and instructor! Nathan plans to use the SumoBot for future TI's. Mark Spencer WA8SME reports good progress has been made in the execution of the November round of ETP grants. Shipping confirmation of one antenna and receipts from some special purchases for one Progress grant remains. The BOT Instructor's Board build for this year's TIs is complete. Curriculum development for TI-2s is a work in progress. Other activities I have started interviewing candidates for the part-time administrative position in the Department. I uploaded online course catalog information for online courses into the new website and continue editing and adding to other pages throughout the new site as time permits. Mark Spencer WA8SME has been working with Bob Allison WB1GCM on kits and producing kits for the Solder 101 booth at the Dayton Ham Expo. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List All Staff 4/2 Holiday Leona Adams 2/26 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 3/1 Vacation `` 3/15 Vacation Steve Ford 3/5 Vacation `` 3/11 Seminar `` 3/22 Vacation `` 4/22-4/23 Vacation Scott Gee 3/8-3/10 Vacation `` 4/14-4/16 Vacation Mike Gruber 4/30 Vacation Joel Hallas 2/26 Jury Duty Ed Hare 2/26-2/27 VT Section Convention, Colchester, VT `` 3/10-3/12 IEEE Standards Dev. Committee meeting, San Diego, CA `` 3/15-3/19 Vacation `` 4/19-4/22 ANSI asc C63 EMC Comm. meeting, Piscataway, NJ Dan Henderson 3/5-3/7 S. Texas Section Convention/Greater Houston Hamfest Mary Hobart 3/11-3/12 Roanoke Division Convention, Charlotte NC `` 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton OH `` 6/10-6/11 HamCom, Dallas, TX Bob Inderbitzen 3/5 Atlantic Division Cabinet Meeting `` 4/8-4/9 AES Superfest, Milwaukee, WI Debra Johnson 2/26-3/1 Vacation Khrystyne Keane 3/5 Vacation Joel Kleinman 3/9-3/11 Vacation Amy Leary 2/26 Vacation Dave Sumner 3/12pm-3/14 Executive Committee Meeting, Denver, CO

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[arrl-odv:18601] ReconRobotics
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

We will have a Web story about the waiver up shortly. I have given the following to Khrystyne as our reaction to the grant of the waiver. I did not address the issue of what we might do to seek reconsideration of the waiver grant, either in whole or in part. Chris and I are working on a recommendation for EC consideration, but it would be premature to talk about it until the EC has a chance to consider the issue. Dave K1ZZ While we are completely sympathetic to the desires of law enforcement and firefighting agencies and certain security personnel to have a tool like the Recon Scout at their disposal, the fact remains that 430-448 MHz is a poor choice of frequency range for such a device in the United States. In its Order the Commission does not say otherwise; it simply concludes that by imposing an array of conditions and limitations on the use of the device by eligible Part 90 licensees, the potential for harmful interference to Federal and licensed non-Federal users of this band can be, in the Commission's view, adequately minimized. The Order falls short of requiring that the manufacturer adequately explain these conditions and limitations to its potential customers and does not explain how the Commission will enforce its requirements. We share the concerns expressed by NTIA on behalf of the Federal users of the band that this waiver could lead to the development of mass-marketed consumer devices that the Commission has no ability to control. Everyone's interests would have been better served had the manufacturer spent the last two years on engineering, redesigning its product for a more suitable frequency range, rather than on advocacy to legalize the domestic use of a product that was designed for military use abroad.

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[arrl-odv:18600] RE: ReconRobotics and the 70 cm band
by Brian Mileshosky 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Sorry y'all, I didn't see that Dave Sumner already sent this to the list... 73, Brian N5ZGT > -----Original Message----- > From: Brian Mileshosky [mailto:n5zgt@swcp.com] > Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 7:24 PM > To: 'arrl-odv(a)arrl.org' > Subject: ReconRobotics and the 70 cm band > > FYI...see attached. > > 73, > Brian N5ZGT > ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division > www.RockyMountainDivision.org

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[arrl-odv:18599] ReconRobotics and the 70 cm band
by Brian Mileshosky 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

FYI...see attached. 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division www.RockyMountainDivision.org

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[arrl-odv:18598] Re: The Funeral
by Bruce Frahm 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 8:01 AM, Chris Imlay <w3kd(a)aol.com> wrote: > Jim, you had best be careful about such septic humor at my expense, lest I > retaliate by subjecting you to even more of the same!!!! > > Ummmm....... more humor, ........ or more bagpiping????? (Don't tell the wily guy in the funny skirt, but I'd go for more piping...) K0BJ

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[arrl-odv:18592] Re: Web Site Status
by Brian Mileshosky 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Harold -- Like you, we don't like to see the schedule slide to the right, but I think a delayed launch is far less problematic than launching it and having many thousands of people stumble on problems that put us in an embarassing reaction mode. Is the scope of beta testing everything and making sure all of the hooks are working a bit more than expected, or are there actual problems being found and having to be fixed before progressing to the next round of testing? Rather than asking the beta testers (like us directors) to swarm the site, can we increase any effectiveness by doing anything coordinated (i.e. "you, you, and you, focus on trying to break this, and only this, section of the site", etc)? Compliments to the team. I know how arduous a major site launch is when from the outside it only seems to be an upload of pages. 73, Brian N5ZGT On Tue, 23 Feb 2010, Kramer, Harold, WJ1B wrote: > We are once again postponing the Web launch until March 24th. We are > now confident that we have the majority of the content loaded into the > site. In fact, as our Beta testers, many of you have been viewing the > new site and commenting on it during the past few weeks. We appreciate > all of your help with this effort as the site continues to improve > daily. > > > > The current delay is necessary to assure that we have all of the data > connections correct. These include data feeds such as hamfests, > classes, special events, the new e-store, etc. We also have not tested > the member sign up and member transaction portion of the site. These > are obviously critical functions and both Fathom and our team will be > working on this during the next few weeks. > > > > After two years of work, this delay feels like an eternity to me and the > rest of the launch team. Believe me, we all feel terrible about missing > yet another deadline. However, this is a large and complex Web site. > It is used not only by our members, but also by people around the world > who have an interest in Amateur Radio. We want to make sure that we > have everything working right when we launch the site. > > > > Along with the Board, staff and SMs, we will be communicating this news > to our membership as well. We will put up a news story tomorrow on our > current Web site about this delay. > > > > 73, > > > > Harold > > > > Harold Kramer, WJ1B > > Chief Operating Officer > > > > ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) > > 225 Main Street > > Newington, CT 06111 > > Telephone: 860 594 0220 > > email: hkramer(a)arrl.org <mailto:hkramer@arrl.org> > > web: www.arrl.org/ <http://www.arrl.org/> > > > > ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division On the web at www.RockyMountainDivision.org

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[arrl-odv:18596] Re:The Funeral
by Chris Imlay 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Jim, you had best be careful about such septic humor at my expense, lest I retaliate by subjecting you to even more of the same!!!! 73, Chris W3KD Christopher D. Imlay Booth, Freret, Imlay & Tepper. P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD(a)ARRL.ORG -----Original Message----- From: James F. Boehner MD <jboehner01(a)yahoo.com> To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tue, Feb 23, 2010 5:54 pm Subject: The Funeral After Chris’s piping on the eve of the January Board Meeting, thought everyone would enjoy this! '73 de JIM N2ZZ ARRL Vice Director Roanoke Division ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio™ Bagpiper at a funeral.. As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a grave side service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back-country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost; and being a typical man I didn't stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low my heart was full. As I was opening the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "Sweet Mother of Jesus, I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

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The Funeral
by James F. Boehner MD 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

After Chris's piping on the eve of the January Board Meeting, thought everyone would enjoy this! '73 de JIM N2ZZ ARRL Vice Director Roanoke Division ARRL, the national association for Amateur RadioT Bagpiper at a funeral.. As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a grave side service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back-country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost; and being a typical man I didn't stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low my heart was full. As I was opening the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "Sweet Mother of Jesus, I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

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RE: [arrl-odv:18567] 27 and counting
by James F. Boehner MD 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

Now I feel old.........! My first novice contact (CW, of course!) was in September 1969-over 40 years ago. The processing time for licenses was six weeks, from exam or renewal to mailbox! '73 de JIM N2ZZ ARRL Vice Director Roanoke Division ARRL, the national association for Amateur RadioT -----Original Message----- From: Kay Craigie [mailto:n3kn@verizon.net] Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 8:37 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18567] 27 and counting Twenty-seven years ago today, I made my first ham radio contact while driving home from the FCC office in Langhorne, PA, where I'd passed the General exams. Time flies when you're having fun! 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:18593] Re: RE: New letterhead
by G.P. Widin 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

Dave, Thanks; this looks OK now in Word 2003. -- 73, Greg, KØGW Director, Dakota Division ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Sumner, K1ZZ" <dsumner(a)arrl.org> To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:16:52 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: [arrl-odv:18589] Re:RE: New letterhead New letterhead Since others in addition to Greg may have the same problem, here’s a .doc file of the new letterhead. Dave From: G.P. Widin [mailto:gpwidin@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:57 PM To: arrl-odv Cc: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18588] Re: New letterhead Dave, I've only got Word 2003, and it doesn't understand the 2007 template. Can you do a "Save As" into 2003 format? -- 73, Greg, KØGW Director, Dakota Division ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Sumner, K1ZZ" <dsumner(a)arrl.org> To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:22:47 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: [arrl-odv:18586] New letterhead Here is the new letterhead as a Word 2007 template. If this doesn’t work for you, let me know and I’ll try something else. Dave K1ZZ <<2010 NEW 4-COLOR LETTERHEAD.dotx>>

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